4 ms·

I hear this kind of argument all the time and I don't buy it at all. How do poor people have less time to cook than well off people? We all work the same hours.

by marrs 13y ago

I hear this kind of argument all the time and I don't buy it at all. How do poor people have less time to cook than well off people? We all work the same hours. Pasta costs next to nothing, as does rice, as do beans. Veg and dairy are a bit more but still cheap by any standards. Cigarettes and alcohol, on the other hand, are expensive. As is running a car, or going to McDonalds. So maybe try subsidising your meals by smoking less, or drinking less, or eating out less, or walking more.

Killah911 13y ago
Perhaps they should just eat cake... "We all work the same hours" I'm sure you work 2-3 jobs at minimum wage to keep things going and rent paid. The dollar menu at McDonalds looks a lot more attractive than cooking when you've barely got money for food or the time to prepare it. Eating well is relatively Expensive. Sure you can cut out the car and carbs and obviously all poor people have their liquor and smoke money set aside... Or maybe poverty is a bit more complex than your overly simplistic and a bit dickish analysis... Just let them eat cake (Preferably gluten free)...
herge 13y ago
Man, you need to adjust your privileged-lifestyle viewpoint. Ever try to buy groceries without a car? How much time would you add to your day if you had to take the bus from work to the supermarket, and then the bus back to your house. A 15 minute 2 stop car trip becomes an hour+ with all the waiting, shuffling to and from the bus stop, etc. Also, ever notice how those big supermarkets with the cheap prices aren't really present in poor neighbourhoods? All you can find are cheap bodegas and convenience stores in those neighbourhoods. Finally, a lot of poor people have 2 jobs or try to get as much overtime as they can to supplement their income, so 'We all work the same hours.' is a bit of a fallacy.
- marrs 13y ago
  Yeah, I've tried to do all those things. And no, I haven't noticed that I can't go to town and by fresh fruit and veg from the market or supermarket for less than a 4-pack. Finally, a lot of poor people have 2 jobs or try to get as much overtime as they can to supplement their income, so 'We all work the same hours.' is a bit of a fallacy. Yeah, whatever. Plenty of my friends seem to manage just fine. I managed just fine back in the day.
apendleton 13y ago
> I hear this kind of argument all the time and I don't buy it at all. How do poor people have less time to cook than well off people? We all work the same hours. This is almost undoubtedly false. 40 hours at the federal minimum wage doesn't come anywhere close to providing a livable income, particularly if the person is supporting a family; many low-income workers work multiple jobs.
syntheticnature 13y ago
All work the same hours? Not if you're working two part-time jobs because that's what you can get. Not to mention the difference in commute time between owning a car versus taking a bus and walking in many areas. It takes me fifteen minutes to get to work; if I took the available buses it would be nearly three hours each way. (We'll leave aside whether cheap pasta and rice are actually healthy eating.)
mseebach 13y ago
A better word than "time" is probably energy. Also, the GP added skills and money to the list. To make good food on the cheap, you need a bit of equipment and you need an upfront investment in spices and staples, all of which are significantly cheaper in the long run in bulk. Besides the investment, you need to plan long term, something the poor often struggle with (being poor is rarely only a question of lacking money). With that in mind, it's pretty naïve to expect banning marketing to achieve much improvement in poor people's diets.
- bryanlarsen 13y ago
  We've known for a while that there's a correlation between lack of planning and poverty. It's always been assumed that the lack of planning skills causes poverty, but recent studies are starting to show that it's often the other way around: poverty causes a huge amount of stress, which significantly limits the ability of a person to plan well.
gliese1337 13y ago
How do poor people have less time to cook than well off people? We all work the same hours. No, we don't all work the same hours. Maybe you're one of those hackers who works 80-hour weeks by choice, but even then, there's a big difference between working 80 hours because you can, and needing to work 60-80 hours at 2 or 3 different minimum-wage jobs (unlike most people) to make enough to get by. But not all poor people are like that, so what about the ones who have jobs with regular full-time hours, or less than full-time? Well, a lot of their time might be spent looking for another job, or some other way to supplement their income, that you, with your good income, don't have to worry about. That's time they can't spend cooking or thinking about how to cook well. And if they can't afford a car? Walking to whatever job they have, which you apparently think would be an unadulterated good for them, probably takes a lot longer than driving would- less time to cook or eat well. And in bad weather it may be impossible, meaning that they have to take public transportation, because that's all they can afford right now, even though it's more expensive that owning a car in the long run- again, less money they can spend on food, and still less time than if they had their own vehicle. And add to all of that the psychological toll of knowing that you in poverty and exercising the willpower to deal with all of the above problems and others that come with poverty, and it's freakin' hard to find both the time and mental energy to figure out how to eat both healthy and cheap.

by marrs 13y ago

Killah911 13y ago

Perhaps they should just eat cake... "We all work the same hours" I'm sure you work 2-3 jobs at minimum wage to keep things going and rent paid. The dollar menu at McDonalds looks a lot more attractive than cooking when you've barely got money for food or the time to prepare it. Eating well is relatively Expensive. Sure you can cut out the car and carbs and obviously all poor people have their liquor and smoke money set aside... Or maybe poverty is a bit more complex than your overly simplistic and a bit dickish analysis... Just let them eat cake (Preferably gluten free)...

herge 13y ago

Man, you need to adjust your privileged-lifestyle viewpoint. Ever try to buy groceries without a car? How much time would you add to your day if you had to take the bus from work to the supermarket, and then the bus back to your house. A 15 minute 2 stop car trip becomes an hour+ with all the waiting, shuffling to and from the bus stop, etc. Also, ever notice how those big supermarkets with the cheap prices aren't really present in poor neighbourhoods? All you can find are cheap bodegas and convenience stores in those neighbourhoods. Finally, a lot of poor people have 2 jobs or try to get as much overtime as they can to supplement their income, so 'We all work the same hours.' is a bit of a fallacy.

marrs 13y ago
Yeah, I've tried to do all those things. And no, I haven't noticed that I can't go to town and by fresh fruit and veg from the market or supermarket for less than a 4-pack. Finally, a lot of poor people have 2 jobs or try to get as much overtime as they can to supplement their income, so 'We all work the same hours.' is a bit of a fallacy. Yeah, whatever. Plenty of my friends seem to manage just fine. I managed just fine back in the day.

apendleton 13y ago

> I hear this kind of argument all the time and I don't buy it at all. How do poor people have less time to cook than well off people? We all work the same hours. This is almost undoubtedly false. 40 hours at the federal minimum wage doesn't come anywhere close to providing a livable income, particularly if the person is supporting a family; many low-income workers work multiple jobs.

syntheticnature 13y ago

All work the same hours? Not if you're working two part-time jobs because that's what you can get. Not to mention the difference in commute time between owning a car versus taking a bus and walking in many areas. It takes me fifteen minutes to get to work; if I took the available buses it would be nearly three hours each way. (We'll leave aside whether cheap pasta and rice are actually healthy eating.)

mseebach 13y ago

A better word than "time" is probably energy. Also, the GP added skills and money to the list. To make good food on the cheap, you need a bit of equipment and you need an upfront investment in spices and staples, all of which are significantly cheaper in the long run in bulk. Besides the investment, you need to plan long term, something the poor often struggle with (being poor is rarely only a question of lacking money). With that in mind, it's pretty naïve to expect banning marketing to achieve much improvement in poor people's diets.

bryanlarsen 13y ago
We've known for a while that there's a correlation between lack of planning and poverty. It's always been assumed that the lack of planning skills causes poverty, but recent studies are starting to show that it's often the other way around: poverty causes a huge amount of stress, which significantly limits the ability of a person to plan well.

gliese1337 13y ago

How do poor people have less time to cook than well off people? We all work the same hours. No, we don't all work the same hours. Maybe you're one of those hackers who works 80-hour weeks by choice, but even then, there's a big difference between working 80 hours because you can, and needing to work 60-80 hours at 2 or 3 different minimum-wage jobs (unlike most people) to make enough to get by. But not all poor people are like that, so what about the ones who have jobs with regular full-time hours, or less than full-time? Well, a lot of their time might be spent looking for another job, or some other way to supplement their income, that you, with your good income, don't have to worry about. That's time they can't spend cooking or thinking about how to cook well. And if they can't afford a car? Walking to whatever job they have, which you apparently think would be an unadulterated good for them, probably takes a lot longer than driving would- less time to cook or eat well. And in bad weather it may be impossible, meaning that they have to take public transportation, because that's all they can afford right now, even though it's more expensive that owning a car in the long run- again, less money they can spend on food, and still less time than if they had their own vehicle. And add to all of that the psychological toll of knowing that you in poverty and exercising the willpower to deal with all of the above problems and others that come with poverty, and it's freakin' hard to find both the time and mental energy to figure out how to eat both healthy and cheap.