Jeffrey Quick's Blog

More on hunger in America

The prize for My First Liberal Troll goes to the commenter from Adelphia-Cable-6:

I got the picture. "Let them eat cake.", right? Food is cheap? Where do you shop? For a variety of reasons, many children arrive at school HUNGRY and food programs are the only substantial meal they receive for the day.

"Let them eat cake?" Well, that's a lot of America's hunger problem right there...they DO eat cake, cheap cake yet, instead of real food.

Where do I shop? Lots of places...Aldi and Save-a-lot and Marcs on one end, the Co-op and Mustard Seed Market on the other. I DON'T tend to shop at place requiring loyalty cards in order to get "sale" prices higher than other people's.

Is food expensive? OK, quality food is expensive. If you want to live on grass-fed beef and organic produce, it's going to cost you. But the majority of non-hungry Americans don't do that, and nobody expresses shock about it. In 2004, the average American household spent 10% of their disposable personal income on food, the lowest percentage of any industrialized country.

Is food cheap? Well, it depends on what you eat. Whole grains are incredibly cheap. White rice is cheaper yet, but if you're poor, you can't afford to go without the vitamins and fiber. Beans and eggs are cheap sources of protein, as is canned mackerel. There are consistently inexpensive fresh vegetables (onions, carrots, cabbage) and fruits (apples), and frozen vegetables in bulk are a good buy, as are canned tomatoes. And that's even before we discuss foraging possibilities, like the nutritious and tasty purslane. (Yeah, now you're going to say that I said, "Let them eat weeds." Well, I do, and I can afford not to. So that's exactly what I'm saying; deal with it.)

One problem with food is that many people insist on hiring servants when they aren't working themselves. If you are poor, you can't afford to have somebody cook for you. This includes McDonald's. You can buy a loaf of bread and half a pound of bologna for the price of 2 items off the McD dollar menu, and it will go farther, and be of equal nutritional value.

"For a variety of reasons, many children arrive at school HUNGRY". Bullshit. There is only ONE reason for children to arrive at school hungry: parental neglect. Well, maybe two: parents who figure they can foist off the responsibility for serving a good breakfast onto the school...which is still parental neglect, but neglect enabled by the schools. Now, 'scuse me, but if parents are neglecting their children, why are we enabling them instead of taking the children away and putting them in foster homes? If the government is going to act in loco parentis, why not go all the way? If the parents have money for drugs, they have money for food, and if the food money goes for drugs, take their kids away. And if they really can't afford food, they can't afford to make babies. I'll bet you're pro-choice; well, the flip side of choice is responsibility for your choices.

Now, here are my credentials: unlike Marie Antoinette, I've been there, done that. I've run punch presses with illiterates from temp agencies for minimum wage. I was even (mea maxima culpa!) for a short time on food stamps. I always had some left over at the end of the month, and I ate better than I did when I was working. I've even been known in the past to dumpster-dive. And I've never had cable, something that probably can't be said of most of the "hungry" in America. So spare me the crocodile tears "for the children."