this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2025
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A Boring Dystopia

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[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 15 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Sounds like a fly-over shit hole state to me.

[–] Deflated0ne@lemmy.world 16 points 6 days ago

This sounds like a great way to generate a different headline,

"Local man kills 4 in attack of school board meeting after losing his children over school lunch debt"

I don't think there's any other country in the world that has such policies.

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 13 points 6 days ago (3 children)

If you want to look at this situation from an economic point of view ..... what's cheaper?

Pay a kids lunch every day for about 12-14 years .... and for a growing kid, the price wouldn't be that much, especially if you are paying in bulk amounts for hundreds or thousands of kids.

or

Don't pay their lunch, let the parents go into debt, take the kids into foster care .... now you as the government have to pay for legal expenses to take the kid away, expenses to have police and social service workers to do the work, foster expenses to house the kid and care for them (now you are having to pay for every single meal for them for years), give up the kid once they become of age and go out on their own after foster care as a disillusioned, angry and frustrated young man or woman who will more than likely end up on the street dealing drugs, crime or prostitution ... who will then grow up causing or contributing to crime and increasing the costs of police, legal, emergency health care, security and penitentiary .... and chances are they will have children who will end up at school not being able to pay for their lunch

....

If you pay to help the kid when they are young, there is more of a chance they will grow up to be a contributing healthy member of society. If you don't they will become a lifelong burden on society and cause endless expenses that will be far more money than any school lunches you could have bought when they were ten years old.

[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

If you pay to help the kid when they are young, there is more of a chance they will grow up to be a contributing healthy member of society.

Those in power do not want a contributing healthy member of society. They want malleable, docile workers that will do as they’re told and not challenge the system.

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[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 6 days ago (1 children)

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/20/us/pennsylvania-school-lunch-debt-trnd

Unless this is happening again, this story is from 2019. Still bad, just not recent

[–] Sludgehammer@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago

Yeah, it's from 2019. The original article the bitly link went to is gone but it's still on archive

[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago (7 children)

If every American learned what citizens in other 1st world countries have that we don't, there would be a revolution tomorrow.

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[–] 21Cabbage@lemmynsfw.com 7 points 6 days ago

Grew up with lunch debt as a kid and that headline boils my blood in ways I probably shouldn't say out loud.

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

America, the only country where they think they could not be any more selfish.

[–] Cocopanda@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago

I’m from this region of Pennsylvania. Abuse and bullying is protected by the culture of this region. The sheriff’s office has done mass murders against strikers in the coal fields. 1860’s I believe. This guy stepped down. But his sentiment carries far in the community. It’s a bigoted hate filled hole.

A literal gun cult is financing far right radicals into local politics. A hate group is trying to force schools to out children who say they are gay. And YouTube protects their account where they post hours of hate content.

I worked with the president of the group before. He was fired from his job because he was accused of stealing $15,000.

[–] Spitfire@pawb.social 7 points 6 days ago

Unfortunately nothing new. I remember as a kid that if you didn’t have money in your lunch account, your lunch was taken away and if you were lucky they’d have a peanut butter sandwich for you.

If you were in a negative balance, such as if your parents were unable to pay, then you’d also be restricted from certain activities and pressured to make your parents pay what was owed.

[–] BetaBlake@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

The same as debtors prison, how is that supposed to fix anything? Accomplishes literally nothing other than punishing people for being poor.

how about you start punishing companies for not paying people a livable wage?

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