the coolzone is returning this summer.
Wait till the 5th once-in-a-century storm hits and permanently drops the power network for some 100 mil people
I hate roller coasters... I hate them so much... please let me off, pleasemakeitstopIdon'twannadothisanymore!
Most docile people on earth. How the fuck are half of y'all skipping meals and not one of the ghouls sucking your blood is swinging from a tree...
On a tire swing, I hear its great fun.
This is it. There will be no uprising until the internet goes down, and now that starlink exists, I don't see that being a thing.
Starlink doesn't work if the rest of America's or Europe's internet goes down, it's just a theoretical new point for connection, but it is still plugged in through all the ground based servers and receivers. Satellite connections have been around for a long time they're just expensive and usually suck, which starlink doesn't seem to be changing
Can confirm. I've had it a couple months, and it doesn't work that great. The speed is insanely better than hughesnet, but it's still spotty. At least they don't throttle my data.
They did however already raise the monthly cost by $20 the first month we had it. Elon must be hemorrhaging money
People are still geting treats, supply chain isn't completely decimated just yet. Your non voters are noticing tho.
Too many :cop: in Minecraft to get through to get to the clowns in their bouncy houses.
Just in time for free school lunches to end because Democrats couldn't be bothered to continue a program that helped keep kids fed with at least one meal. There are so many kids that only really eat the meals they get from school because there's just not enough money at home.
Something else particularly damning is the changing type of foods by moving away from fresh produce which will have a longer lasting effect on people's health and wellbeing overall. People joke about the broke college student living off cup ramen, but eating TV dinners and other "cheaper" foods usually leads to unhealthier foods in general which contribute to metabolic syndrome and generally poor health outcomes. It's also paradoxical in some ways because fresh produce is still the cheaper way to go, if you actually have time at home to properly prepare it. It takes me 2-3 hours to make a batch of 3 small cauliflower pizza crusts, requiring physical labor to squeeze out the water from the cauliflower and the labor to turn it into cauliflower rice. I'm unemployed and I find the process too long to be truly viable, working a fulltime job and then coming home to do this seems just like hell so even though I can make a pizza relatively cheaply, buying the thing off the shelf is going to be preferable because 15 minutes waiting for it to cook in the oven compared to 3 hours, at least I get to use the extra crusts for other meals in the future so it's a bit of an investment where I have easy meals later on.
Democrats couldn’t be bothered to continue a program that helped keep kids fed with at least one meal.
That's what they did for the expansion of the Child Tax Credit too. I think it only lasted ~6 months or so. It was insanely successful but the dems let the funding run out. And that was that.
The MNSBC source for the sake of completeness...
Good News! Poverty Drops To Historic Low After Biden Relief
Jul 29, 2021
Depends where, really. I could see left wing revolution in France or Germany, the US probably right, but not guaranteed. If anything cool happened they'd try to co-opt it, but i don't know if it would stick. IMO, if things started really popping off in the US it would be Balkanization time. The minute the US government collapses it would be 1980s Lebanon on steroids with different factions vying for control of nukes. Actually, the more I think about it, the impending demise of the US empire has about a 50/50 chance of being an extinction level event for humanity.
:doomer:
I would think that a military junta of some sort would be far more likely than any sort of balkanization. They've got more money than god, they depend on a countrywide web of manufacturing, and they don't have anything close to the divisions of 1980s Lebanon. Unfortunately, you're probably right either way on that nuke chance, no way some psycho doesn't immediately go for a MacArthur moment and nuke China
this isn't just affecting the lowest/most desperate classes, though they're certainly the ones who are going without food. personal savings are on their way to record lows and debt is at record highs. we're 5-6 months into a new financial crisis and wall street hasn't caught up to the picture. the panic selling and layoffs will come later this year when the middle classes start to default on their debt in order to afford food. the fed is laughably late to raise interest rates if they wanted to prevent a recession. now they need to do it anyway so people don't have to break out the wheel barrows to afford food and pay rent. but those rates rising now -- rates that will rise even if the fed does nothing because it's bond holders demanding a return higher than inflation that are driving up rates -- will force people to default sooner. home prices are on their way down and, within a year, people are going to be underwater on their mortgages again while new buyers are staring at 7+% rates on loans.
this is like watching a trainwreck in super slow motion. the denial from the stonks people/real estate investors is really funny and I'm hate reading :reddit-logo: just for the schadenfraude, as the game of musical chairs plays out and investors are forced to run for the exits.
I think the major hedge funds took all cash positions earlier this year - is this what you're referring to? cause yeah, the major financial institutions are absolutely going to try and profit on this, even as the crisis ripples through the industry. anyone who didn't exit the market at the start of the year is absolutely not going to be able to cash out without losing significant money - it's these people who are going to be left holding the bag when the music stops and the fire sales begin.
I actually dont believe this . Nowhere near 45% of families are skipping meals in Greece 10 years into bunkrapcy, socioeconomic collapse and the worst austerity the west has seen for example and i would bet 45% of families arent skipping meals even in a lot of second/third world countries. Yeah yeah i know america sucks but the QoL and purchasing power isnt anywhere near third world levels for the vast majority of the population no matter how much it has deterriorated and how people struggle relative to the past.
Survey could very well be faulty but it also might be that Americans have the highest average caloric intake compared to calories burned each day. So people may be decreasing the amount of food and meals they eat but that doesnt drop them bellow maintanence levels calory wise and into hunger as it would if most of the world population reduced their caloric intake
the issue is that rent is way up this year, combined with skyrocketing food and gas prices. it's going to be a while before we have all the data but I think the purchasing power of the median income in the US fell off a cliff this year - whether that puts the US working poor at parity with or worse off than the global south, I don't think we know yet. the middle classes are running up an astronomical amount of debt, much as they did just prior to the 2008 global financial crisis, while their savings are obliterated.
someone mentioned above that this 45-54% number is of the 48% who are facing food insecurity, which puts the actual rate of families skipping meals at 21%. I also don't think the data from the rest of the world is in yet on just how bad the past month has been - I expect that over the next several months, the whole world is going to be seeing bread riots.
I get all that but whatever the reasons for the "falling of a cliff" may be they apply very much so to the big majority of countries around the globe .So all things equal, American households do have the purchasing power and QoL food wise headstart to absorb the global food security crisis "better" compared to the global south. So If that significant of a % of families are going hungry in the US then for the same reasons at least that % of families would be absolutely starving in most of the world. We arent there yet and so beyond survey issues i can only think that "skipping a meal" for the average american doesnt mean the same thing as it does for most of the world and its impact isnt comperable
oh for sure. if anything, this means that global food supplies are going to get diverted towards the US, because the US can pay more for food. there's going to be widespread famines this year.
I agree with you to be honest, there would be mass riots. As far as I can tell the source in the image is about this press release from a US Think Tank run by this guy https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-ruben-75806a8/ called Parents Together. This organization appears to be a liberal US Democrat focused action group
The survey doesn't mention anything about sample size or include the questions asked (edit: Or rather, I'm not clear if the titles of the graphs are what were asked respondents):
https://parentstogetheraction.org/2022/03/17/new-survey-shows-middle-and-low-income-parents-struggling-to-find-child-care-they-can-afford-as-a-result-62-of-respondents-had-to-cut-back-on-work-hours/
Bad post title, its 45% of parents report that they are going without a meal to make sure their kids get to eat.
Yeah i dont believe this either. Or what i said in the second part of my comment
Is that accurate? That seems insane if true if 1 out of 2 parents in the entire country are skipping full meals.
it's one study so it's hard to say. we're going to know more in hindsight.
Biden is really proud of how much he cut the deficit too. It was a huge number number nobody cared about and now it's a new, lower - but still huge - number nobody cares about.
glad I live in America and not in some third world whatever-hole where this poll was taken
Man this is one of the most depressing statistics i've seen in a minute
Changed the types of food they bought (fewer fruits, vegetables, etc.)
LESS MEAT :screm3: LESS MEAT :scared: LESS MEAT :screm-a: LESS MEAT :bird-screm-2: LESS MEAT :bird-screm1: LESS MEAT :screm2: LESS MEAT :screm: LESS MEAT :Hoggers: LESS MEAT :agony-turbo: LESS MEAT :greensicko-laser: LESS MEAT :screm3: LESS MEAT :scared: LESS MEAT :screm-a: LESS MEAT :bird-screm-2: LESS MEAT :bird-screm1: LESS MEAT :screm2: LESS MEAT :screm: LESS MEAT :Hoggers: LESS MEAT :agony-turbo: LESS MEAT :greensicko-laser: LESS MEAT :screm3: LESS MEAT :scared: LESS MEAT :screm-a: LESS MEAT :bird-screm-2: LESS MEAT :bird-screm1: LESS MEAT :screm2: LESS MEAT :screm: LESS MEAT :Hoggers: LESS MEAT :agony-turbo: LESS MEAT :greensicko-laser: LESS MEAT :screm3: LESS MEAT :scared: LESS MEAT :screm-a: LESS MEAT :bird-screm-2: LESS MEAT :bird-screm1: LESS MEAT :screm2: LESS MEAT :screm: LESS MEAT :Hoggers: LESS MEAT :agony-turbo: LESS MEAT :greensicko-laser:
Fruits and vegetables are literally some of the cheapest shit at the grocery store, who the fuck "cuts costs" by cutting fruits and vegetables? The expensive shit at the grocery store is the shit crap snacks you eat
They're cheap when they're in season. Stuff flown in from halfway around the world is where it gets expensive.
The list of most calories per dollar has oil at the top, then all-purpose flour, then sugar. So if you have the time, making various bread products (even donuts) is really cheap.
People around me are complaining about prices of groceries rising by several times; I guarantee you produce has not gone up by any more than 20%. Sure, maybe the price of meat and cheese is skyrocketing but even bread is pretty stable.
The best way to spend less money on food is to BUY LESS MEAT!
"Give up meat or be underfed" is a cool and good prompt to give to Americans.
I have no sympathy for someone inflicting starvation on themselves to satisfy a trivial taste preference (trivial, because you can replace 40% of meat in fast food with soy any nobody notices the difference).
God damn America. If someone has the audacity to still fly its flag, hopefully there will come a day where that signifies "raid my house and liberate the food for my victims".
Fewer vegetables? Vegetables are probably the cheapest things at the grocery store?? Carrots, potatoes, onions, lettuce, green beans in season, these are all incredibly inexpensive relative to processed food. Are they switching from vegetable to rice and lentils or something?
i work in community food and have a lot friends that work specifically in community/adult education for nutrition/food literacy. this is my experience in the urban south and deindustrialized uplands.
generally, fresh fruits and vegetables perish before processed foods, making them be regarded as a more expensive option. not to mention, the bottom of the barrel processed foods in the US are insanely cheap.
fresh produce also generally requires some labor time to convert it into a meal, which working families have been stripped of very ruthlessly. this doesn't apply to frozen veg or roots/tubers, but all it takes is one or two events of vegetables going bad in the fridge/basket and they become seen as "risky". a lot of people lack the knowledge to evaluate produce on the shelf for longevity/freshness, which is a tight window at the supermarket since everything has been in a shipping container for like 7-10 days already. this isn't even getting into food prep knowledge.
the typical american kitchen is set up and kitted out for warming up already processed foods that are purchased in bulk for volume discount and the typical american brain sees fruits/vegetables as a premium purchase for a "special" meal, not the daily routine of getting the kids / self fed before and after work. even in the more affluent-appearing suburbs, the kitchens may have all the big appliances for lavish meals, but that's not what's happening day to day. boxed cereal, hot dogs, toaster pastries. everyone is on the run.
it takes repeated effort and usually some kind of sweetener (double dollars for EBT at local markets, etc) to snap people out of this mindset into conceptualizing meal prep as something enriching for health and family, but for very broke people feeling the squeeze, it's easier to fall into the habit of frozen comfort foods they can slap into a hotbox with an alarm so they can sit down and rest their eyes.
...
it should also be mentioned, that fruit and vegetable production systems are nowhere near as subsidized by government programs as grain/soy production. direct payments, risk management/federal crop insurance programs, short term credit schemes, and resource cost share is all set up around beef, pork, dairy and grains/soy. it can be done for fruit and vegetables, but it's dribs and drabs in most of the US outside of the megafarm vegetable regions like CA, GA and FL who have like associations with legal teams and access to nontraditional financing.
All good points. I’m a 2nd generation immigrant to the US so I grew up eating Syrian food actually cooked by mom, with whatever fresh American replacement ingredients were available. It’s pretty strange to me the diets here in the US and it’s obvious they are extremely unhealthy and unsustainable.
The solution to this kind of thing seems like worker canteens and group kitchens where there’s cheap/free mass prepared decent food. Not crappy addictive sugary processed bullshit. The concept of atomized individual kitchen units only made sense when you had a fulltime housewife in the 1950s. Now both parents work usually so cooking is less feasible time wise. Historically people have eaten and cooked very communally, or there was dedicated cooks in each family unit.
yeah, our food system is pretty catastrophic. the atomization of the household into "nuclear" families and assimilation of immigrants basically wiped out most our connections to whatever traditional food cultures we brought over and replaced it with a highly profitable land management regime to supply the national eating disorder. both in the sale of the "food" and in the pharmaceutical treatment of its effects.
worker canteens and group kitchens would be a godsend, but would be very unpopular with the fast food companies and the large agribusiness firms that supply them. capitalism has actively dismantled and suppressed any good ideas from taking hold.
i've been lucky enough to travel overseas for work and immerse myself in other food cultures. basically everywhere is so much better off than the US. like even if i go wild, eat my fill constantly, and not even try to make healthy choices.... i end up leaning out and feeling awesome if i'm there more than a month.
hmmm...
If you're feeding kids and they're picky, you might economize by feeding them stuff you know they won't throw away.
Vegetables might also mean prepared salads. Or just stuff for salads. So a parent could cut out the vegetables that you'd eat raw but keep the stuff you'd cook and then make casseroles, stews, etc for several days worth of meals.
In the US grocery stores that I frequent, it looks like a fair amount of the fresh produce is low/mid priced. Frequently low/out of stock and the prices jump around wildly as the grocery stores pass on price changes/fuel surcharges to customers.
tv dinners and the like, I'm guessing, as they try to take extra jobs to cover their short-fall.
Eating TV dinners is far more expensive than buying vegetables. This doesn’t really make sense
yes, but it's faster - meaningful if you're working extra shifts. spending more cash because you can't afford to take the cheaper option is always the burden of the immiserated. idk though, the study didn't probe further.
Faster and lower effort, some people are too tired to cook their own meals
In the long run, yeah, it is more expensive. But a "meal" that costs a few bucks and only needs to be microwaved does "look" cheaper than buying a pound of meat, an onion, a few potatoes, and a bag of frozen peas.
And we can't forget that if all I have is a few bucks, I can only afford to buy the 2 dollar frozen dinner even if buying raw meat, an onion, a few potatoes, and a bag of frozen peas would make multiple meals at less than 2 dollars a meal.
You can survive on rice and lentils for less than a dollar per person per day. (Source: Personal experience)
Also if you qualify for food stamps you can easily buy vegetables.
