5 ms·

> Nothing is a guarantee of a good life. But lack of things and capital will never get you a good life. If you are starving, no matter what you put in or how k

> Nothing is a guarantee of a good life. But lack of things and capital will never get you a good life. If you are starving, no matter what you put in or how kind you are to others, you cannot have a good life. If you are home insecure, you cannot have a good life. Period. I'm going to define "good life" to mean food, housing, and health security. While you're right that nothing is guaranteed, the wealthier you are, the more you can guarantee these basic needs. Even me, being in tech making around 6 figures, I haven't achieved my definition of a good life. This is because if I lose my job, the basic needs I listed cannot be maintained. However, if you do not need to work (i.e. CEOs, billionaires, etc.), you are more likely to have your basic needs for a good life met for the rest of your life even if you lose your "job". What I'm trying to say is that having things and lots of capital can very much get you to my aforementioned definition of a "good life". I think we're getting ahead of ourselves with these philosophical questions of what a "good life" is. First, let's meet everyone's basic needs: food, housing, and health. Because those needs are clearly not met.

umvi 6y ago
Is anyone in the USA actually starving? That's a common thing brought up, but calories are so cheap in the US that most poor people are actually morbidly obese, not starving. Even if you were starving, you could easily subsist panhandling at some traffic intersection. How long does it take to panhandle $10? An hour or two? And with that you could buy a 15 pound bag of rice which is like a months' worth of carbs. Starvation is a problem for Africa, not the USA.
- huehehue 6y ago
  Yes, absolutely. The idea that nobody should starve because they can stroll up to an intersection and fill their pockets is based on a lot of assumptions that are simply untrue. The US is huge, some people would have to hitchhike quite far to get to a high-traffic area. There's also no guarantee of receiving any handouts at all, so I'm not sure I'd use the word "easily" (or even "possible"). And after hitchhiking and begging all day, praying for a few bucks to buy rice, you're not actually going to want to buy rice. You're going to want alcohol, or something fatty and sugary, or just plain drugs. Your framing of this problem trivializes a terrible, dehumanizing experience, and is out of touch with the reality of the impoverished middle-American.
- mLuby 6y ago
  Don't forget: - the rice cooker - electricity to cook the rice - potable water for the rice - storage containers for the leftover rice - refrigeration or other means of preserving the prepared food - a secure place to store your month's food supply from other hungry people and/or cleaners - mental health while you eat the same plain rice with bare your hands for a month and society judges you for "not pulling yourself up by your bootstraps."
  - umvi 6y ago
    There's a big difference between "starvation" and "hunger"/"food insecurity". You can make all the excuses you want, but nobody is dying of starvation in the USA. The number of annual starvation deaths in the US is so small we don't even track it, and the people that do die of starvation aren't starving because they are poor, but sick (i.e. cancer makes them stop eating). I'm not advocating a plain rice diet 24/7. I'm just saying calories are so cheap in America that obesity is a bigger problem for the poor than starvation. Furthermore, even the poorest in the US have access to the things in your list if they want them.

umvi 6y ago

Is anyone in the USA actually starving? That's a common thing brought up, but calories are so cheap in the US that most poor people are actually morbidly obese, not starving. Even if you were starving, you could easily subsist panhandling at some traffic intersection. How long does it take to panhandle $10? An hour or two? And with that you could buy a 15 pound bag of rice which is like a months' worth of carbs. Starvation is a problem for Africa, not the USA.

huehehue 6y ago
Yes, absolutely. The idea that nobody should starve because they can stroll up to an intersection and fill their pockets is based on a lot of assumptions that are simply untrue. The US is huge, some people would have to hitchhike quite far to get to a high-traffic area. There's also no guarantee of receiving any handouts at all, so I'm not sure I'd use the word "easily" (or even "possible"). And after hitchhiking and begging all day, praying for a few bucks to buy rice, you're not actually going to want to buy rice. You're going to want alcohol, or something fatty and sugary, or just plain drugs. Your framing of this problem trivializes a terrible, dehumanizing experience, and is out of touch with the reality of the impoverished middle-American.
mLuby 6y ago
Don't forget: - the rice cooker - electricity to cook the rice - potable water for the rice - storage containers for the leftover rice - refrigeration or other means of preserving the prepared food - a secure place to store your month's food supply from other hungry people and/or cleaners - mental health while you eat the same plain rice with bare your hands for a month and society judges you for "not pulling yourself up by your bootstraps."
- umvi 6y ago
  There's a big difference between "starvation" and "hunger"/"food insecurity". You can make all the excuses you want, but nobody is dying of starvation in the USA. The number of annual starvation deaths in the US is so small we don't even track it, and the people that do die of starvation aren't starving because they are poor, but sick (i.e. cancer makes them stop eating). I'm not advocating a plain rice diet 24/7. I'm just saying calories are so cheap in America that obesity is a bigger problem for the poor than starvation. Furthermore, even the poorest in the US have access to the things in your list if they want them.