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Maybe if I prayed....
This is a post in two parts. Part one is about how I read things in the news that really set me off, like this grand piece of stupidity from CNN: Moms'' new battle: The food price bulge.
Now at first glance this seems to be a cheery little story about how moms have found ways to save money and slash their grocery store shopping, but it''s really once again a glorification of poverty, from those who wouldn''t know poor if it bit them in the ass.
The moms in this story grow their own herbs and veggies (meaning they probably own their own home, since few apartments come with sufficient land to plant tomatoes and beans, much less corn. They also stock up on sale and discount items they bought with coupons, which shows they have pantry or garage space. because it doesn''t look like that stuff is stacked up in their living room.
I can''t help myself, I just HAVE to relabel all the photos from the story:
OK, that was hard. I didn''t want to get too mean because, you know, they could be perfectly nice people. they just don''t know what poverty is really like, or how to deal with it without compromising their kid''s health. BTW, did you SEE the stuff used to make laundry soap? Do you have any IDEA what that stuff costs in comparison to generic detergents?
One of the amusing things is that the photo shows boxes of sticky sweet breakfast cereal stashed into shelves. just the kind of thing you DON''T want to rely on eating if you''re having to mix everything with rice or bread, since mom and the kids will weigh 300 lbs by the end of the year. Unfortunately, you don''t see coupons for fresh fruit and vegetables very often. Generally they''re for things like sugar laden kids'' breakfast cereals, frozen breaded and fried chicken, and high sodium soups. So when mom is cutting back to spending $200 for a family of 4 you know she''s feeding everyone nothing but crap. oh, except for the stuff she''s growing out in the back 40.
Even moms who spend $200 for a family of 4 per week are generally going to run out of things. commonly they''re relying on stuff they already have in their pantry. Middle and upper class families (the ones with enough land to grow tomatoes in their back yard) are likely to have food in the big freezer in the basement, or a well stocked pantry already, and these cut backs are just part of their monthly food intake.
There are families out there who are eating ramen noodles every day because that''s the only option they can afford. They don''t own their own homes and planting tomatoes would mean filling their bathtub with soil in their cheap apartments. They don''t have a freezer in the basement, and yes they buy cereal with coupons and get criticized for letting their kids get chubby. Schools wonder why the kids don''t do well on tests when all they eat are carbs and sugar. Parents are run down and unhealthy. These are what families who REALLY live on $200 or less a month look like.
Part 2 of this post is where my friends tell me that I should live like that rather than spend so much money on food. I buy RBBH free milk, organic free range eggs (well, in all fairness I''m allergic to the antibiotics used on most eggs), and loads of veggies and some organic lean meats. I spend about $500 a month at the grocery store, but to be fair, that also includes toilet paper, cleaning products, feminine hygiene products, school supplies (cheaper than Walmart sometimes!), shampoo, soap, over the counter medications, and discount gasoline for the car (Smiths Rewards program saves me about 15 cents per gallon!)
They believe that I should eat ramen and rice (despite my current weight loss attempts) and pray.
Praying is going to make my situation better, because of that whole thing about God not giving his children a snake (or a stone, or other non-useful stuff. eventhough I suppose you could always eat the snake.) when they ask for a loaf.
There are millions of people asking for loaves in the world right now. Apparently God doesn''t deliver. I just tell my friends I''ll save God the bother, since He already has His hands full, and get my own damned loaf. Better yet, I''ll cut back in other areas and instead of bread, get a couple boneless, skinless chicken breasts and some fresh greens.
God isn''t going to be lifting anyone up above the current economic crisis. No one is there. Yet more and more people rely on a god and Kellogs to get them through this tough time. This tough time isn''t something you can just wait out. It''s here, it''s real, and it''s going to get a heck of a lot worse. Time to STOP taking stop-gap measures like the Ramen Diet and prayer and getting serious about how to live a healthy life as the economy goes down the crapper.