6 ms·
We've built an entire economy around people doing things they don't really need to do. Yeah, we've moved beyond subsistence. In fact, we've moved so far beyond
by blfr 6y ago
We've built an entire economy around people doing things they don't really need to do.
Yeah, we've moved beyond subsistence. In fact, we've moved so far beyond subsistence that we can put the entire economy on hold for months and no one is in even remote danger of starving.
- throwlaplace 6y ago>no one is in even remote danger of starving like do you actually believe this? just because none of your friends are starving doesn't mean there aren't people that are https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/22/covid-19-could-detonate-hunger-pandemic-with-millions-risk-world-must-act/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/22/covid-19-...
- MattGaiser 6y agoI believe he is limiting his comments to the USA.
- throwlaplace 6y agodo you know what the number of people below the poverty line is in the US? https://www.npr.org/2019/09/10/759512938/u-s-census-bureau-reports-poverty-rate-down-but-millions-still-poor https://www.npr.org/2019/09/10/759512938/u-s-census-bureau-r... 38 million. 12% of households don't reliably eat https://www.feedingamerica.org/about-us/press-room/new-data https://www.feedingamerica.org/about-us/press-room/new-data people are getting evicted en masse soon https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/us/coronavirus-evictions-renters.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/us/coronavirus-evictions-... do you really think "no one" is going starve to death in the US in the coming months? or even that many people aren't?
- smcg 6y agowe know all of these things are true. the system is set up to disenfranchise these people. none of it is because of lack of food capacity, and covid did not impact the food supply chain enough to stop the chain.
- Coffeewine 6y agoI don't think that's quite true - food insecurity has significantly increased since the pandemic response has began. https://www.hamiltonproject.org/blog/the_covid_19_crisis_has_already_left_too_many_children_hungry_in_america https://www.hamiltonproject.org/blog/the_covid_19_crisis_has...
- danaris 6y agoBut that's not because we, as a country, are incapable of providing food security. It's largely because people—especially the poorest people—have been laid off to protect businesses' balance sheets, and have received a meager attempt at counterbalancing that from the government. There is absolutely no reason any human needs to starve in the modern world. If we as a society prioritized people's lives and welfare over businesses' profitability—and expressed those priorities consistently through our voting decisions—we could eliminate hunger in America without any kind of serious (or even noticeable) hardship to the rest of us.
- Gibbon1 6y agoBut we know from basic economics that if poor people didn't worry about being homeless and starving they wouldn't work at all.
- danaris 6y agoI hope that was missing a "/s"...
- snowwrestler 6y agoSo why do rich people work, then?
- Gibbon1 6y agoPower
- swamp40 6y agoThere have been millions of people working this entire time in food distribution. Lots of hidden workers even under "full lockdown".