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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

#731

Post by vel0city »

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #608
rcxdude wrote: post #599

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's very simple. I want the dollars spent defending Europe to be spent here at home. Presumably you would still like to spend some dollars defending the US? How many dollars do you think is the difference? (keep in mind there are many nonlinearities in defense spending: you can very easily cut spending by 20% and wind up with 20% of the capability instead of 80%) The US's presense in Europe is very much strategical…

I noticed you weren't able to provide any compelling concrete examples, as expected. At best , the US does a bad job of providing global public goods which benefit all nations. At the peak of the British Empire, the Brits controlled 25% of the globe. By contrast, US territory barely expanded in the wake of WW2, during the period that we've supposedly been running the world for our own benefit. During this period, rel…

> providing global public good

> At the peak of the British Empire

Global public goods and peak British Empire don't belong in the same thought IMO. Might as well go in about how great a public good the Belgians and French brought to Africa in their heyday.

I definitely agree the US shouldn't insert itself as much directly like the Iraq wars. But thinking that means we should walk away from controlling global naval shipping and near immediate air presence is missing out the enormous soft power we can project. Align with us on trade and we'll make sure your ships can leave, your planes can take off. Disagree, and we'll see who answers the call when those Houthis start shooting at your boats.

Losing those air fields and making the Navy considerably smaller massively reduces the ability for the US to project security on a global state.

Meanwhile the Trump administration cuts programs while ballooning the military budget to $1T...

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

#732

Post by panick21_ »

staplers wrote: post #243
iandanforth wrote: post #232

On the off chance you're interested in school lunches I highly recommend watching videos of Japanese school lunches on YouTube. There's a bunch out there now and if you were raised in the American system it will probably blow your mind. 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…

I felt like a big part of my childhood had been sold to the lowest bidder. It was. Most local procurement laws enforce this.

Selling to the lowest bidder isn't necessarily bad if the requirements are set correctly.

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

#733

Post by saltcured »

RandallBrown wrote: post #301
iandanforth wrote: post #232

On the off chance you're interested in school lunches I highly recommend watching videos of Japanese school lunches on YouTube. There's a bunch out there now and if you were raised in the American system it will probably blow your mind. 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…

Maybe this wasn't all over the US, but in the 90s I helped serve and clean up our elementary school lunches. There was a rotation through all of the older classrooms.

I can remember similar from public elementary school in the early 80s in the suburban SF Bay Area.

In kindergarten, we had a rotating chore to take the collective milk money for the class, exchange it for a crate of milk at the cafeteria, and return it to the kindergarten room. I can imagine social norms have changed since then about this de facto mandatory financial exercise.

In later grades, we had some rotating lunch duties including, at least, rinsing the lunch trays and loading the big dishwasher. I can't remember if we ever helped serve food, but I do remember being told to be careful with the very hot water spray nozzle in the washing basin. I can imagine this having changed due to shifting safety and liability norms.

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

#734

Post by thr0waway39290 »

veunes wrote: post #483
freehorse wrote: post #163

I feel like this has already been discussed before one million times more than the simplicity of the issue should require. Any income etc based coupon system is inefficient and automatically excludes a big portion of children that such measures are supposed to be for, eg because a lot of them come from families that are too dysfunctional to apply for those, ignorant of them due to language and other barriers, or beca…

We can't keep pretending that punishing kids for their parents' circumstances is anything but cruel

[flagged]

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

#735

Post by scotty79 »

verisimi wrote: post #344
kerkeslager wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stuff like this seems like such a dividing line to me. Like, in theory when people believe things that are morally wrong, I want to reach out to them with compassion and respect and try to gently persuade them to my side because we're all, in theory, on the same side. But if you don't want kids to be fed, I really am not sure we're actually on the same side any more and I really am not sure what to do with that.

I'll play devil's advocate, and you tell me the immorality of the position. Say you have no children. Is it an acceptable position to hold that 'those people who have children should also be the ones to look after them'? Shouldn't you have considered these sorts of expenses and being able to meet them, rather than expecting to receive handouts?

You don't really "have" a child. A child is new separate human that will eventually grow into free separate adult human. The question is, do you want there to be more humans in the future or are you fine with the ones that are already here until they die. And should they be starved or dumb?

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

#736

Post by panick21_ »

heresjohnny wrote: post #367

As someone from Europe, I had heard before about bankrupting ambulance rides, slavery in prisons, and food deserts. I did not expect to add “lunch money humiliation ritual” to that list. I’ll think of this next time I complain about my 50% income tax.

Switzerland spends like 30% of GDP and pretty low debt. So I don't think you need 50% of GDP to fix any of the issues mentioned.

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

#737

Post by thr0waway39290 »

framapotari wrote: post #502
giantg2 wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that's a false solution. That does nothing to fix the neglect at home, especially over weekends and summers.

"Sorry Timmy, I know you're hungry but giving you a school lunch portion would actually be a false solution. It would do nothing to fix the neglect you experience at home, especially over weekends and summers."

[flagged]

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

#739

Post by thr0waway39290 »

giantg2 wrote: post #277
vineyardmike wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sounds like child services should take those children then? This is a HUGE, dangerous leap. > If they can't apply for the lunches, then surely they aren't getting food at home, nor the proper medical care. Plenty of parents (and plenty of people generally) just aren't aware of social services but are quite aware that they're supposed to feed and care for their children. Plenty more forget to fill out paperwork and…

"This is a HUGE, dangerous leap." If you're telling me they are "starving" then it isn't.

It's disappointing that there is such an automatic response to cover up for the parents who starve their children that people automatically dismissed your argument.

I have a problem with government stepping in to remove children from their parents but parents should definitely be blamed for their own child starving. I think all empathy should go to the child who is starving and significantly less to the parent who caused it (even if they are starving too, they are an adult and they have significantly more choices then a starving child)

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

#740

Post by thevillagechief »

RandallBrown wrote: post #301
iandanforth wrote: post #232

On the off chance you're interested in school lunches I highly recommend watching videos of Japanese school lunches on YouTube. There's a bunch out there now and if you were raised in the American system it will probably blow your mind. 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…

Maybe this wasn't all over the US, but in the 90s I helped serve and clean up our elementary school lunches. There was a rotation through all of the older classrooms.

I went to a boarding high school in Kenya (most high schools are boarding there) and we were responsible for cleaning the hostels and the bathrooms, which we had to do every morning before class. The flowerbeds outside our hostels were also our responsibility.
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