Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

huffpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

741–750 of 918 posts

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

#741

Post by thr0waway39290 »

freeone3000 wrote: post #738
thr0waway39290 wrote: post #734

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

And yet, you would not shame the dog, nor take away its food.

Never, this is purely on the dog owner. All shame goes to the dog owner, not the dog.

If I were to take the dog owners excuses seriously and donated free food to the dog owner every once in a while to make sure the dog didn't starve to death (while ignoring the fact that the dog owner wasn't feeding the child). That would not be a good scenario.

The dog obviously needs some help and there are animal shelters that can help with that.

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

#742

Post by sorcerer-mar »

monero-xmr wrote: post #326
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.

[flagged]

Declining to solve a problem because the solution doesn't meet abstract criteria like "the right amount of efficiency?"

Sounds like virtue signaling to me

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

#744

Post by nothercastle »

BobaFloutist wrote: post #720
idrios wrote: post #686

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wealthy do use public schools. They pay huge amounts to live in upper class neighborhoods with wealthy peers, where a lot of tax money goes into the schooling system so the kids can take all sorts of extracurriculars and AP classes. It gets the same results as private school but the cost comes from living in that neighborhood rather than paying the school directly

California actually has a pretty solid school tax-redistribition system that more or less solves this problem (of course districts still can and do fundraise for direct donations to the PTA/music fund and bond measures to upgrade facilities, but it's still vastly more fair). In a completely unrelated phenomenon, private schools are incredibly popular among Californians of means.

I assume you forgot /s on the unrelated part

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

#745

Post by lurking_swe »

gosub100 wrote: post #355
x-complexity wrote: post #287

Earlier 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…

> the cultural emphasis placed on individualism. That's just a roundabout way to spell diversity, isn't it?

Individualism is a concept that emphasizes prioritizing oneself above all else, including family, friends, and your local community. What does that have to do with race or country of birth, or your gender?

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

#746

Post by nothercastle »

presentation wrote: post #700
throwawayqqq11 wrote: post #538

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine paying the kids a small amount for their work. Outliers will be everywhere, you only have to select the right ones, and not fix an entire suburbs culture, and ofc the obligatory: tax the rich.

Part of the point of the Japanese way is to communicate that keeping public spaces clean is everyone’s responsibility. Paying kids for it communicates the opposite.

Yeah the op doesn’t get that. If you pay the kids then kids from wealthy families will think it’s not worth doing

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

#747

Post by lukan »

vidarh wrote: post #694
lukan wrote: post #605

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simply covering school lunches, if this would be the decusion here. But that wouldn't solve the problem of negligent parents, only ease things a little bit for children.

But "negligent" isn't a binary, and it's not just parents who don't want to, but parents who can't afford to. For a lot of children, easing things a little bit might be all that is needed. For others it might ease things enough that it can be part of a set of relatively light interventions. For those who genuinely need more heavy handed interventions, it's not a solution, but it's also not in any way detrimental.

Yeah, but in this concrete case we are talking about someone whose parents could have afford it, but didn't to teach the state a lesson or something, but all they(or he) did was made life hell for their son. That is a serious parent fault and someone acting like this here, would likely also act weird with other things.

But like I stated, I am not a fan of child protection service, they can make things worse.

And if school is free, so should be lunch for the students. Apparently people assumed I opposed that here?

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

#748

Post by nothercastle »

yongjik wrote: post #284

South Korea started dabbling in free school lunches around 2001 - when a few schools started it. It gained momentum, and then it became a huge debate in 2011, when Seoul's mayor somehow decided he hated free lunches so much that he arranged a referendum, and said he would quit if people didn't agree with him on the matter. He did quit. Fast forward to 2025, and now free school lunches are nearly ubiquitous. Once peop…

In America even if we enacted this the kids would get meals that are terrible like 10$ chicken strips, hotdogs and fake pizza

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

#749

Post by mtnGoat »

pc86 wrote: post #563
mtnGoat wrote: post #343

As someone who experienced this first hand growing up. I consider how someone feels about free school lunch, a basic test of their humanity. If you think kids should go hungry or be embarrassed at school because of their parents finances… we can’t be friends, nor acquaintances. IMHO, you are subhuman at that point and not worth my time. My dad believed that because he paid taxes he shouldn’t have to pay the school to…

I think every child should get a hot, nutritious breakfast and lunch at school at taxpayer expense. But I'm also [edit] s/smart/reasonable enough to know that people who disagree with that aren't "subhuman." There is no "basic test of humanity" and pretending their is is tribalistic bullshit so you can feel superior to other people who disagree with you. It's digusting.

You are entitled to your opinion, despite throwing an insult in to point out an insult. lol, nice hypocrisy. ;)

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

#750

Post by mulmen »

graemep wrote: post #689
pertymcpert wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know there are countless parents that abuse their kids, physically, emotionally, sexually. They rape their kids and strangle them until they pass out. They hit them in places where bruises aren't visible. They break bones and threaten the kids with death if they dare tell anyone or show their injury or pain. Why do we suddenly need to especially think about the other side of this because tax money is involved? No…

No, we should care in all cases. The point is that the problem is not necessarily fixed by providing lunch. What else is going on if someone is deliberately not feeding a child?

Why would providing food preclude support for victims of or intervention in other types of abuse?
Post reply on HN