this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2024
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Today I Learned

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 month ago

No. Not even close to OK. There are examples of light in the darkness, such as Tim Walz (Kamala Harris' running mate) who as the governor of Minnesota enacted a law to make school lunches free for all. Kids don't get to decide who they are born to, and hungry kids don't learn nearly as well as fed kids. Educated kids help our future, so it's an extremely high ROI.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Americans getting pissed off at Europeans constantly making fun of them... And yet I'm still learning more ridiculous bullshit about that country.

Jesus christ, what a sad joke.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

We get pissed off because we don't have socialized medicine for those burns.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

But you don't understand, we have happy billionaires! That's all that really matters in life. Children can fuck off, billionaires is where it's at.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

No, sadly they actually aren't happy. There's still money out there that isn't in their bank account. It drives them insane knowing "their" money is still in someone else's bank account.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

It drives billionaires insane know that they are losing at the imaginary numbers game.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

The average quality of life is quite high! Hmm didn't Twain say something about this situation…

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wait wait wait, waaaaaaait a fucking minute, this is done by the school itself, as in the bloody adults running the goddamn thing?

Holy hell

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It's disgusting. When my son was very young, my wife and I struggled to make ends meet, and got behind on his school lunch payments (I still can't believe that's even a thing). The lunch lady at his school would lecture him about how much we owed, and how he shouldn't get to eat for free just because we were lazy or whatever. He'd come home thinking he was in trouble. America hates poor people.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

As a Canadian, I'm like:

You guys are getting paid? blank meme

You guys are getting food?

(School cafeterias with food service beyond selling terrible premade sandwiches for people who forgot their lunch are rare below college level and AFAIK what few exist all operate like a fast-food restaurant, where everyone pays for their meal then and there.)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

In Russia, certain groups of kids (children of low-income parents, of families with 3+ kids, orphans) receive a special ticket, one per day, allowing them to have a school lunch for free.

Sometimes they share unused ones (tickets don't have names on them), which practically guarantees there's a bunch of kids on their side - everyone wants free lunch.

And generally it was more of a thing to flash, not something to be shamed for.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

This isn't unique to America. It happens across Europe too.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

When I was in school the less well-off kids got their lunch free. There was definitely no equivalent to a "marker" the linked article mentions, unless you include the lunch ticket. I was actually kind of jealous at the time, I didn't understand why I had to pay when I didn't bring my own lunch and they didn't.

Singling out kids because their parents can't afford food is kind of fucked up.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

It's been a while since I was in school, but my wife is a teacher here in the UK. The packed lunch area was often where the poor kids were, and we also had issues where (in their infinite wisdom) the school gave kids on free school meals a special card to get a specific meal (and nothing more). They may as well have stamped "bully me" on their foreheads.

Nowadays, schools are smart enough to use prepaid card systems where free school meals are preloaded on the same cards. My wife's old school used to put the same restrictions, but now it's far harder to determine who gets the free meals.

The packed lunch crowd does still get a lot of scrutiny, though, especially those that shop in "less favourable" stores. Buy your lunch from farmfoods and you're asking to be picked on. It's fucked up, and social media has made things SO much worse, but ultimately kids are often extremely cruel.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I've been across Europe. Gone to school in Ireland, The Netherlands, France, Sweden, and Denmark. I have NEVER seen this.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This definitely happens in France and the UK. I saw the latter first hand.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I have a little brother and little sister who still go to school in France. I'll ask them about it.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Does it look like we're ok?

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ffs America. You can just provide a service, not everything has to turn a profit.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Hol’ up, that sounds like communism.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

See what you’ve done there is confuse a system of governance with compassion and humanity.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

“Compassion” and “humanity”. What’s that? More communism?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It’s giving a damn about people and their loved one’s well being and standard of living, rather than seeing them as unworthy burdens on society.

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

…and I’ll mine their labour for profit before casting them back into their slums.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

(my posts were being ironic, sorry if you thought i was being sincere)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

It’s cool, I knew. I’m from a nation that both recognises and appreciates sarcasm. And basic human rights.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 month ago (1 children)

From Texas. When I was in elementary school circa 2000, we had a running balance that our parents could contribute to via written checks.

My parents were going through a divorce back then, and in the pinging back and forth between my parents houses, it always gave me so much anxiety buying lunch at school. You wouldn't know if your account could cover what you picked up in the lunch line until you got to the cashier at the end. AND if it couldn't, they would literally take all of the food you put on your tray and give you a PB&J sandwich.

Having elementary school kids keep up with their balances was tough, and even when I did remember, if I were with my dad, he would refuse to give lunch money to my sister and me because "that's what child support is for."

It just sucked all around and made me feel like the smallest human on earth. And I know that this experience here was not unique to me.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

Sounds like a real class act. I bet he still doesn't know why he couldn't make his marriage work.

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