4 ms·

What food can young people without jobs afford?

by parineum 1y ago

yetihehe 1y ago
Plastic wrapped instant noodles packages.
- saltcured 1y ago
  And, some may have the luck or guidance to know rice, beans, lentils, etc. can be bought in bulk quantities and stored long enough to be very cost-efficient.
  - yetihehe 1y ago
    Such people are not jobless very long.
- mrguyorama 1y ago
  In 2012 a single package of name brand instant ramen was 25 cents exactly, no tax on food items in my state, I literally bought one with a quarter from my car's coin tray once for a weird craving. As of this year, that same single packet of ramen is now 50 cents. 100% inflation over 13ish years. For an item made by an assembly line out of dirt cheap components. The commodity price of wheat has more price movement than I expected, but roughly has only gone up by 20% in the same time frame.
ahmeneeroe-v2 1y ago
And what food do we as a society think is appropriate for them to afford? That is, what structure (social services, etc) do we need to have in place to enable that should-statement
- BriggyDwiggs42 1y ago
  We probably shouldn’t have the government lobster truck that comes by and gives everybody a fresh lobster, but people’s nutritional needs should be met. In modern society with modern agriculture, we could afford to do that just fine. I think the thing that’s really broken right now is the food environment that people have to choose from. It makes a program like snap or EBT less cost-effective in terms of getting nutrition to people.
  - Spivak 1y ago
    It's funny when people use lobster as an example because it used to be literal bottom tier food served to prisoners. So I hope we can do at least as good as the lobster truck.
    - BriggyDwiggs42 1y ago
      I guess I have weird cultural connotations then lol, but my point stands for whatever is expensive to produce.
  - mrguyorama 1y ago
    >We probably shouldn’t have the government lobster truck that comes by and gives everybody a fresh lobster Here in Maine, fresh lobster has frequently in a retail store been cheaper than ground beef per pound. Sometimes by as much as half the price. Our industry was catching far too much, and had frequent price problems until we started selling it to China. You can buy lobster on EBT. Remember that a significant portion of the goal of Food Stamps is to be a subsidy to food producers. Maine's lobster industry benefits from that subsidy. In a similar way, Susan Collins once made the US federal government buy tons of Maine blueberries for school lunch programs to improve pricing during a high yield year. Lobster is a rare luxury in Colorado for sure, but in some coastal states it is downright abundant. If you live near a fishing community, lobster is like $2 per giant bucket, not pound. Its luxury is mostly artificial and marketing. Food deserts are a huge problem, but they are not caused by Food Stamps. Food deserts are caused by the same thing as nearly every bad thing that affects poor people in the USA: that we allowed businesses to M&A themselves into massive conglomerates that get more rights than god and more influence and power than most countries. Places that used to have local grocers or IGAs lost them because the wealthier members of the poor community could drive an hour away to the Walmart. The IGA didn't lose all its business, but enough to make it nonviable. Oh that's just free market competition! Walmart was able to lower prices and collect more business by being efficient! Are we actually better off driving an hour away to grocery shop at Walmart? Doesn't matter, Americans lost so much purchasing power that they almost didn't have a choice. Nearly all extra dollars our economy has generated since 1970ish have gone to a tiny group of connected people. Nobody could afford the local IGA anymore, because America stopped letting normal people make money. Whats worse, there are now companies like Dollar General and their entire business strategy is dropping into those communities that no longer have a local grocery store and extracting what little remaining wealth that community has to some corporate headquarters and CEO that lives 2000 miles away. It's impossible for rural towns and small communities to exist when every dollar they spend goes out of that economy. You need to provide room in the economy for small players who don't have such """efficient""" operations because they hire locally, buy locally, work locally, etc. But it doesn't matter that they are "less efficient" because that money will cycle through that local economy and enable multiple people to actually live. None of this is new. America has had successful businesses try to own the entire market its whole existence. Each and every time we had to break them up, and we eventually decided to police the process of Mergers entirely to just stop the problem before it hurt people. But then Reagan insisted we should just.... not do that? So of course, now we have the expected problem and a stupidly inefficient market. Letting a company like Google or Facebook buy everyone and anyone who might choose to compete with them later is a market failure.
- Spivak 1y ago
  Good tasting (for their culture), fresh, nutritious, and calorically dense food available from somewhere at least as convenient as a grocery store. As well as some extra money to afford a few prepared meals and a few 'luxury' food items. The first to encourage socialization (i.e. you can go out with your friends/family without shame) and because life without small joys isn't. That's probably where I would put the floor in order to avoid a population that actively desires my head on a platter.
jsilence 1y ago
Maybe teach zhem how to cook? Much cheaper.
adfm 1y ago
If you're young and without a job, burritos are definitely in your price range; you just have to be willing to make it yourself. It's not hard to get close to that Mission-style burrito with a little patience and buying in bulk. Get an Instant Pot for the beans. There's a ton of recipes for decent beans on YouTube. Make your own salsa; it's not hard. Grate your own cheese (80g/burrito). Most places bulk up their burritos with rice. Use red/spanish/mexican rice, which is super simple to make. Use a 13.5-inch flour tortilla, which can be found at most restaurant supplies or your local mercado. Pro tip: use roasted veggies instead of rice. You can do it!

What food can young people without jobs afford?

yetihehe 1y ago

Plastic wrapped instant noodles packages.

saltcured 1y ago
And, some may have the luck or guidance to know rice, beans, lentils, etc. can be bought in bulk quantities and stored long enough to be very cost-efficient.
- yetihehe 1y ago
  Such people are not jobless very long.
mrguyorama 1y ago
In 2012 a single package of name brand instant ramen was 25 cents exactly, no tax on food items in my state, I literally bought one with a quarter from my car's coin tray once for a weird craving. As of this year, that same single packet of ramen is now 50 cents. 100% inflation over 13ish years. For an item made by an assembly line out of dirt cheap components. The commodity price of wheat has more price movement than I expected, but roughly has only gone up by 20% in the same time frame.

ahmeneeroe-v2 1y ago

And what food do we as a society think is appropriate for them to afford? That is, what structure (social services, etc) do we need to have in place to enable that should-statement

BriggyDwiggs42 1y ago
We probably shouldn’t have the government lobster truck that comes by and gives everybody a fresh lobster, but people’s nutritional needs should be met. In modern society with modern agriculture, we could afford to do that just fine. I think the thing that’s really broken right now is the food environment that people have to choose from. It makes a program like snap or EBT less cost-effective in terms of getting nutrition to people.
- Spivak 1y ago
  It's funny when people use lobster as an example because it used to be literal bottom tier food served to prisoners. So I hope we can do at least as good as the lobster truck.
  - BriggyDwiggs42 1y ago
    I guess I have weird cultural connotations then lol, but my point stands for whatever is expensive to produce.
- mrguyorama 1y ago
  >We probably shouldn’t have the government lobster truck that comes by and gives everybody a fresh lobster Here in Maine, fresh lobster has frequently in a retail store been cheaper than ground beef per pound. Sometimes by as much as half the price. Our industry was catching far too much, and had frequent price problems until we started selling it to China. You can buy lobster on EBT. Remember that a significant portion of the goal of Food Stamps is to be a subsidy to food producers. Maine's lobster industry benefits from that subsidy. In a similar way, Susan Collins once made the US federal government buy tons of Maine blueberries for school lunch programs to improve pricing during a high yield year. Lobster is a rare luxury in Colorado for sure, but in some coastal states it is downright abundant. If you live near a fishing community, lobster is like $2 per giant bucket, not pound. Its luxury is mostly artificial and marketing. Food deserts are a huge problem, but they are not caused by Food Stamps. Food deserts are caused by the same thing as nearly every bad thing that affects poor people in the USA: that we allowed businesses to M&A themselves into massive conglomerates that get more rights than god and more influence and power than most countries. Places that used to have local grocers or IGAs lost them because the wealthier members of the poor community could drive an hour away to the Walmart. The IGA didn't lose all its business, but enough to make it nonviable. Oh that's just free market competition! Walmart was able to lower prices and collect more business by being efficient! Are we actually better off driving an hour away to grocery shop at Walmart? Doesn't matter, Americans lost so much purchasing power that they almost didn't have a choice. Nearly all extra dollars our economy has generated since 1970ish have gone to a tiny group of connected people. Nobody could afford the local IGA anymore, because America stopped letting normal people make money. Whats worse, there are now companies like Dollar General and their entire business strategy is dropping into those communities that no longer have a local grocery store and extracting what little remaining wealth that community has to some corporate headquarters and CEO that lives 2000 miles away. It's impossible for rural towns and small communities to exist when every dollar they spend goes out of that economy. You need to provide room in the economy for small players who don't have such """efficient""" operations because they hire locally, buy locally, work locally, etc. But it doesn't matter that they are "less efficient" because that money will cycle through that local economy and enable multiple people to actually live. None of this is new. America has had successful businesses try to own the entire market its whole existence. Each and every time we had to break them up, and we eventually decided to police the process of Mergers entirely to just stop the problem before it hurt people. But then Reagan insisted we should just.... not do that? So of course, now we have the expected problem and a stupidly inefficient market. Letting a company like Google or Facebook buy everyone and anyone who might choose to compete with them later is a market failure.
Spivak 1y ago
Good tasting (for their culture), fresh, nutritious, and calorically dense food available from somewhere at least as convenient as a grocery store. As well as some extra money to afford a few prepared meals and a few 'luxury' food items. The first to encourage socialization (i.e. you can go out with your friends/family without shame) and because life without small joys isn't. That's probably where I would put the floor in order to avoid a population that actively desires my head on a platter.

jsilence 1y ago

Maybe teach zhem how to cook? Much cheaper.

adfm 1y ago

If you're young and without a job, burritos are definitely in your price range; you just have to be willing to make it yourself. It's not hard to get close to that Mission-style burrito with a little patience and buying in bulk. Get an Instant Pot for the beans. There's a ton of recipes for decent beans on YouTube. Make your own salsa; it's not hard. Grate your own cheese (80g/burrito). Most places bulk up their burritos with rice. Use red/spanish/mexican rice, which is super simple to make. Use a 13.5-inch flour tortilla, which can be found at most restaurant supplies or your local mercado. Pro tip: use roasted veggies instead of rice. You can do it!