It might be but a lot of people don’t have the time.
The real problem is not that people on low incomes don’t know how to budget, or how to cook, it’s that rich mostly white politicians have no idea how their lives work.
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Really? How long does it take to put dried beans in a saucepan, add water and leave to soak overnight?
Buy a tin, eat the contents, go back to the supermarket to buy another tin, eat, go back to the supermarket buy another tin. Buy a sack of beans and they will last weeks, save time and petrol going too from the supermarket.
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But you need money to bulk buy and you also need a means of transport to cart your bulk bought stuff home, then you must store it and have space to prepare it etc. All difficult if you are really poor.
I can cook very cheaply indeed BUT I buy my rice in 20kg sacks and I don’t think there’s anything I get in smaller than 5kg bags or 5 litre bottles - I buy 480 loo rolls 2x a year when they do the packs of 96 rolls at knockdown prices etc but if you are super poor you can’t do that and so you end up spending more for the same stuff. And it costs you more time and effort and is depressing.
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The trouble is, all this has gone so far off track with people trying to outdo each other over how they could live for 20p a day and make a meal for 6p, that I think the big point is being glossed over that no one should have to. Who gives a flying fig if you can soak some beans overnight and make a week’s meals for half a shilling when the entire point is how horrifically the poorest in society are being treated that they’re having to make meals at 30p a portion or something. We seem to have lost sight of the horrendous thing this entitled man whose entire lifestyle is thanks to taxpayers money lecturing the poor about how they should, well soak some beans and lentils and make what sounds like the worst chilli I’ve ever heard lol. We should be ensuring the poorest people in society have enough to be able to create proper nutritious meals, not allowing them 10centimes of carrot and onions and warming porridge in a hay box like they’re an Amish person in 1850s America. Just because you can make a terrible sounding meal for 30ppp doesn’t mean you should have to.
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Agree totally.
In fact the reason that I tried to see if I could suggest ingredients for a 30p meal was largely to show how uninspiring it would be - and if you had to feed yourself for £10 a week (actually a bit more than 30p per meal) your menu would be very monotonous and not that tasty. No-one would manage that for very long without longing for some variety.
The sad thing is that we grow enough food to eradicate hunger but still have billions without food security.
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But are we talking Pounds and pence or Euros and centimes ?
As I said earlier….
And of course no one should have to, but it can be a good reminder.
100% - limited incomes are often paid weekly, pre-paid electricity meters cost more, not being able to buy in bulk increases item prices.
Pratchett understood this
Why can’t politicians?
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So now we come to an interesting question - should people be allowed to be poor?
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I’ll answer your question with another question. What exactly is freedom?
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Wow! That’s a can of worms for this hour in the morning.
Personally I’m looking forward to @Geof_Cox reply, should be a good read!
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If it’s a choice they make freely. So I exclude cults that brainwash people into handing over everything they have.
Do people make a choice to be poor?
People do not choose to be poor
To clarify: Some people might chose a non-materialistic life style, no-one chooses to have too few resources to house and feed themselves.
That said @billybutcher (and I don’t entirely disagree with you) people make life choices not to improve their lot - is that choosing to be poor when they might have the skills/ability to improve?
Its not unknown for people to spend 70 quid a week on fags and then complain they can’t afford to feed the family
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This has been discussed I think - “the feckless poor” is mostly a RW myth.
Also I think it depends on how you define poor. Poor to one person could be perfectly acceptable and normal to others.
As a matter of interest I googled the definition and this was the first definition that came up:
‘lacking sufficient money to live at a standard considered comfortable or normal in a society.’
And I think that’s even open to alot of interpretation. Personally, I would say my definition of poor would be not having sufficient means to provide the basic necessities of food and shelter. Not being able to afford the sky subscription doesn’t make you poor.
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Being poor… being rich… each is a “moveable feast” as you suggest and very difficult to pin-down to everyone’s satisfaction.
From my point of view…
Being rich is “being content with what one has” which means I’m rich.
Being poor is “being hungry/cold/illshod/illclothed etc” with no means (or insufficient means) to rectify the situation
EDIT: of course the mega-rich who have billions… that’s another galaxy altogether and I like to think/hope that they do their bit to help the unfortunate.
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