They pay $34 for burgers.
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@futurebird
Medicare for ALL
Housing for ALL
Healthcare for ALL
Education for ALL
Food for ALL
Pricey Burgers (from time to time) for ALLProgressive taxation and regulations that ensure good living wages are the right ways to deal with income inequality NOT withholding services from people because they are "too rich" to get them.
@camille @futurebird @mekkaokereke I worked with a corporate attorney who was losing her eyesight, and she was awarded SSDI at the hearing stage. Between her and her husband, I reckon their wealth was around $10 million. Family of four.
Clearly, she didn't need SSDI.
Yes, ensure the health and well being (housing, school, wages, etc.) for all, w/o means testing.
But the point is that while I do not favor means testing, the wealthy should not available themselves of these public goods.
Because they do not need them.
This is economic efficiency on the one hand, and compassion on the other.
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Now why exactly is a $34 burger incompatible with having excellent public services your pay for with taxes?
Schools aren't charity operations, this isn't a band-aid for the desperate. It's something people should look from other cities at and say "I wish my city had that"
Drop of your kids and trust they are safe AND learning while you are at work. Pick them up and have a $34 burger AND avocado toast. Let's live well together.
This must scare them to death.
@futurebird @mekkaokereke well, yeah; if the servant class isn't constantly under the kind of pressure that makes them submit to the authority of extreme wealth, then, from the perspective of the ruling class, extreme wealth loses some of its value (even if their purchasing power goes up).
(fwiw, a quick googling of "${nyt_board_member} net worth" suggests they're not billionaires, but like 8 to 9 figures, so still pretty comfortable. it seems as if it's just a rag by the rich, for the rich.)
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@mekkaokereke I love how we in this country love minding everyone's business but our own. Fuck means testing.
@silver_huskey @mekkaokereke I think that's what you get when the founding culture was that of fun-hating Puritans.
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@silver_huskey @mekkaokereke I think that's what you get when the founding culture was that of fun-hating Puritans.
@klausfiend @mekkaokereke Absolutely! We've been this way for literally centuries. Pulling people out of that thinking has been a constant tug of war.
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@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.
@mhoye @mekkaokereke The efficiency experts can't conceive of themselves as a cost center. -
Trying to carve out a "special" class who are entitled to school lunch has always been a foolish approach that just adds layers of expensive policing that INEVITABLY wind up costing more than they save, and preventing some number of eligible students from getting serviced.
Unfortunately, some people are always more focused on the remote or insignificant risk of cheaters, than they are on make sure that they are servicing those who need it
Just make it free to all
@screwturn this.
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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@hachyderm.io I mean, what do they think Mamdani should build there? A Turkish embassy?
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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 that type of framing assumes that rich families must be happy and healthy. My parents struggled but made just enough money, yet I went without food so much because of their abusive behavior. How many kids could be helped when _everyone_ gets child care and lunch?
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@camille @futurebird @mekkaokereke I worked with a corporate attorney who was losing her eyesight, and she was awarded SSDI at the hearing stage. Between her and her husband, I reckon their wealth was around $10 million. Family of four.
Clearly, she didn't need SSDI.
Yes, ensure the health and well being (housing, school, wages, etc.) for all, w/o means testing.
But the point is that while I do not favor means testing, the wealthy should not available themselves of these public goods.
Because they do not need them.
This is economic efficiency on the one hand, and compassion on the other.
@Bartok
I say tax them higher or means test/sliding scale. I am NOT in favor of shutting anyone out NOR am I in favor of just not having it for fear a rich person gets access. If everyone gets it, everyone gets it. I don't care what rich people have if ny needs are more than covered.Also that person paid their SSDI contributions. Fair is fair. I like fairness.
@futurebird @mekkaokereke -
@heathen_cat @mekkaokereke exactly! My mom had me on my first diet at age 10. And it took me a looooong time as an adult to learn I actually do like grapefruit.
In high school, a family friend (I called her "aunt" but we weren't related) worked in the cafeteria, and she would often sneak me soup or a sandwich. It was sometimes the only time I ate in the day.
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