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What Kind of Poverty?

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Clarissa

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I want to lay to rest, once and for all, the weird fantasies that people keep expressing about imminent starvation in the US. Here is an article listing restaurant meals (and often single menu items) that carry the caloric impact big enough to keep one not just alive but permanently obese. Most of these food items are extraordinarily cheap.

Can we lay to rest these starvation fantasies already? Please? I find them disturbing and offensive. Poverty in the US is not about starvation. But this doesn’t make it less worthy of attention.  This is the poverty of ill health caused by bad food, unhealthy lifestyles, psychological problems, and lack of medical care.

You can’t solve a problem that you refuse to name because you are aiming for greater dramatic effect. 

23 responses to “What Kind of Poverty?”

  1. aglaonika Avatar
    aglaonika

    Starvation fantasies are a part of the popular “Cost of Living Crisis” trademark. The well-fed love drama. Really poor people don’t dare speak about their starvation and plight because they feel ashamed of it.

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    1. Stille (@aperfectbalance) Avatar
      Stille (@aperfectbalance)

      Don’t underestimate the shame-mitigating effects of online anonimity/pseudonimity, though.

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      1. aglaonika Avatar
        aglaonika

        Yes, you are right, I didn’t took into consideration the different effects in the virtual world.

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  2. Jonathan Mayhew Avatar
    Jonathan Mayhew

    People now talk about “risk” of hunger, or “food insecurity,” rather than hunger itself, famine, or starvation. The language has indeed adjusted to the reality, though often at the cost of euphemism. The availability of cheap calories means that poor people tend toward obesity.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Exactly.

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  3. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    I’m probably guilty of some hype there but my focus is broader than the US and tends to include places where food insecurity is more likely.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      There is hunger in the world. But not in developed societies, unless we count the professional dieters.

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  4. Shakti Avatar
    Shakti

    While I don’t see kids with Kwashiorkor bellies or kids pretending to eat bread crumbs dropped in sand, I do see people begging for money for food. Of course it’s not so common or severe that more well off people allot change to give to beggars or walk by shanty towns. I had a family hit me up as I was getting my groceries to the car yesterday.

    My comments on the article specifically:

    I can only see people who are looking to fill up cheaply on calories and who have a problem affording food buying traditional fast food like the meals from Burger King, Sonic and Wendy’s. Everything else, while calorific, is too expensive for them. Yes, $5 would be too expensive for many of them. At one of my jobs, every day I had several people ask me whether the store accepted food stamps. Every day, I had people ask me to spot them change for meals that came to under $3.00

    It’s hard to believe, but there are people who do not have access to functioning stoves, ovens, freezers, fridges and fully equipped pantry like the beautiful home-cooked 2000 calories would require. Some of these vegetables and grains would be exotic to them. Farro, for example.

    Incidentally, the homecooked 2000 calories are the only ones I can see eating and my body not rebelling.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      The failures of the CPS are numerous and tragic, but they are an entirely different subject.

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  5. musteryou Avatar
    musteryou

    Same kind of criticism can be applied when the Yankees complain about their gender wars. It boils down to “some woman took an interest in me but she wasn’t my type, therefore women these days are manipulative and need to be shut down.”

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  6. Jones Avatar
    Jones

    Yes, but I like big butts and I cannot lie. 🙂

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      “Yes, but I like big butts and I cannot lie.”

      • Who doesn’t? 🙂

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  7. Jones Avatar
    Jones

    Seriously, though, I’ve seen Americans with teeth hinting at scurvy, but this was in an “inner-city” setting …

    Most of that food does a horrible job of delivering vitamins B1, B2, B12, C, and D3 in consistent quantities.

    Those pictures make me happy that my basal metabolic rate means that I need to consume roughly 2550 kcal per day just to survive, and that my heavy work rate is around 3300 kcal. While this food might make me miserable, it’s unlikely to make me gain weight in those quantities.

    “I’m not fat, I’m big boned” is actually true here. 🙂

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      ‘Those pictures make me happy that my basal metabolic rate means that I need to consume roughly 2550 kcal per day just to survive”

      • Lucky you. Mine is 1550.

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  8. Z Avatar
    Z

    Where do you see articles / etc. about starvation? 1 in 5 in my state don’t have food every day but it isn’t called starvation, it’s called hunger.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Female bloggers often say that male commenters keep undermining them by constant mistrust, constant requests to prove their every word, constant sly indications that they are incompetent and have no idea what they are talking about.

      This is definitely true in my experience. But in my case, it’s never male commenters who do it.

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      1. el Avatar
        el

        \ This is definitely true in my experience. But in my case, it’s never male commenters who do it.

        But previously you said that your blog readers were great. 😦

        I hope we may disagree without defining it as “constant sly indications that they are incompetent and have no idea what they are talking about.”

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        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          This comment was not directed to you.

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  9. el Avatar
    el

    Hunger is possible. Just recently read an article about Israel which is also a first world country like USA (note that we are talking only about Arabs who are Israeli citizens):

    Rate of child poverty increased 55% in last 15 years
    There was a clear growth from 2006 in the percent of students reporting they have to go to school or even to bed hungry because they have no food at home. This issue is especially prominent among Arab boys (some 37.1 percent).
    The report also found that the more children there are in a family, the larger the rate of poverty.
    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4607850,00.html

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      I already said in this thread that irresponsible parenting is an entirely different issue.

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  10. N G Avatar
    N G

    I think that we have to differentiate between starvation and malnutrition. Toronto has a very large and well organized food bank network for those who can’t afford properly balanced diets. There’s even a food bank for vegans.

    “The Ontario Vegetarian Food Bank’s (OVFB) mission is to engage, inspire and lead Ontarians in creating a hunger free world. We understand that people turn to vegetarianism for many reasons, be it spiritual, health, environmental or ethical. Our aim is to provide not only nutritious food to low income vegetarians but also support and hope.”

    http://www.vegfoodbank.ca/

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      That’s exactly what I’m saying. Bad, low-quality food is the real problem. But nobody is starving or experiencing actual hunger.

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  11. N G Avatar
    N G

    A lot of malnutrition comes from cultural sources. My eldest daughter’s boyfriend who had dinner at Christmas with us comes from up in the mountains of North Carolina where his family who aren’t poor had Mac & Cheese, cornbread and pumpkin pie with Cool Whip for Christmas dinner.

    Check out the video which is a bit over the top but accurate with respect to the food.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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