It seems like HN treads a lot of the same ground every time these things are discussed. 1. "Food deserts" are what happens when the demand for ideologically c

It seems like HN treads a lot of the same ground every time these things are discussed. 1. "Food deserts" are what happens when the demand for ideologically congenial explanations for socially inconvenient facts greatly exceeds the supply. There is an assumed causal directionality which turns out to not be supported. There's a lot of literature on food deserts (as typically stated) being more or less a meme since 2015, here's one example with a couple studies to back it: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/09/upshot/giving-the-poor-easy-access-to-healthy-food-doesnt-mean-theyll-buy-it.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/09/upshot/giving-the-poor-ea... > Another study, published this week as a working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research, looked across the country and found that no more than a tenth of the variation in the food people bought could be explained by the availability of a nearby grocery store. The education level of the shoppers, for example, was far more predictive. 2. > because you don't have the time Almost all data we have suggests poor people have more time too cook than middle class people. Examples abound: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/09/the-free-time-paradox-in-america/499826/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/09/the-fre... They may not have the resources/tools though.