Journal Marxist Hacker 42's Journal: Die of malnutrition, then what? 23
11% of America are on food stamps, which as I pointed out in a comment on that article, means they can only afford non-nutritious crap food like McDonald's hamburgers (one of the few ways to get 2000 calories of pure fatty goodness a day on $4/day). So when they keel over of that heart attack from basically only eating white bread, a little protien, and tons of saturated fat, what happens? Their families can't even afford to bury them!
Ok, for you green shoots capitalists out there- tell me again what a great recovery we're having?
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A loaf of whole wheat bread is $1.19 at the Grocery Store. That lasts an entire week.
Have you checked the calories/loaf? I'm willing to bet there's fewer calories in that entire loaf, than in one $1 McDonald's Hamburger. When calories/dollar is your *PRIMARY* focus, sensible nutrition choices are out the window.
If you don't buy boneless chicken, chicken is cheap. So are vegetables.
Where do you live? Chile? Chicken here is cheap for meat, yes, but at $1/lb it's rather ex
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When calories/dollar is your *PRIMARY* focus,
Well there's the problem right there! When you're not working, you're doing less work, ergo you need less energy input. I'm down to basically one meal a day nowadays, because I mostly just sit around. My hunger has (eventually) adjusted to my new caloric needs. So calories should not be important for say the poor on welfare, but nutrition. The focus should be on the challenge of achieving adequate nutrition while doing so in the few needed calories. That's what I
Glanage (Score:1)
Might I recommend this as a way to cheaply add to the larder [boardhost.com]. We are not proud here and indulge opurselves to a limited degree with the choicer selections (example tonight, had a nice ripe avocado they were going to pitch out), the rest go to our few remaining cluckeraptors. It really helps too because I have to save what cash we have to get dog and catfood, which is a major serious dent in the budget. Six dogs and I have no idea how many cats and wild possums and so on I am feeding today. If it wasn't for
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I get gallons of milk for a buck that way. Just ask them nicey nicey if they will mark it down for you, that's all it took for me to get access.
The only reason I can think of that they wouldn't also ask you to sign some kind of "I promise not to sue if any of this stuff makes any of mine sick" statement is that the "markdowns" are unofficial/off the books and the employee(s) are pocketing the bucks. And if you do get sick, they never saw you before! :)
Nope (Score:2, Informative)
They just ring it up normally, except it isn't scanned and the clerk hand punches in the new number, written on the container. I don't see any other way for them to do it, it isn't any different at all from if someone else just buys it directly off the shelf the same exact second that I do but they pay full price for it. Same date, same milk. The dairy manager will just grab a jug or two and mark it down on the spot. This isn't an after the fact of being past the due date, it is still before the due date, j
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That's very possible, at least with the prices where I live, as long as you have the time, experience, and equipment to cook good meals.
You won't have the most balanced diet in the world. With that kind of budget, you'll probably have to leave out fruits, except for maybe OJ, but you can definitely survive food-wise, and not be all th
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Correct. In general, prepared foods are always the more expensive choice. So the question might be why do the poor use so much of it, when they really can't afford it.
Part of it might be the overall recent American culture to live well beyond one's means.
It might also involve, in a way related to the so few economic "green shoots" we've been seeing under this president and congress, economic opportunity. Call me a wimp but I know I've struggled with depression during what's become a long spell of being out
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A loaf of whole wheat bread is $1.19 at the Grocery Store. That lasts an entire week.
I have four kids, ages 9 to 15. A loaf of bread lasts a _meal_. Food overall is cheaper than it's ever been in the U.S., and we have more choices and variety, if you are willing to put some effort into getting good food. On the other hand, it's easier than ever to eat cheap food that is much worse, in terms of nutrition, than it appears.
I've worked many times filling food orders at the local food bank. One thing I learn
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Many people may not be experts who know the nutritional nuances of different kinds of breads, but everyone knows McDonald's is bad for you. And fruits and vegetables are good for you. And milk does a body good. Heck I still remember from my public school education in grade school being inculcated with "3-2-4-4" [latimes.com]. It's 2009 -- like people not knowing smoking is bad for them, people not knowing what they *should* be eating is a
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Well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that bread with the consistency of wet toilet paper and a taste like, well, nothing, wouldn't be as good as something dense and fragrant with recognizable food elements in it (grains, nuts, etc).
There are many competing forces working against good food, the giant agribusinesses, foreign countries with lower food safety standards, marketing departments, food companies that turn everything into candy or dessert (breakfast cereals, "fruit" snacks, yogurt, even c
Before food stamps (Score:2, Interesting)
It was a much better deal when they just gave out the surplus food. When they switched to food stamps it caused a variety of problems. I remember the surplus food, way better, just lotsa simple basic food you had to cook. They had whole grains and beans and such like in bulk, dried milk, cheese in big blocks, cooking oil or even lard, basic flour and cornmeal, peannut butter, some sort of canned meat action, and etc. Instead of paying some farmers not to farm, the government bought just enough in bumper cro
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That's why I like helping out at the food bank. Money is fungible, even food stamps. Even if you're not buying crap with it, nothing's stopping you from using the money you save to do something stupid. On the other hand, if you're giving someone food, at least you know they're getting food.
The food bank would periodically get stuff from the USDA, and it was always good staples, like you described. Otherwise, it was generally stuff from donations and surplus donated by grocery stores, mostly Giant. It w
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I can attest to people not taking the thing from the organic and artisanal bakeries at the food bank. All of that nice expensive bread ends up getting thrown out and they have to limit the number of loaves of cheap white bread and packs of hotdog and hamburger buns people take. Even the people at the food bank were kind of amazed when I told them all of the things you could do with the artisanal breads like make croutons, bread crumbs, bread pudding, or stuffing with them.
The food bank here lets people choo
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Not to mention that as far as I know you can't pay for McDonald's with food stamps.
Unfortunately I suspect many on food stamps either don't know how to cook or don't know how to cook with limited time. You typically see a lot of convenience food in the carts of people paying with EBT cards.
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Well, you've got s good point. Buying good food is only half the battle. Cooking it is the other half, and cooking takes time. I usually work at home and my wife doesn't have a full time job right now, although she's taking classes, and even still, it's an effort to take the time to cook. I enjoy cooking, fortunately, but it still takes a lot of time, and while I have more of that than some poor guy who has to work two jobs, it's not always easy. Cooking larger quantities and freezing helps, I suppose.
The Amish refuse the nonsense (Score:2)
Maybe they have a point.
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I was talking urban populations. The Amish do indeed have the real solution- perhaps we should simply have an income cut off for living in the city, and if you fall below that income, your property in the city gets sold to buy you a farm....
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Umbilical cords are the ties that bind.
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they could be encouraged to make smarter decisions on their own.
I don't believe in markets for exactly that reason- I don't believe human beings are smart. The same problem exists with non-market economies. As an average, human beings are quite stupid.
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Hence my "people don't scale" dictum.
But hunger is a powerful instructor.
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I don't know. Having your property sold off is one thing, but I would to think twice about buyin' the farm.