They pay $34 for burgers.
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@HRCH @mekkaokereke Being French, I found this video enlightening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fopqgLvfv9o(In France, public education has been non-confessional free and mandatory* for both sexes for a century and a half.
* only the schooling part is mandatory: private schools do exist) -
Insane luxury! Decadence! Especially that bit about the person making the burger having a wage where they too might at times... enjoy a burger.
This is insanity.
@futurebird @mekkaokereke I dated someone who owned restaurants and they said at the time that their burger at an upscale bistro-- local beef and short rib, locally baked bun, hand-cut fries-- was a loss-leader. They shared with me a video for restaurateurs (that I can't find right now, youtube sucks) that did a break down of what each $1 in a restaurant goes to pay for and how little goes to the owner. She herself worked 80+ hour weeks but the hours of the were smeared from 7am (deliveries!) to 2am (closing everything out). Not a lifestyle business.
I worked back of house, front of house, and as a barista to get through college and university and have opinions on how food service treats people. -
@PsyChuan @futurebird @mekkaokereke
If eating sawdust is starting to feel too bland,
why not liven it up by adding a few stinging nettles?@benh Untagging the rest because it’s so not the point but stinging nettles (once cooked, which inactivates the chemical weapons) are pretty good food, really, even worth the trouble of gloving up. Spinach-y, decent nutrition. In this scenario they’d all end up an enclosed commons, privatized and sold as a smoothie add-on powder.
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@realtegan the Black Panthers provided free school meals. That was effective. And that was why the government criminalized them. @mekkaokereke
@realtegan since I got your attention, the great singer Chaka Khan was member of the Black Panthers
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@camille @futurebird @mekkaokereke I agree with you, but the flip side is you have to raise taxes broadly on the middle class because of the expense. That's what they do in Scandinavia, but USA federal Democrats are kinda losing their appetite for tax plans that raise taxes not just on the top 0.1%, but the top 20%. The plans from van Hollen and Booker are, sadly, good examples.
We're seeing the consequence of 2024 being the first time in awhile that R's won the working class in the election.
@deskJet95
Well we now have a president *also* arguing for raising taxes. So it is looking like the gang is all here!
@futurebird @mekkaokereke -
@mekkaokereke one of the core lessons of public health is that bureaucracy is _expensive_. The entire “Who should pay what!?” Exercise slows the systems down and costs a ton of money and basically all it produces is spreadsheets that cruel selfish people use to be cruel and selfish, and that crowd can’t wrap their heads around the fact that the other thing that’s great about public services being public services is that it’s cheaper.
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They pay $34 for burgers. Should their fire department service be free? Opening a new fire department in one of NYC's richest neighborhoods has some of America's pettiest journalists asking silly questions in headlines again.

The article acknowledges the fire department analogy, then blows past it.

️The solve for "Sometimes when a service like free childcare is available to all, marginalized communities get squeezed out," is "Address that racism."
It's not "Therefore waste incredible amounts of time and money trying to means test something that society should just make available to all.
"@mekkaokereke If they pay taxes, they pay for preschool . It's better to pay taxes for preschool than for ballrooms or rackets.
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@mekkaokereke
When school lunch programs throw out the "who deserves to get free lunches?" and just provide for every child, the entire program is cheaper due to the lack of an enforcement layer, all children get fed, and children learn more and pay attention better.Being overly concerned that someone might get something they don't "deserve" usually ends up screwing over the ones who need help most.
We're supposed to "promote the general welfare" of the public - not gate-keep who gets help.
@realtegan @mekkaokereke "but then what about all the money wasted feeding rich people??" retort all the rich people, knowing the answer is taxes
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They pay $34 for burgers. Should their fire department service be free? Opening a new fire department in one of NYC's richest neighborhoods has some of America's pettiest journalists asking silly questions in headlines again.

The article acknowledges the fire department analogy, then blows past it.

️The solve for "Sometimes when a service like free childcare is available to all, marginalized communities get squeezed out," is "Address that racism."
It's not "Therefore waste incredible amounts of time and money trying to means test something that society should just make available to all.
"@mekkaokereke I'm just stuck on that $34 isn't all that extreme for a burger in the first place, due to inflation and tarrifs and fuel costs etc. I'm flat out amazed when a diner breakfast is less than $30 at this point.
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They pay $34 for burgers. Should their fire department service be free? Opening a new fire department in one of NYC's richest neighborhoods has some of America's pettiest journalists asking silly questions in headlines again.

The article acknowledges the fire department analogy, then blows past it.

️The solve for "Sometimes when a service like free childcare is available to all, marginalized communities get squeezed out," is "Address that racism."
It's not "Therefore waste incredible amounts of time and money trying to means test something that society should just make available to all.
"“universal child care”
It’s right there in the name … “universal”
If you exclude rich kids it isn’t universal.But once you’ve accepted that some kids aren’t part of “universal” then you have accepted the supremacist frame: that some kids count and others don’t.
It’s a classic bait and switch. Next comes the excuses to exclude poor kids, or black kids, or indian kids, or muslim kids, or whoever they don’t see truly human.
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@futurebird @mekkaokereke means testing is a tax on welfare paid out to bureaucrats. Its mechanical molasses. Its bad
@NocturnalNessa @futurebird @mekkaokereke
It means test the system not the people.

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They pay $34 for burgers. Should their fire department service be free? Opening a new fire department in one of NYC's richest neighborhoods has some of America's pettiest journalists asking silly questions in headlines again.

The article acknowledges the fire department analogy, then blows past it.

️The solve for "Sometimes when a service like free childcare is available to all, marginalized communities get squeezed out," is "Address that racism."
It's not "Therefore waste incredible amounts of time and money trying to means test something that society should just make available to all.
"@mekkaokereke Another angle: What about the children of rich parents who are abused or neglected? The parents may be rich, but that doesn't mean the kids automatically are. What if the parents forget to pay the bill for school lunch? What if they choose not to?
It's not like there aren't high profile cases of ludicrously rich parents who hate their own children.
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They pay $34 for burgers. Should their fire department service be free? Opening a new fire department in one of NYC's richest neighborhoods has some of America's pettiest journalists asking silly questions in headlines again.

The article acknowledges the fire department analogy, then blows past it.

️The solve for "Sometimes when a service like free childcare is available to all, marginalized communities get squeezed out," is "Address that racism."
It's not "Therefore waste incredible amounts of time and money trying to means test something that society should just make available to all.
"@mekkaokereke So the questions about his universal childcare plan are raised by the fact that he actually meant universal childcare when he said it, is that right? Oh noes, a politician who means what he says.
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@rlonstein @futurebird @mekkaokereke Right. When I get food at teh food co-op, I like what I am paying for.
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They pay $34 for burgers. Should their fire department service be free? Opening a new fire department in one of NYC's richest neighborhoods has some of America's pettiest journalists asking silly questions in headlines again.

The article acknowledges the fire department analogy, then blows past it.

️The solve for "Sometimes when a service like free childcare is available to all, marginalized communities get squeezed out," is "Address that racism."
It's not "Therefore waste incredible amounts of time and money trying to means test something that society should just make available to all.
"@mekkaokereke strange that the answer is never, just make sure the rich pay fair taxes so everyone can have access to a standard level of services and expensive means testing is no longer needed.
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@mekkaokereke So the questions about his universal childcare plan are raised by the fact that he actually meant universal childcare when he said it, is that right? Oh noes, a politician who means what he says.
@mekkaokereke I mean, the correct answer to this question should be: "Yes, they're rich, but they also pay more than enough taxes to make good for it", and the true question is why it isn't.
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They pay $34 for burgers. Should their fire department service be free? Opening a new fire department in one of NYC's richest neighborhoods has some of America's pettiest journalists asking silly questions in headlines again.

The article acknowledges the fire department analogy, then blows past it.

️The solve for "Sometimes when a service like free childcare is available to all, marginalized communities get squeezed out," is "Address that racism."
It's not "Therefore waste incredible amounts of time and money trying to means test something that society should just make available to all.
"@mekkaokereke
Just make sure they pay more tax -
@realtegan @mekkaokereke "but then what about all the money wasted feeding rich people??" retort all the rich people, knowing the answer is taxes
@Yza @realtegan @mekkaokereke like most rich people wouldn't instantly get snobby about taking it and start conspicuously consuming something else to distance from it
also like... as if the rich don't already take far more from public funds anyway. drop in the ocean, well worth it for helping everyone
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“universal child care”
It’s right there in the name … “universal”
If you exclude rich kids it isn’t universal.But once you’ve accepted that some kids aren’t part of “universal” then you have accepted the supremacist frame: that some kids count and others don’t.
It’s a classic bait and switch. Next comes the excuses to exclude poor kids, or black kids, or indian kids, or muslim kids, or whoever they don’t see truly human.
@DavidM_yeg
Food is not a privilege.The implications of teaching anything else to kids are really scary.
I mean what ignorant adult would teach our kids that food is a privilege and then grow old and feeble and become a burden on society
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At this point I respond to this stuff with. "It's not gonna work. We're still raising your taxes. Frankly, I'd do it and burn the money at this point."
@futurebird
Taxes literally are burning money, thats what they are. Govt Spending creates money, taxes burn it up so as to prevent hoarding and inflation. #mmt
@mekkaokereke
