| And yet, to an amazing extent, they aren't. If you look back in 200 years, poor people starving to death was simply an accepted fact of life. Today, poor people get fat. Do their lives suck? Absolutely! Just look at the craziness around housing. But in terms of resources per person available to the poor? Very few of us realize how good we've got it. The extreme poverty line has remained essentially the same (adjusted for inflation) for a few decades. Projecting backwards in time, most people in every country used to be in extreme poverty. We are on track to eliminating extreme poverty within our lifetimes. They've adjusted the poverty line upwards. But just watch, life keeps on improving. |
| |
| ▲ | btilly 4 days ago | parent [-] | | No, people in extreme poverty are not getting fat. But poor people do in great numbers in many countries. For example there are many obese Americans on food stamps. Thanks to social services, the number of Americans who are in extreme poverty is approximately zero. When I compare to history, I far prefer this state of affairs to what used to be the norm. | | |
| ▲ | JoachimSchipper 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | | You're commenting on an article about people consuming less than $3/day; Americans on food stamps (SNAP appears to be about $4-6/day alone, not counting any other benefits) are a distraction, simply not part of the population that the article is discussing. | | |
| ▲ | cwmoore 4 days ago | parent [-] | | So $10/day for 8.2B people is only $30 trillion a year. Tax the bots for UBI. AGI could make that in a weekend. |
| |
| ▲ | anxoo 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | >Thanks to social services, the number of Americans who are in extreme poverty is approximately zero. or 4.19 million, if you wanted to spend 2 minutes and look up [the source](https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/poverty-explorer?tab=li...) actually listed in the main article | |
| ▲ | dartharva 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > Thanks to social services, the number of Americans who are in extreme poverty is approximately zero. I wish I could make myself have such confidence in any government entity as much as you seem to have in US social services | |
| ▲ | s5300 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | [dead] | |
| ▲ | FirmwareBurner 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | >For example there are many obese Americans on food stamps. All of their own fault. I recently saw a youtube compilation of tiktok clips of Americans on food stamps making videos flaunting their overfull supermarket shopping carts and it was all name brand junk food made up of refined carbs, fats and sugars, and to no ones surprise, they were all obese. No vegetables, no fruits, no leafy greens, no legumes, but all junk food which costs more than the healthy stuff. Who's fault is that? At what point is personal accountability supposed to kick in? If you can afford a roof over your head, a car, and entire shopping carts full of name brand junk food(which is more expensive than healthy food) to make yourself obese, you are anything but poor, you are just stupid and glutenous. Edit: I see the downvotes, but notice nobody is saying that I am wrong? ;) So then we agree that I'm right. | | |
| ▲ | BriggyDwiggs42 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | | You’re being deliberately incendiary and you’re saying like the simplest thing. Why might they be buying trash food? Why didn’t their parents teach them not to? Why is the shit food so addictive? Is it, perhaps, the cheapest way to get something tasty? Maybe there are underlying social problems, and that’s more interesting to discuss than “poor people are stupid and gluttonous.” | | |
| ▲ | FirmwareBurner 4 days ago | parent [-] | | >You’re being deliberately incendiary Which part was "incendiary"? >you’re saying like the simplest thing The truth is often simple, people are just too scared to confront it. So they call it "incendiary". >Is it, perhaps, the cheapest way to get something tasty? Healthy food is also tasty and cheaper than highly processed junk food. But it's easier to blame externalities than take accountability. >Maybe there are underlying social problems, and that’s more interesting to discuss than “poor people are stupid and gluttonous.” Why aren't poor people in poorer countries fat despite suffering even bigger social issue like war, slavery, rapes and famine? | | |
| ▲ | BriggyDwiggs42 3 days ago | parent [-] | | Companies make tons of shit food that’s as cheap or cheaper than healthy things, while requiring no know-how or effort to prepare, and constantly bombard people with messaging telling them to buy it. Meanwhile people are overworked with less time and energy to prepare food. People aren’t raised to be considerate about the food they eat; many parents don’t teach their kids to cook and feed them tons of junk growing up. Of course under those circumstances a large portion of people eat shitty. Fix that stuff and they won’t eat shitty and get fat. It’s useless to blame them without suggesting actual fixes. >Why aren't poor people in poorer countries fat despite suffering even bigger social issue like war, slavery, rapes and famine? Famine | | |
| ▲ | FirmwareBurner 3 days ago | parent [-] | | >with less time and energy to prepare food People on food stamps have a lot of free time. | | |
| ▲ | BriggyDwiggs42 3 days ago | parent [-] | | Prove it. https://www.cbpp.org/research/most-working-age-snap-particip... >Over half of individuals who were participating in SNAP in a typical month in mid-2012 were working in that month. Let’s be generous and say that the other half have a lot of free time (they don’t, many are searching for a job while taking care of a family), and that the tiktok you saw only showed that other half. The parts of my comment you didn’t respond to may still be the explanation, rather than the sheer gluttony of the poor or something. |
|
|
|
| |
| ▲ | lovich 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | > name brand junk food(which is more expensive than healthy food) Do you think a banana is 10 dollars too? Grains and bread are cheaper. Rotisserie chickens sold as loss leaders are a cheap source of meat. But fruits and vegetables? Those are more expensive per calorie than junk food. Especially when you take into account spoilage > Edit: I see the downvotes, but notice nobody is saying that I am wrong? ;) So then we agree that I'm right. No we do not agree. You’re incorrect and vindictive about it |
|
|
|
