Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hope you understand that by acting offended, you are offending other people, making them say things they are not saying.
Yes. This is very exploitable.
It is better to stay away from it.
I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt
641–650 of 918 posts
Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt
#642Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is why the wealthy should be required to use public schools.
People who send kids to private schools pay taxes (which fund schools) but don’t take resources from public schools. Forcing them to use the public schools would further divide the tax funding across more kids, reducing the funds available per kid. This suggestion is reminiscent of California trying to reduce educational inequality by eliminating advanced math classes and putting everyone together. It was a terrible…
I get your math and appreciate the insight within it.
At the same time, PTAs accept cash which when not being spent on private school is available. The challenge is getting those parents to allocate it when it will be spread across the entire student body. Far more impactful is the factor of alignment of incentives that given wealthy families' generally greater proximity to power can deliver funding.
I liked this: it's not private school vs public school, it is private school vs public school plus a tuition's worth of enrichment.
Your other comment does get at why my kid is in private school: you can't ignore special education needs.
Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt
#643Earlier quoted context omitted.
America provides food stamps that provide groceries to those who need it. However, I'm not sure it is the responsibility of a "decent modern society" to provide free quality meals to the populace. How far does this go? Does the government need to run restaurants? Vouchers to use at restaurants? I'm not convinced restaurants are even serving necessarily "quality meals". I think a program providing groceries is a good…
I didn't say free restaurants for everyone, that's a ridiculous extrapolation. But it is the responsibility of a decent modern society to ensure kids get at least a basic level of care and education. Morally, and in fact in the interests of having a decently educated and functional society. For foodstamp groceries, are you expecting the kids to prepare their own lunch? It seems like another callous 'personal responsi…
Our "decent modern society" already does this, because the government SNAP program guarantees that anyone for whom the standard food budget is not met by their income receives government support.
Groceries, however, are expected to be bought by parents and then meals prepared for their children. I don't expect children to prepare their own lunch, but I do expect their parents to - and the same for breakfast, dinner, and snacks. I consider not doing this to be a rather serious form of child neglect. Correcting this problem would be another responsibility of a "decent, modern society", although usually the best way to do that is to require parents to go to parenting classes and get help to overcome their neglect.
Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt
#644Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know what the correct answer is. The tricky thing is, if you let anyone just choose not to pay, there will be plenty of people who are capable of paying who don't bother. In your case, it sounds like your dad was maybe capable of paying but wanted to freeload. So as long as you're going to charge for lunches, you need to have some kind of enforcement mechanism. Embarrassing the kid ideally would not be part o…
> The tricky thing is, if you let anyone just choose not to pay, there will be plenty of people who are capable of paying who don't bother. In your case, it sounds like your dad was maybe capable of paying but wanted to freeload. I say this as an IT worker making what most would consider an absurd amount of money and pays 0.55*absurd money in taxes, a dad, a human, etc... what the fuck does any of this matter. If a c…
exactly. if you want to play hardball, then send a bill to the parents. send a debt collector if you believe that they have the money. but don't withhold food from the children. i mean we might as well bar children from school if their parents don't pay taxes. it's really the same thing.
Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt
#645Earlier quoted context omitted.
They were just making a joke. I understand humor might be too foreign and loose for people on HN but trust me, there was no maliciousness in their comment.
If it is a joke, it seems more like mockery than good humor. > I understand humor might be too foreign and loose for people on HN but trust me, there was no maliciousness in their comment. Adding your own mockery doesn't help with my perception of the situation. Malice isn't required to do harm and it's absence doesn't really change my opinion on the situation.
oh no! not your perception of the situation!!
Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt
#646Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yet America elected a president who doesn't want to cut a cent of defence spending, just redirect it to his mates.
We'll see. "Trump wants U.S., China and Russia to cut military spending in half" https://www.axios.com/2025/02/13/trump-china-russia-military...
Yet he is unwilling to cut a single cent, indeed there's a 13% increase for defense spending
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/trump-proposes-1-trillion-...
Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt
#647Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The idea that lunches can be freshly made, on site, out of healthy ingredients and children are active participants in serving and cleaning up is just crazy. > When I encountered it for the first time I felt like a big part of my childhood had been sold to the lowest bidder. ....I share the sentiment, but I also see the chasm between the requirements to get to what's desired, & what's actually given to meet those r…
This "cultural toll" you talk of, is just another form of conformist behaviour that all societies have in different forms. Some countries have class/caste strata, others have a laissez-faire attitude to expectations in general, others have a rigid societal code, others appear to be less so but the moment you go near guns, abortion or taxation the societal codes and hierarchy spring into action and snap shut around th…
I upvoted this but it could really do without the last paragraph. Courts aren't telling us who we are or what we can believe. Trying to summarize our mess in so few words isn't something I'd attempt. Finally: many of us live differently and are doing our best to shift things more broadly.
Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt
#648Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt
#649Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I think it's that people are tired. Tired of paying large amounts of money to taxes that don't seem to fix anything in their day-to-day lives. Tired of companies screwing them over at every possible turn. Tired of hearing these endless debates. Tired of seeing people peddle policy based o11n one set of principals out of one side of their mouth and a different policy based on different principals out of the other. >d…
> Sometimes improving things, sometimes creating yet more layers of spaghetti that prevent future change.... I'm talking about, say, engaging in discussions about politics, trying to understand each other, trying to compromise. I assume you're referring to, for example, enacting more government programs.
>I assume you're referring to, for example, enacting more government programs.
Or saddling existing ones with poorly thought out requirements and revisions and whatnot.
These programs always seem to start decent and go to crap with time as the "older" bits of government sink their teeth in with subsequent revisions because there's no political will to constantly fight the fight you need to to keep it from becoming co-opted or at the very least degraded by other interests.
At some point people start noticing the pattern, get tired of it and just saying no to the initial request even if it has merit. It's probably just yet another symptom of how bankrupt our institutions are.
Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt
#650Earlier quoted context omitted.
They were just making a joke. I understand humor might be too foreign and loose for people on HN but trust me, there was no maliciousness in their comment.
If it is a joke, it seems more like mockery than good humor. > I understand humor might be too foreign and loose for people on HN but trust me, there was no maliciousness in their comment. Adding your own mockery doesn't help with my perception of the situation. Malice isn't required to do harm and it's absence doesn't really change my opinion on the situation.
Getting this upset over a grammar joke is not healthy.