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I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

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Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

#151

Post by bombcar »

ryoshoe wrote: post #139
bombcar wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's assume (bad assumption, but it should be good enough for the math) that a Happy Meal™®© is a decent meal. It costs about $6 around here, so let's say without toy it's $5. https://www.childstats.gov/americaschildren/tables/pop1.asp says there are 71 million kids. $466 billion a year. Ok, ok, that is maybe too high. Let's assume a wonderful world where you can produce a meal for a dollar (less than the local scho…

Based those calculations every child could be fed for less than 10% of the DoD's annual budget of $849.8 billion. https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/370341...

Apparently in 2022 the school lunch portion of the federal budget was $29 billion.

Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

#152

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft »

thinkingtoilet wrote: post #133
NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm thankful to live in Massachusetts where all kids can get lunch for free What's the cost of living in Massachusetts again?

Why do you ask?

Because it's strange to call the lunches free, when it costs so much to live there. If I (for some reason) wanted to move to Massachusetts to live there for the rest of my life, you know, for those "free school lunches"... how much would those cost me? Turns out that it's alot. And it's magical thinking to suggest that for people already living there that the cost is zero, they're already paying that cost and have been for a long while. I can't prove it, but these free school lunches are probably really expensive.

Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

#153

Post by relaxing »

explodes wrote: post #101
relaxing wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, so you endorse a policy which not only creates human suffering now but harms society and creates more human suffering in the future. The cost of fixing it is minuscule and outweighed by the future benefits. What are the good faith arguments in favor of this? - ignorance - lack of critical reasoning skills - religion - sadism - ?

How did they give you the impression they were endorsing this?

Because that’s who we’re talking about?

Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

#154

Post by fred69 »

klntsky wrote: post #50

It always felt strange to me that although the US is clearly a guilt-driven culture, it has shame-based mechanics of control when it comes to finances. May it be due to protestant christianity losing its former position of influence? So that more archaic forms of human behavior control take precedence?

Shame is the Protestant enforcement mechanism for guilt.

Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

#155

Post by mixmastamyk »

One thing I don’t like about the free lunch but never mentioned is that it is by necessity very cheap food, and that means carbage.

Try getting a kid to eat vegetables when processed bread products are being handed out at school. Healthy eating pretty much stopped that year. Which is a shame because it’s not expensive.

Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

#156

Post by relaxing »

wonderwonder wrote: post #86
mmastrac wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure this is malice. They know, they don't do anything.

Have you started a local movement to pay for kids schools lunches? If not, should we assume its due to malice as you know there is a problem and "don't do anything"?

Individually managed efforts doesn’t scale.

If you were cynical you might think that is precisely why some favor that solution.

Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

#157

Post by relaxing »

explodes wrote: post #77
mmastrac wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure this is malice. They know, they don't do anything.

I really wish people would exercise more imagination while applying the adage. A cafeteria worker is likely doing what they're told to do from the principal and board of education. They're doing what they're told because of laws that have been passed. At any point along this chain of human beings, someone could be relying on their job to keep one of them family members alive. I know I'm throwing out a random scenario…

I think everyone understands the lawmakers (and by extension the voters) are to blame.

Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

#158

Post by giancarlostoro »

I love stories like this one. It reminds me of my college years when I partook in a non-profit that was started by my aunt / uncle where we fed the homeless. I learned then that anyone can just step in and do something right in society, you don't have to waste hours, days, months, and years waiting for daddy government to do it.

Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

#159

Post by relaxing »

grimcompanion wrote: post #136
relaxing wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, so you endorse a policy which not only creates human suffering now but harms society and creates more human suffering in the future. The cost of fixing it is minuscule and outweighed by the future benefits. What are the good faith arguments in favor of this? - ignorance - lack of critical reasoning skills - religion - sadism - ?

I absolutely don't endorse it. I just find it counterproductive to say things like "malice is the point". I do have trouble finding good faith arguments in favor of this policy. It is cruel. But the people who decided to implement it aren't "other". They're humans who think they're good people (aside from a small minority of people who really don't care) and much as we'd like to think so we're not that different than…

I didn’t mean you personally.

The people who decided to implement the policy believe that cruelty will create deterrence.

Persisting in this line of thinking despite centuries of cruelty and no end to the undesired behavior is what leads to sayings like “the cruelty is the point.” Psychologically, it’s well understood there are those who really get a kick out of making people suffer.

Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

#160

Post by thinkingtoilet »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #152
thinkingtoilet wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you ask?

Because it's strange to call the lunches free, when it costs so much to live there. If I (for some reason) wanted to move to Massachusetts to live there for the rest of my life, you know, for those "free school lunches"... how much would those cost me? Turns out that it's alot. And it's magical thinking to suggest that for people already living there that the cost is zero, they're already paying that cost and have be…

Do you think I that I think that the lunches magically appear and cost $0?
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