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India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

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Re: India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

#151

This is already functional in the state of TamilNadu for more than 3 years. It is called as "Amma's canteen". Any meal is 1 or 2 rupees. It is clean, healthy & definitely not fast food. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QwO9RyihO8

I noticed in that video that everyone ate with their hands. Is the lack of eating utensils a culture thing, a poverty thing, or both?

http://hopscotchtheglobe.com/why-indians-eat-with-their-hand...

Re: India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are comitting a falacy falacy. Just because an argument is fallacious, doesn't mean it is wrong. https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Fallacy_fallacy

Not quite right: just because an argument is fallacious doesn't mean that the propositions on which it is based are false. Not a single proposition need be false, only the logic.

In any case, the argument is not fallacious, at least as I read it; it’s just partially implicit. To spell it out:

Most people (not all) wouldn’t consider government distortion of markets as inherently morally bad, but bad because it can cause negative outcomes, i.e. sellers away/out of business, and ultimately leave consumers with worse or more expensive goods. And certainly that’s one possible outcome, depending on the policy and the market in question. But a lot of people leap directly from “government distortion of markets” to “disastrous results”, ignoring that in other cases, the results seem to be either positive or at least not all that bad, as evidenced by a well-functioning market existing despite government intervention. An example of this - with a greater likelihood of applicability due to being in a related market sector - is the agriculture market in the US and EU, with respect to the aforementioned subsidies.

Re: India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

#153
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Temples are open for all. They don't discriminate anyone. Ofcourse, if you will feel awkward, if you try to do namaz inside a temple.

That's not true, actually. I know of several temples that do not allow non-Hindus in, for example [0]. I don't necessarily have an opinion on that, but it's not as uncommon as you think. I hope we can keep this discussion from going down the rabbit hole of discrimination in temples. [0]: https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/legendary-singer-...

In India every tradition has its own temples. Most are open to all and some are open for their devotees. It's quite easy to find many temples within a few kilometer radius.

Each temple have their own tradition and they have the right to their own tradition. Now, allowing a non-devotee into the temple is their business. But that doesn't mean, one cannot find any temple anywhere.

Re: India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I noticed in that video that everyone ate with their hands. Is the lack of eating utensils a culture thing, a poverty thing, or both?

http://hopscotchtheglobe.com/why-indians-eat-with-their-hand...

Thanks!

Re: India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...[the US] pretty much abandoned [technology] in favor of cheap imports and profits. From a consumer perspective, sure. From a critical defense perspective, not entirely[1]. [1] https://www.dmea.osd.mil/otherdocs/AccreditedSuppliers.pdf

Sure, you can get chips within some limitations - in fact I believe some chip fabs have been moving back onshore. Can you get screens? I remember coverage maybe 20 years ago about Zenith closing the last TV manufacturing in the USA, and while that was in the days of CRTs I can't imagine that a lot of new panel manufacturers are here.

Interesting point. I'm not really seeing the bottleneck with respect to defense sustainment though.

In terms of critical defense: L-3, Honeywell, Rockwell Collins, and Elbit (Israel) are a few major players off the top of my head that cater to domestic weapon system displays.

In terms of consumer displays: Japan, Korea, and Taiwan are allies. Humoring a doomsday isolation scenario with consideration towards America's disposable first-world couch potato culture, there's probably enough TVs/monitors in existing circulation throughout the country to sustain even the most improbably protracted conflict, let alone used surplus being auctioned off by the pallet for pennies on the dollar. Might even resuscitate a dead repair trade and create a few meaningful jobs too. Of course, this all assumes the government doesn't acknowledge a supply deficiency and fails to seed the capability need.

Don't get me wrong. I agree that the status quo of domestic technology production isn't exactly a self-lubricating wheel and leaves much to be desired...but it's not exactly dead in the water either.

Re: India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://hopscotchtheglobe.com/why-indians-eat-with-their-hand...

Thanks!

I prefer eating with hands more than utensils. I prefer that as a respect for the food as it is the major reason for my health.

Re: India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

#157
post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not true, actually. I know of several temples that do not allow non-Hindus in, for example [0]. I don't necessarily have an opinion on that, but it's not as uncommon as you think. I hope we can keep this discussion from going down the rabbit hole of discrimination in temples. [0]: https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/legendary-singer-...

In India every tradition has its own temples. Most are open to all and some are open for their devotees. It's quite easy to find many temples within a few kilometer radius. Each temple have their own tradition and they have the right to their own tradition. Now, allowing a non-devotee into the temple is their business. But that doesn't mean, one cannot find any temple anywhere.

> Each temple have their own tradition and they have the right to their own tradition

Hence the need for the government to step in and help out the hungry, instead of leaving it to temples, etc.

(Like I said, I don't necessarily disagree with who the temples choose to let in.)

Re: India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh my god, I'm worried about India's population starting to decrease now .... More seriously, is there a way to look before 1960? I want to look from 1930 or so, I think India's population really exploded post-Independence.

Until the modern era, the global birth rate was fairly constant at about six per woman. The population growth we've experienced over the last century is mostly to do with child survival. Before 1900, the child mortality rate in India was over 50%. If you need children to care for you in old age and expect most of your children to die, you're likely to have a lot of them. When child survival improved, attitudes change…

Yeah, I agree, especially about the mortality rate. Anecdotally, every grandfather-aged person I know has 4+ children, but almost all father-aged ones have 2 or less (only 2 exceptions, of which 1 had twins).

Thanks for the other information in your comment!

Re: India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for educating me on that aspect of the situation. Is there typically electricity in these situations? I ask because per my post below, I wonder how common it is to bootstrap up to a mini-fridge + pressure cooker or rice cooker or something like that. Seems like a few weeks of PB&J + cup ramen could provide for a significant upgrade in nutrition from purchasing those tools. I'm probably leaving out some impo…

It's wildly variable what resources someone in that kind of situation might have. There was a guy living in the storage unit next to the one I have in Austin (for my stuff from when I moved out of a house and back into an RV). The folks who ran the storage facility let him run an extension cord to the nearest power; several people actually were living in that facility, despite it being illegal. So, in his case he did…

What is close to work by in the US anyway? Looking at the commute distance of people in the US it seems that at least 50% live close enough to use a bicycle. I've seen countless articles about poor people in the US who can't afford a car and had to walk 2 hours every morning, that is most probably 30 minutes on a shitty bicycle even less on a decent one.

        American Commute 
        Distance (One Way)    Percent
        1-5 Miles             29 %
        6-10 Miles            22 %
        11-15 Miles           17 %
        16-20 Miles           10 %
        21+ Miles             23 %
        (source:  US Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Omnibus Household Survey. )

Re: India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without judging people's situations, I have to wonder at why people earning minimum wage would be eating out at Panera vs bringing lunch from home for much less money.

There's a pretty large demographic of people making minimum wage or low wages. Some people just aren't responsible with money, they don't budget, they don't live within their means, they don't really think or care to look at the expenses or how they add up. If you did a Venn diagram of low wage earners and people who aren't really responsible with their money, those are the people eating at Panera Bread, or buying th…

No. To make food you need resources, the less you have the more it costs per meal. Panera bread might be the only alternative you have to be able to function in the work place.
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