Reply #149: Yes, my life is much better [View All]

[wickerwoman]

and has been for some time. And I'm actually quite glad that I went through that period in my life because it's given me a lot more humility and gratitude for the things I have now.

I think American society is structured in a way that pretty much guarantees that people living on the margins will be fat and malnourished. (With the exception of some remarkable people, who I think need to be acknowledged as the exception rather than the rule). People live way too far away from their work because there is no low-income housing available close by. Nobody should have hour and a half long commutes. That's easy to fix- build low-income housing closer to industrial centers. And public transportation in America is absolutely disgraceful. Find me another country in the world where you have to wait an hour for a bus in a major metropolitan area (as you do in Seattle and large parts of New Jersey). I also think it would help for the government to give major tax incentives to small grocery stores in urban areas and to inspect the hell out of "ghetto" grocery stores. It would also help if the government reduced subsidies on sugar, corn and beef and used that money to subsidize transportation of fresh produce into impoverished urban areas.

I'd love to see something like a school lunch program in American companies. It's part of the "noblesse oblige" corporate culture of China that they provide free meals to employees. They are delivered hot at dinner time by local restaurants. I think something like that would go a long way towards making poor workers lives easier, but I'm not holding my breath.

I do accept responsiblity for what I put in my mouth, but I think there are times and situations where people's lives are completely out of control and therefore their eating is too. To say that people in those situations are "lazy" seems to me to be cruel. There are about a million things we can do to make sure people's lives (and eating) don't get so completely out of hand. (I had more but I have to get back to work- I'll check in tomorrow :-) )