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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

#171

Post by r00fus »

thomascgalvin wrote: post #107
vlovich123 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

While this is generally true of a certain American political party, you see hard cutoff lines even in states like Massachusetts, where the majority of voters and politicians seem to be actively trying to make things better for people. The real answer is that gradients are hard, and clear lines are easy. A shocking number of Americans don't understand how our income tax brackets work; they believe that if you cross th…

> Massachusetts, which has the highest percentage of college educated citizens in the entire country, also shot down ranked choice voting last year, because the math was too hard.

That's the ostensible reason - the reality is that Blue MAGA also really hates power challenges. Look no further than CA where they also shot down (even the possibility for local elections to consider) ranked choice voting.

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

#173

Post by giancarlostoro »

dredmorbius wrote: post #167
giancarlostoro wrote: post #158

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.

Yes and no. The scale at which governments can organise, and (despite much protestation to the opposite) the efficiency with which it can do so, really is unmatched. Even the word's wealthiest individuals and families (save a few which function as states, e.g., the House of Saud, or some royal families) pale next to the level at which large advanced national governments can operate. The Gates Foundation, one of the l…

When you target local issues, and don't wait for the behemoth to get to it, I think you'll agree, that you can be drastically more effective. Now if we could get people to do this at scale as discrete orgs, maybe that would prevent some of the churn and issues we see when orgs get too big.

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

#174

Post by ponector »

SSJPython wrote: post #72
GarnetFloride wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haven't you met people who refused a raise because they were scared of moving to a new tax bracket? Same thing only this is where it actually happens.

The only people that do this are ones that have no understanding of marginal tax rates and progressive taxation.

Is it? There are situations where it makes sense to avoid a rise and stay in the tax bracket. Like if with 5k rise you loose a 10k childcare benefits provided by local municipality.

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

#175

Post by ponector »

jacknews wrote: post #70
thinkingtoilet wrote: post #5

It's astonishing this is a thing. I'm thankful to live in Massachusetts where all kids can get lunch for free with no questions asked. Where I live, kids can get breakfast too, however I've heard that isn't universal in the state. The article points out another issue that is so widespread. Often times, being right above or below a cut off line can make a huge difference and it's kids just above the cut off line here…

"It's astonishing this is a thing." Indeed, any decent modern society should provide free quality education, and that should include free quality meals. Especially the richest country in the world.

Free education means no one will value it. Education should not be free, just cheap. However there should be help and assistance to people who wants to get an education but cannot afford it.

Same with food. Subsidize it for everyone. Cannot pay? Serve few hours to the local community and get a meal. There should be no starving people anywhere in the world.

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

#176

Post by aaaja »

dani__german wrote: post #115
apercu wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> everyone votes on hot button issues like the economy, immigration, and trans athletes in sports Everyone votes emotionally on issues they don't even understand (e.g, there is ~1 trans athlete out of 10,000 NCAA athletes right now, so why the hell is it even a minor issue, let alone a national debate?).

Because there is only room for 1 gold medal. Only room for 1 silver medal. This is in Pool, which almost a best case scenario for women to beat men and yet, in the UK, its two former men gunning for gold and silver. https://www.newsweek.com/trans-sport-pool-women-harriet-hayn... If you truly believe transwomen are women, then its great. For anyone who doesn't share that arbitrary idea, it looks like women's sports is…

Sports governing bodies in the UK are rapidly rewriting their policies to stop these men from competing in women's sports, after a recent Supreme Court judgement ruled this amounts to unlawful sex discrimination against women. So hopefully this ongoing insult to all the women who've worked so hard to compete in their sport of choice will soon be over.

That said, the ideal outcome would be apologies to every female athlete affected by this, and for these men to be retrospectively disqualified and stripped of any medals or titles, with these instead being awarded to the women who would have won had these men not been competing. I doubt this will happen any time soon, but if those running these competitions had an ounce of integrity and sense of fair play, they would do.

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

#177

Post by maxerickson »

ponector wrote: post #174
SSJPython wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only people that do this are ones that have no understanding of marginal tax rates and progressive taxation.

Is it? There are situations where it makes sense to avoid a rise and stay in the tax bracket. Like if with 5k rise you loose a 10k childcare benefits provided by local municipality.

Yes, the anecdote about misunderstanding a particular thing may be broken if you introduce additional factors.

The absurd thing in your scenario is the steep cliff on the benefit...this doesn't change the observation that some people have absurd beliefs about how progressive taxes are implemented.

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

#178

Post by creer »

SSJPython wrote: post #72
GarnetFloride wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haven't you met people who refused a raise because they were scared of moving to a new tax bracket? Same thing only this is where it actually happens.

The only people that do this are ones that have no understanding of marginal tax rates and progressive taxation.

> no understanding of marginal tax rates and progressive taxation.

Which is how some parts of US taxation works, but not other parts. You seem to be in one part, and unaware of the rest.

(And is a mix of taxation and other "eligibility" issues, with poorly advertised massive cliffs here and there for extra helpfulness).

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

#179

Post by insane_dreamer »

M3L0NM4N wrote: post #4

Is the overhead in deciding who gets free lunch and who doesn't and then managing the debt really saving more money than just giving all public school kids free lunches with no strings attached?

I would say yes. In our state all public school kids are eligible for free lunch by just signing up. What's the worst that can happen? Some parents who could afford lunch get it for free? I'd rather my tax dollars go to that than going to a whole bureaucracy designed to ensure that only those who "deserve" it get it.

As far as "rich people are getting free lunches!!!" argument. 1) rich people for the most part send their kids to private, not public schools. 2) rich people who can afford better lunches than the school lunch are going to send their kid to school with a lunch.

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

#180

Post by senectus1 »

em-bee wrote: post #144
senectus1 wrote: post #29

(I'm in Australia) I dont understand why this concept of schools providing lunches ever became a thing... Why did this idea ever take off?

at what time do kids in australia come home from school? for comparison in germany the average school day is 4-6 hours, depending on age. in the US it is 6-8 hours. in germany kids usually come home for lunch. in the US they usually don't. those two hours make a big difference in what kind of food the kids need to bring to school. in germany a snack is enough. that's easy for parents to accomplish. kids in the US nee…

start at 9 am finish at around 3pm
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