Let Them Skip Meals: The Cost of a Full Stomach
‘Let them eat cake,’ taken to a whole new level
Have you ever had your card declined for lack of funds?
Have you ever stared at the food in front of you, all $8 worth of it and heard the dreadful sound that tells you that you can’t afford to quiet your growling stomach?
I have. It’s an awful feeling, and years later I still haven’t forgotten the way my stomach twisted with shame and hunger.
I was a student at the time, and my first year of college was roughing me up. It’s a costly endeavour to go to a craft and design school — that ‘starving artist’ trope is no freaking joke!
Thankfully, I was fortunate enough to have both a support structure to lean on, and a close friendship with the owner of the restaurant. It was in the same building as my school lecture hall; the only place to get food anywhere nearby.
Even if I had no funds that morning, I could always count on dinner with my mother, and my friend was more than willing to keep the receipt and let me pay her back for my breakfast when I had the cash.
And you can bet that I did; as soon as my student loan came in, I went back for lunch and brought a friend. She got three sales out of one missed payment, and all was well.
I was lucky. Every single day, millions of people go through this very scenario, but they don’t have the safety net that I had. For them, running out of cash might mean an empty belly all day — if not for the rest of the week.
Call me crazy, but I don’t think people should have to go hungry just because they’re poor.
The basic necessities of life shouldn’t be behind a paywall.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; if society requires you to pay for survival, then it has determined that the poor don’t deserve to live. If you can’t afford to pay your way, you have no value.
The way we look at wealth and money in our culture is why there is no inherent worth in being a person. It all depends on how much you earn.
We here in North America have an unhealthy relationship with money. There is a serious stigma associated with being poor, and having a low-paying job can be more than enough reason for you to be treated as inferior.
Everything has a price tag; food, the roof over your head, medicines and healthcare depending on where you live, all the way down to the leisure activities we do to enjoy the one life that we have.
How many times have I heard someone be admonished that if their job doesn’t pay enough, then they shouldn’t have hobbies? Don’t do the things you enjoy, just get your nose back on that grindstone where it belongs.
Maybe if you manage to strike it rich, then you can go out to dinner or see a movie with your friends. But until then, you’d better not waste your time and money on recreation.
It’s the subject of endless opinion pieces from high-earning businessmen who think they know what we unmotivated lower-class folks need to succeed. We just need to get a side hustle and give up our avocado toast!
In my opinion, this way of thinking is just plain toxic. For one thing, if you’re already working a job then you shouldn’t need to bend over backwards and take on more work just to make ends meet.
A living wage should cover your costs, period.
For another, what about people who physically cannot work? People with severe disabilities for example — where do they fit into the grindset mindset?
And that’s just the adults. Never mind the school lunch debt that children can wind up saddled with.
I can’t really think of a more dystopian idea than that.
In my country of Canada, 2023 was a really rough year. The cost of living rose to such heights that the majority of us were really worried about being able to afford our typical family expenses.
At the end of 2023, nearly seven in ten (69%) Canadians report they are concerned about their ability to absorb any unexpected costs of $1,000 or more. — Ipsos article
Those fears haven’t really abated. The cost of food and basic home supplies is still high. Coupled with a crisis of housing construction and costs, many of us are struggling to get by.
Trump’s tariffs and the trade war are only making things worse.
The situation in the United States is not much better. Price gouging has been especially bad these past few years, and the anecdotal comments I’ve gotten from American friends and family paint a rather grim picture.
The trade war, Trump’s constantly inconstant economic illiteracy and his ability to make enemies out of long-time friends has left America’s people in a pit.
On top of the massive medical debt problems created by their for-profit hospital system — especially with the lingering effects of the pandemic — the average citizen is dealing with a massive financial burden.
But like I said; we worship money in North America. So it’s no surprise that in response to this crushing weight of hardship, the go-to response of those in charge is to blame the poor for their own suffering.
Financial assistence? Oh no, no. We can’t have those lazy good-for-nothings expecting a handout and becoming entitled. Nobody wants to work anymore; we have to keep them there somehow.
For years, we’ve seen commentary extolling the virtues of buying cheaper meals, eschewing lattes and cutting down on streaming services to save money. For years, we’ve seen opinion pieces telling us to cut our budgets and only eat two meals a day.
As if we weren’t already doing that.
As if that will save enough money for people to escape their debt. Take a look at the average debt per person in the United States and then tell me how many months of Netflix subscription savings will get them out of it.
It won’t. But they don’t actually care, they just want people to shut up and accept the way things are. You know — the status quo that benefits the people who already have the money.
In the cruelest irony of all, the wealthy are more likely to abuse the system to squeeze more money out of the government than the average person. By far.
But that’s okay. They’re already rich. They won the game, so they can do whatever they want.
Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy just about anything else.
People fall into poverty for any number of reasons.
Sometimes it’s addiction, sometimes it’s financial abuse, sometimes it’s a sudden divorce or a medical emergency that takes you out of work. People get laid off, companies close down, people fall for scams and get trapped into a cycle of debt.
Some people just happen to be born into poverty. We had good times and bad times when I was a kid, and even in my hand-me-down clothing I knew kids who had it worse than I did.
No matter how it happens, people in poverty are still human beings. Human beings deserve dignity, full stop, no debate.
You can’t say that all people have basic rights, and then deny people the basic necessities of life by attaching a price tag to them. That is a contradiction, and it kills people every single day.
You want to solve homelessness? Make it easier for people to get a home. Don’t tie life-saving shelter to a monthly quota.
You want to solve hunger? Give people the right to a full stomach, and nobody will ever have to choose between feeding themselves and their kids or keeping the heating on in the winter.
The problem that keeps people in the worst of their struggles is not a moral failing on their part. It is the reckless, irresponsible and toxic relationship that we have to our money, and how much more we value the almighty dollar over the worth of a human life.
It’s the fact that we value the number of zeroes in a person’s bank account more than we value who they are, and how they treat their fellow citizens.
If we can change that perspective on how we measure wealth, then we can change everything.
Then maybe people won’t have to skip meals for the sake of an empty wallet.
Solidarity wins.
I've been hungry a few times in my life but it was never for lack of money. Usually it was because of military op tempos and lack of availability. The longest I've been without food was about four days. I've been poor also many times in my life but I always prioritized the basics. Food, clothing and shelter first. Then if I had something left over I could do something else. Mentally, I still operate like this somewhat today, even though I am comfortable. Being really hungry will do that to you. You never forget what sever hunger cramps are like once you've experienced them. You never forget what it's like to wonder if there will be enough money left over to buy groceries after all of the basic bills are paid.
I agree, food security should be at the top of the list for every government around the world. Imagine what that would accomplish?
I agree that until we see this paradigm shift suffering across the 99% in North America, particularly the US, will not improve because the goal is ultimately to keep things as they are. An important stepping stone, imo, is to begin using and assessing metrics that take the full weight of hardship in these 2 countries and relaying this as well as the need for their address in daily discourse between government officials and the general public. The more difficult piece is coming to agreements on where to go and how to get there, but acknowledging and outlining the problem in a way that both the government and the masses understand is vital to meaningful collaboration. It is helpful that other countries have already started this process and are much farther ahead in incorporating this into how their nations operate. One of my favorite news parody teams was discussing this at length a few months back.
https://youtu.be/4ixalL7EcFs?si=LsFzTpTlYRFr9e5h