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cabron_offsets , in U.S. Senate unanimously passes formal dress code after uproar

Bunch of worthless cunts.

Salamendacious OP ,
@Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

Sir I must let you know that you are impugning upon the good reputation of cunts everywhere.

JasSmith , in 'Power to communities': Chicago considers city-owned grocery store to address 'food deserts' after giants like Walmart and Whole Foods shutter stores

Those stores left because of crime. Instead of fixing the root cause of major social issues, their Band-Aid is taxpayer funded stores? Why not just skip the middle man and send food to people directly? Or just set up taxpayer funded food banks. That’s effectively what these “stores” will turn into anyway. This just seems like performative nonsense, not intended to solve anything.

stopthatgirl7 OP ,
@stopthatgirl7@kbin.social avatar

Is it “performative nonsense” because it’s Chicago, or was this city in Florida doing it years ago and this one in Kansas also “performative nonsense,” too?

JasSmith ,

Why do you think these examples are analogous? The stores in the towns described in the articles you linked didn’t shut down because of poverty or crime. In the examples you provided, collective supermarkets seem to be a good fit. Contrast this with the Chicago mayor, who cites poverty. If people can’t afford food anyway, and the business is going to face sky high theft, the plan doesn’t make sense. Cut out the middle man and just send poor people food. It would cost far less than trying to set up supermarkets from scratch and running them at a loss in perpetuity. Plus it means helping poor people, rather than forcing them to shop lift if they’re hungry.

prole ,

If the stores are government run, there is no profit motive. That means lower prices, which means more accessibility for the people who need it.

And who will be sending poor people food? Let me guess, we need to leave it up to churches and charities? Lol

Look at you tripping over yourself to lick the boot. Sad.

JasSmith ,

If the stores are government run, there is no profit motive. That means lower prices, which means more accessibility for the people who need it.

If these stores are going to be run at a loss anyway, why waste enormous sums of money on premises and other costs when they could just start food banks and give people the food directly? Or, as I suggest above, the government could send people food directly.

I’m suggesting that we give people free food and I’m the boot licker? Okay Bezos.

prole ,

No, you’re just pushing the tired old, “religious groups and charities should be feeding people, leave the government out of it” bullshit. It doesn’t work.

No_Eponym ,
@No_Eponym@lemmy.ca avatar

you’re pushing the tired old… “leave the government out of it” bullshit.

They literally said government was the solution in the message above yours. Regardless of the merits of @JasSmith 's argument, you’ve mischaracterised what they’ve said and that isn’t fair or productive for discussion.

JasSmith ,

No, you’re just pushing the tired old, “religious groups and charities should be feeding people, leave the government out of it”

I’m literally saying the government should give people free food. You’re arguing with a straw man.

Trainguyrom ,

why waste enormous sums of money on premises and other costs when they could just start food banks

This runs into the problem of charity out-competing potential business ventures. Government subsidized private groceries, or public-private partnerships or just plain government run grocery stores can alleviate the problem of a food desert while still bringing the benefits of an active business to the area. The local government can increase or reduce its investment as needed, and it doesn’t create a service that inherently can’t be competed with by private business in a space that’s already unprofitable/too risky to operate a business within

JasSmith ,

This runs into the problem of charity out-competing potential business ventures.

But this is moot as the city is planning to run loss-making stores where private stores are non-viable. There is no risk of outcompeting businesses which aren’t even there. And if there is a concern of outcompeting private stores, running stores offering cheaper products than any private store could do so in the area would destroy those businesses just as effectively.

The decision has been made to entirely sacrifice any pretence of private enterprise in the supermarket space in certain areas in Chicago. I’m merely arguing that, given this decision, there are more effectively ways to use public funds.

Zaktor ,

Lack of shopping opportunities and an inability to pay for food are two separate things. They may often co-occur, but just sending food too poor people doesn’t solve food deserts.

And separately from that, poor people deserve to be able to look at their produce, buy stuff last minute, or browse and buy what strikes their fancy too. All the reasons everyone else uses supermarkets should be available to poor people as well.

givesomefucks ,

Those stores left because of crime

Not always…

For decades now developers have been buying commercial property and shutting down the business. This makes the area less desirable and lowers residential prices

When those are “low enough” developers buy them up

The next step is usually getting tax money to “redevelop” the area and then they’ll reopen businesses and sell the residential at a high markup as an “up and coming neighborhood”. It’s just a money shuffle that hurts the majority of Americans and funnels wealth to the wealthy.

It’s weird people still don’t understand this…

JasSmith ,

Do you have some examples? IMHO, few shareholders are willing to weather decades of losses like that in the hope that one day their investment pays off. I’m not buying it. No one buys property and then intentionally devalues it.

Aidinthel , in U.S. Senate unanimously passes formal dress code after uproar

I’m so glad the country doesn’t have any actual problems that need to be addressed so the Senate can afford to spend time on nonsense like this.

Salamendacious OP ,
@Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

I think you hit the nail on the head with that one. We’re facing another Republican engineered government shutdown but what’s the #1 priority? Fashion.

Hotdogman ,

That doesn’t mention female attire…

Salamendacious OP ,
@Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

25 senators are women 15 of whom are Democrats (and 1 independent who caucuses with the Democrats) and it was a unanimous vote. Isn’t that peculiar?

theotherone ,
@theotherone@kbin.social avatar

I’m starting to think they also don’t want to see his arm tats that honor victims of gun violence. That would be another crisis unaddressed.

snooggums ,
@snooggums@kbin.social avatar

At least this issue is bIpArTiSaN.

Illogicalbit ,

I think you misspelled “fascism”.

Salamendacious OP ,
@Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

Well there’s definitely a rise of ultraconservatism I don’t know if I’d call it fascism personally but American politics is in a dangerous place right now.

Pons_Aelius , in U.S. Senate unanimously passes formal dress code after uproar

Why only men have specific requirements? This is not an attack on women but the ridiculousness of having a dress code that only specifies one gender.

I would go the malicious compliance route.

“which for men shall include a coat, tie, and slacks or other long pants.”

First up, there is no mention of a shirt...

Coat (n): A sleeved outer garment extending from the shoulders to the waist or below.

Lots of room for fun there.

Tie: (from wikkipedia) Variants include the ascot, bow, bolo, zipper tie, cravat, and knit.

Again, lots of fun.

slacks or other long pants

You get the idea by now.

Salamendacious OP ,
@Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

Honestly something along what you’re suggesting was my first thought too but then that might hurt Fetterman when he runs for reelection. He beat Dr Oz by 3%, which is rather good, but Oz was a pretty terrible candidate. He might face significantly stiffer competition next time around and he probably wants to avoid a montage of him dressed silly on some attack ad.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Dressed the way he did, he would get Philly residents to support him more.

Salamendacious OP ,
@Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

Maybe. Seems like it could be a lot to risk with little gain. I don’t think it would play well in the suburbs. I’m just some schlep though what do I know?

cybervseas ,

You’re not a shlep you’re a schmo!

Salamendacious OP ,
@Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

I’m not a schmo I’m a schmuck

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

You’re a schmuck, but you’re also a schlemiel. Or is that a schlemazel?

Salamendacious OP ,
@Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

That’s a negative ghost rider. I am Hasenpfeffer Incorporated

captainlezbian ,

Yeah people that think Pennsylvania will be less likely to vote for someone like that don’t know Pennsylvania.

prole ,

PA is basically 3 states in one. As someone who grew up there, don’t confuse Philadelphia (or Pittsburgh for that matter) politics with PA politics. There’s a BIG area in the middle there…

stealthnerd ,

Anybody in PA can relate to athletic shorts and hoodie. Doesn’t matter the location.

Maximilious ,
@Maximilious@kbin.social avatar

He also suffered a stroke right before the election and was not in the most coherent state in his speeches at the time. And the ruling is only for the Senate floor, so he should be able to campaign in his own form of style outside of that.

Hotdogman ,

Bravo

jonne ,

They don’t want to piss off Kristen Sinema, I guess?

snooggums ,
@snooggums@kbin.social avatar

“which for men shall include a coat, tie, and slacks or other long pants.”

So, puffy sports team coat, bolo tie, and pants hanging below my ass. I'm compliant!

prole ,

I feel like that’s how my character looked in Disco Elysium lol. Gotta get those stat boosts!

snooggums ,
@snooggums@kbin.social avatar

It also doesn't require a shirt!

esc27 ,

Surely some tailor out there can make a hoodie styled like a suit coat with a drawstring “tie”.

SqueezeMeMacaroni ,

Also it doesn’t say where those garments have to be worn. I’m putting on my jacket as a cape, slacks on my head, and tying a tie around my dick. Technically compliant with your stupid dress code.

Apeman42 ,
@Apeman42@lemmy.world avatar

Parachute pants, Dante’s trenchcoat, and a bolo tie, got it.

Desistance , in 'Power to communities': Chicago considers city-owned grocery store to address 'food deserts' after giants like Walmart and Whole Foods shutter stores
@Desistance@lemmy.world avatar

I’m more than positive that food deserted areas could not afford Whole Paycheck and Walmart is never the solution. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. If its successful then I forsee this being used in more than just Chicago.

greenskye ,

Should just empower a local resident to build a local mom and pop grocery store. Subsidize them so they can compete against the larger chains if you have to, but that’s how it used to be done and can still be done. Eventually they probably wouldn’t need the subsidies because they’re going to focus on what they can sell. They might not have the selection of a big chain, but if they aren’t needing to compete with a billion dollar company that operates at a loss to drive them out of business, they’ll do ok.

Zaktor ,

Why give a private entity money when you can just do it publicly? And in the process not sell only what’s profitable rather than what provides good health to residents. The existing mini-marts and what not are selling what’s profitable (non-perishable processed food).

rhombus ,

The Post Office is a good example of how much easier it is to just run it publicly. The Post Office literally generates revenue, whereas subsidizing a private entity to do the same would be just throwing tax dollars down the drain with little return.

grue ,

Should just empower a local resident to build a local mom and pop grocery store.

The fundamental cause of every problem in the US always comes down to the zoning code. Every. Single. Time.

You know why those mom and pop grocery stores don’t exist? Because in most cases, they’re not allowed to because corner stores in residential areas were outlawed 75 years ago. Also, even when they are allowed to exist, the real reason they can’t compete is because the zoning code forces car-dependency in a whole bunch of other ways, which (figuratively and literally) drives consolidation into big-box stores with gigantic parking lots.

BrikoX , in U.S. Senate unanimously passes formal dress code after uproar
@BrikoX@lemmy.zip avatar

Theater is the only thing U.S. Senate is good at. And maybe getting bribed, but that’s beside the point.

Salamendacious OP ,
@Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

Are you trying to tell me that you don’t have gold bars in your closet? Who doesn’t have at least one Egyptian gold bar somewhere in their couch cushions?

BrikoX , (edited )
@BrikoX@lemmy.zip avatar

I prefer the smell of cash, so I keep my name branded jacket pockets full of them.

Salamendacious OP ,
@Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

I prefer my bribes… er… contributions in gold just in case I need to relocate quickly to a country without an extradition treaty. Who wants to mess around with exchange rates?

Chariotwheel ,

Gold, ha. Apparently American politicians are awfull cheap to bribe.

Remember that one that was hiding her bribe in her bra? https://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/FedCrimes/story?id=6132629

Salamendacious OP ,
@Salamendacious@lemmy.world avatar

So she got 3½ years and was released in September 2013. Then in February 2014 she received an award from the mayor of Boston as one of 18 “women of color changing our world.” I wonder where she put the award?

Hotdogman ,

Bobert has the theatre thing down pretty well.

ares35 ,
@ares35@kbin.social avatar

well, democrats can't really do much without more votes for avoid filibuster; and the only page in republican's playbook is obstruction--and they are getting rather 'good' at it, having run it for decades.

JohnDClay , in 'Power to communities': Chicago considers city-owned grocery store to address 'food deserts' after giants like Walmart and Whole Foods shutter stores

Main streets with Mom and Pop stores are really nice. It seems like you’d get more soul from than a government store. But I don’t know how you would incentive then sufficiently, as it’s really tough to run a small storefront when competing with online.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

Grocery stores are still largely an offline business. Industry sales dropped from 65B during civic peak to 40b after COVID. Also I very much doubt the prime affected by this were going to be paying the 20% markup that it costs to use those services. Finally most of those services are really just white label instacart and the store does not need to invest anything substantial if they wanted to offer those services.

grue ,

The real problem is that we fucked over main streets 75 years ago with deliberately car-dependent zoning policies and massive subsidies for car infrastructure. Now all we’re allowed by law to build are shitty stroads with big-box stores.

bobman ,

Problem with mom and pop stores is the owners are still operating to maximize profit.

This intrinsically involves giving the least while charging the most. They’re going to be screwing everyone over as much as they can, while hiding behind the ‘mom and pop’ shield.

bernieecclestoned , in New study definitively confirms gulf stream weakening

“While we can definitively say this weakening is happening, we are unable to say to what extent it is related to climate change or whether it is a natural variation,” Piecuch said. “We can see similar weakening indicated in climate models, but for this paper we were not able to put together the observational evidence that would really allow us to pinpoint the cause of the observed decline.”

What observational evidence would prove it either way?

dangblingus ,

The scope of the study wasn’t wide enough to get definitive evidence that it was man-made climate change based, or simply natural periodicity of climate zones. The Earth has a shit load of climate data over thousands of years to sift through, and that costs money which may be outside of the budget of the study.

raef , in A QAnon 'queen' and the Canada town that wants her gone

Honest question. Why does Canada seen to hate using adjectives? “Canada goose”, “Canada day”, “Canada town”…

alabasterhotdog ,

Perhaps your question would be better posed to the BBC.

bernieecclestoned ,

The author is America writer

Rumbelows , in 'Power to communities': Chicago considers city-owned grocery store to address 'food deserts' after giants like Walmart and Whole Foods shutter stores

It’s funny how the solutions for the failures of capitalism often end up looking just like socialism

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

There are less than 6500 food deserts in the country. Having access to cheap healthy food is available to the vast majority of people living in the US. We’re talking edge cases, capitalism has been quite successful with the food supply chain here.

JasSmith ,

I agree. I don’t think people realise how many “food deserts” there were even a hundred years ago, let alone further back. They certainly don’t realise how many food deserts there are in countries which don’t practise capitalism, or have not in the past.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

Lemmy is just largely skewed to I hate the US, facts be damned crowd at the best. At it’s worst it’s a straight up tankie cesspool and China apologist playground.

Very few of these people from both sides have any real travel experience. If they have spent any time in the US or Western Europe vs a poorer county they might get their head out of their asses.

Uranium3006 ,
@Uranium3006@kbin.social avatar

Lol you contradicted yourself

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

No. It’s a small failure rate and you all love to ignore how much variety and abundant cheap food the large majority have access to.

Uranium3006 ,
@Uranium3006@kbin.social avatar

You say that but you also admit there are thousands of food deserts across the country. Pick one

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

Currently at 3.8%

…nih.gov/…/food-accessibility-insecurity-and-heal…

I’m okay with edge case.

Uranium3006 ,
@Uranium3006@kbin.social avatar

I'm guessing you're in the 96.2%

givesomefucks , (edited )

Currently at 3.8%

Of 333 million…

That’s 12 million people, they’re not a rounding error

Edit:

Also, it’s at 6.1%, or 19 million people…

thehumaneleague.org/article/food-desert

SupraMario ,

12 million people, who still get food. No one is starving. I’m technically in a food desert, but have tons of food available to me via a 20min drive to my local city. Almost all food deserts are in rural areas, there is no PT and everyone has a car because you have to be have one. Stop acting like there are 12 million people starving to death.

givesomefucks ,

Talking about things is hard if you don’t know what any of the terms mean…

I edited this in but looks like you didn’t see it:

thehumaneleague.org/article/food-desert

Btw:

The person I replied to was using drastically understated numbers, it’s 19 million. But that article should help you understand the difference between food desert and starving. No idea where you saw anyone talking about starvation tho. It seems like you just made up a strawman…

SupraMario ,

Naa it’s just tankies in here acting like capitalism is the reason food deserts exist, and that communism would magically fix that.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

And we should strive to improve. I never said otherwise.

givesomefucks ,

What?

Weren’t you just “arguing” that we shouldn’t help them?

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

No, I said using the US food supply chain is a poor example.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Capitalism has been very successful… if you don’t count the poor and the hungry.

Gotcha.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

Yes. It’s a very small percentage of failure here.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Oh. Well. As long as a “small percentage” starve to death, it’s a resounding success! Let’s celebrate by killing a few poor people to improve the economy!

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

Or, and hear me out before you go full tankie, maybe take steps to correct that edge case rather than tear down a largely high performing system that gives me cheap access to food from around the world year round despite things not being available locally.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Steps like government-owned supermarkets? I agree. Socialism is great.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

I agree, this could help. At no point in any of my comments did I say otherwise. But keep on trying to invent arguments for… Reasons? 🤷‍♂️🤣

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

So you agree that a non-capitalistic solution would help. That doesn’t sound like capitalism is a success if you have to do something else sometimes.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

What’s the success rate on full socialist and communist grocery stores?

Now here it comes. Say the line Bart, say the line. I can’t wait for you to tell me how socialism has never really been tried.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

As far as I know, socialization of grocery stores has never been tried. Why not try it instead of letting people go hungry, including children? Seems like it’s worth trying to avoid that.

By the way, if capitalism is such a resounding success, why am I in debt thousands of dollars due to medical bills and my wife in debt even more due to student loans? We have decent jobs. We’re middle class. We own a house. We’ve paid off one of our two cars. And we’re drowning. In “successful” capitalism.

We’re far from alone.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

I guess the food lines of the countries that have failed don’t count right? Right?

Keep on moving those goal posts lol. I said 1 very specific thing and of course you are here now talking about loans because you seemingly just want to argue capitalism instead of addressing the comment.

Classic reddit bullshit.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Which countries are those which have a basic capitalist system but socialized grocery stores in food deserts? Please name them.

And yes, I want to argue about capitalism with someone who claims capitalism is a success when it’s ground me and my family into the dirt along with so many others.

Must be nice to be rich.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

Absolutely correct. Those counties don’t exist. They failed.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Which ones used to exist? Name them please.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

Israel had it’s run, USSR, Venezuela, fuck India had a few good long years with it. Every single one had food programs and every single one failed.

Now, say the line Bart.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I didn’t say food programs. I said government-run supermarkets in food deserts. You are moving the goalposts. And if you call me a name one more time, I’ll just block you. I don’t countenance Reddit behavior.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

👌👍🤡

👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Ok, I guess you’d prefer to be blocked.

SupraMario ,

The USSR literally did it. It has been tried.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

The USSR literally had government-run supermarkets in food deserts? Are you sure they were just in food deserts? Because I don’t think that’s correct.

Nalivai ,

USSR had an economic system that is best described as state capitalism, and the political system was an authoritarian dictatorship. Grocery stores weren’t socialized - as in, being run and operated by the collective communities, but operated in full by the state, and members of community had absolutely zero say in anything.

Rivalarrival ,

The problem with the communist food systems was that they sought to eliminate waste, rather than promoting the sort of over-production that generates it. They planned to feed their people, and their plans regularly came up short.

The socialized component of the US system specifically seeks excessive production, well beyond any likely shortages. We deliberately try to waste food.

Ejh3k ,

Do you think 6500 is a low number? It’s not like each food desert affects only one person each. More likely than not, each is affecting more than a thousand people. Especially in a population dense area like Chicago. We are talking millions of people living in food deserts.

Also, after reading a bunch of your comments, I’m not sure you are fully aware of what a food desert is. But hey, that’s Capitalism.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

About 5% of the population. Whereas the rest enjoy the best supermarkets on the planet. This should be about fixing the edge cases, not trying to pretend we don’t have amazing choice and wealth in food for the vast majority.

Frozengyro ,

So you’re talking about “edge cases” and also claiming it effects over 17 million Americans. That’s a lot of human suffering.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

We should strive to improve. But the modern food system which is overwhelmingly capitalist has produced the most food secure system to the most people ever. Calling it a failure over 5%, especially without context and scope is foolish.

SARGEx117 ,

And praising the capitalist part “especially without context” is also foolishly.

The context being that a historically isolated and hard to invade country with extremely beneficial geological features happened to be capitalist, then went on a 50 year military and social propaganda campaign to stamp out any possible competition in other countries either by directly sending its military in, or funding local forces willing to cooperate.

In no way am I saying communism or socialism is some kind of perfect system, and I not going to debate their historic representations.

But you’re ignoring a looooot of history in your comments.

Ejh3k ,

My guy, shut the fuck up. Who is paying you to spout this nonsense? Because if no one is, you are getting played.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

No.

Rivalarrival , (edited )

The modern food system is not capitalist. We extensively subsidize farming, so that farmers will produce excesses despite a lack of corresponding market demand. This socially-funded excessive production is the foundation of our food security.

Capitalism does not produce such a system. Capitalism sees production in excess of actual demand as wasteful, and seeks to eliminate it.

SupraMario ,

We subsidize farmers, so we don’t have a famine. Has nothing to do with it being socially funded.

prole ,

Why can’t capitalism prevent a famine?

Rivalarrival ,

The only way capitalism can prevent a famine is if the individual can be expected to adequately plan and prepare for a food shortage. History says we won’t do that.

Rivalarrival ,

Please clarify your point. You seem to be saying “the subsidies we provide have nothing to do with subsidization”.

SupraMario ,

Because it doesn’t…we subsidize farmers, so we don’t have a famine…we don’t subsidize farmers because of socialism or capitalism. It’s literally done as a fail safe. It’s the same reason we have metric tons of cheese on hand as well.

Rivalarrival ,

The idea that the government should provide such a failsafe against famine is an act of socialism. A purely capitalist approach to a famine is that the individual should be responsible for preparing their own means of surviving it, or perish in an act of economic Darwinism.

SARGEx117 ,

“fuck those potentially 15 million people, I eat perfectly fine so stop pretending there’s a problem”

This is what you sound like to those 15 million people.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

Again, I’m not sure what kind of Boogeyman you’ve imagined, but I’m not sure where I’ve said we shouldn’t strive to improve food scarcity. Y’all are wild looking for some people to fight with.

nonailsleft ,

Wait you’re not here looking for someone to fight? Well F-U

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

I just said US food supply chain is a poor example 🤷‍♂️

Ejh3k ,

Oh, so like 20,000,000 people don’t fucking matter and don’t deserve the ability to have access to fresh fruits and vegetables?

GTFOH.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

Can you point out where I said that’s okay? Or that we shouldn’t strive to improve?

Ejh3k ,

Then quit down playing the number of people in food deserts.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

I’m not 🤷‍♂️

whofearsthenight ,

Whereas the rest enjoy the best supermarkets on the planet.

Yeah but the rest of the world sees supermarkets as a negative.

Rivalarrival , (edited )

I’ve seen three different definitions in the past 5 minutes. Two definitions were based on physical proximity to grocery stores. Another focused primarily on the poverty rates in census tracts, regardless of the presence of absence of supermarkets. I think the “6500” number comes from that third definition. Of the 84,414 census tracts in the US, fewer than 6500 (about 7.7%) are classified as “food deserts”.

I would have to say that yes, 6500 of 84414 tracts is a fairly low number.

I would also have to say that if they are using the third definition in these Chicago neighborhoods, they qualified as “food deserts” before Walmart (et al) decided to leave.

uis ,
@uis@lemmy.world avatar

7.7%? That’s HUGE for 21st century! What is it? Africa? Russia?

Rivalarrival ,

7.7% of census tracts, not of people. The overwhelming majority of those tracts have insufficient population to support a nearby supermarket. That doesn’t mean they don’t have access to food.

Most of these tracts are farming communities. They provide all the food stocked in these urban and suburban supermarkets. They are literally surrounded by food, in their fields, pastures, gardens, pantries, etc. But because the definition of “food deserts” focuses on supermarkets and doesn’t include the 10 tons of grain in their bin, they are considered to be living in a “food desert”.

Trainguyrom ,

I think you misunderstand how rural food deserts work. They’re certainly less-bad than an urban food desert but they’re still a problem to solve. That 10 tons of food in your grain bin isn’t necessarily food you can eat. Nobody chooses to eat feed corn unless they don’t have other options. And while a farmer certainly has the tools and knowledge to grow their own food crops its a significant time investment to do so, something that a farmer doesn’t have after 12+ hour days taking care of the crops and animals that make them a meager living.

The issue is partially mitigated through roadside stands and farmer’s markets but its still a significant challenge to the people who live in these communities, and some of the side effects of living in a food desert are present both in a rural food desert and an urban one, despite extremely different circumstances leading to them.

givesomefucks ,

Just going off the name, that’s someone who didn’t leave reddit voluntarily.

The more time that goes by on Lemmy, it seems like the higher percentage of people who aren’t here by choice, they’re here because reddit IP banned them.

nonailsleft ,

Wait you’re here by choice?

givesomefucks ,

Yeah, lots of us came here voluntarily…

But it seems like not a lot stayed, kind of feels like we just built the infrastructure and abandoned it to a bunch of trolls. Not sure how much longer I’ll stick around to be honest.

tjhart85 ,
@tjhart85@kbin.social avatar

I am, I'll grant you I started looking for alternatives because Reddit went to shit, but I haven't looked back since I created a KBin account and have been quite happy with the change.

guacupado ,

Anyone who left Reddit did it voluntarily, my dude.

scottywh ,

That person is an ass in 90% of the comments I see them post… And I see them quite a bit unfortunately.

(To clarify: “that person” mentioned above is shittyredditwasbetter)

uis ,
@uis@lemmy.world avatar

There are less than 6500 food deserts in the country.

If you can’t walk to nearest store within 15 minutes, you live in food desert. Using PT counts as walking.

NuPNuA ,

Do supermarkets not do home deliveries in the US for people who can’t get to the shop? The UK has had those for years.

givesomefucks ,

They do, but only for their area and there’s a fee.

If the closest actual supermarket with fresh food is a 30 minute drive, they’re probably not delivering tho.

The point is making high quality food (nutrition, not taste) easily accessible

guacupado ,

It doesn’t affect me, so fuck who it does affect.

Nice, dude.

ShittyRedditWasBetter ,

You are just making up stuff now 🤷‍♂️

Bytemeister ,

That’s… 130 per state.

foggy ,

Reddit:Lemmy

Twitter:Mastodon

bobman ,

It’s sad seeing all the idiots excited to go to the proprietary platforms. I feel like they’re victims of viral marketing, similar to how red bull operates.

Some things never change with this generation.

Chickenstalker ,

Are they closed because of rampant theft?

Bakkoda ,

Wage theft.

Rumbelows ,

As other people have pointed out, big companies target an area and set about establishing a monopoly using $$$

Then they realise “huh. There’s not so much profit here in Assfuck, Montana after all.” And make some lame excuse (theft) to pull out.

Citizens get fucked because : capitalism.

Trainguyrom ,

Bonus points if the large business trying to monopolize Assfuck, Montana kills the small businesses that were otherwise sustainable and leaves a gigantic financial burden on Assfuck, Montana’s township finances in the process (demanding unsustainable subsidies, changing terms on the township after much money is already spent in the hopes of bringing more money into the town so the township invests more taxpayer dollars into the private business, and of course leaving a giant retail space that no business can afford to sit vacant and create additional costs to demolish and/or mitigate damages as it decays)

There’s a large homegoods chain that had locations in both the small town I live in and a neighboring town of which the parent company went bankrupt. The location in my town sat empty for several years because it was too large of a space for any local business to be able to grow into (the local furniture store asked the city to give them the space for free though!) it eventually got filled by one of uHaul’s weird abandoned-retail-space projects where its now a storage space and truck rental. The town nearby has yet to fill the space, although the parking lot is sometimes used by the manufactured home factory nextdoor for overflow storage

Rumbelows ,

Wow, that was a considered and interesting contribution. I learned a lot there.

Natanael , (edited )
givesomefucks ,

Almost like a society of individuals that only care about themselves won’t last long…

Aceticon , (edited )

About 3% of humans are born psychpaths (roughly: they have no empathy hence only care about themselves).

One would naivelly expect that only caring about yourself would be a winning strategy from a genetics point of view and hence over time the whole of Manking would have become psychopaths as the ones with such a natural advantage were more successful at surviving and reproducing than the others, yet that’s not at all the case and only a small fraction of people are born psychopaths.

My personal explanation for that is that psychopathic behaviour is only a genetic advantage if most people around are not that - or, transposed to to economic terms, being a rent-seeker only works if most people are producers and doens’t at all work when most people are rent-seekers.

I expect that in our evolutionary past, whenever a tribe/group had too many psychopaths without some kind of mechanism to kick them out or force them into cooperative mode, it eventually collapsed and ended up removed from the genetic pool hence why in millions of years of evolution the supposed superior behaviour of caring only about yourself didn’t end up dominating the human genetic pool - the “threading of the needle” for the survival psychopathy as a behavioural trait in the gene pool was a balance between that behaviour expressing itself often enough to reproduce and remain in the gene pool and not so much that there were too many such individuals in a group causing it to collapse.

givesomefucks ,

My personal explanation

I have a degree in psych, and regret to inform you that you have no idea what you just rambled on about

You’re just making random guesses

Aceticon , (edited )

Right. First, indeed it’s not a scientific theory, just an idea. The bit were I wrote “my personal explanation” and the context being a News community should’ve been a strong enough hint that it was to be taken as a bit of a ramble and I hoped (apparently wrongly so) it would make it obvious that’s “chewing gum for the brain” rather than “nourishment”.

Second: unless you’re disputing the Biology side of how behavioural traits that provide reproductive advantages result in the spreading of the genes that define those to a whole population (aka Theory of Evolution), or your understanding of Statistics is outside generally accepted Mathematics, the mere presence of that part means its not made up from “random guesses”, no matter which random distribution you’re thinking of. Ditto for the Economics side of it - i.e. rent-seeking does not create wealth and if the proportion of that kind economic activity exceeds a certain proportion of the whole then actual production won’t keep up with natural consumption and natural attritional losses.

Third: Absolutelly, even if the Biology and Economics are not, the Psychology part is mainly coming from ignorance, so if that’s wrong then the whole of it is wrong.

What is the bit in there that is that is so deeply insulting to your domain expertise that you felt that in response to this ramble of mine here in the News forum you just had to post a comment were you pointed out your qualifications in Psychology and then proceede to describe the entirety of my post with the mathematically inaccurate expression “random guesses” without actually providing an explanation?

(PS: I’m not asking this to dispute your knowledge on Psychology as I accept I’m pretty ignorant in the domain. I’m mainly curious if it’s on the nature-vs-nurture in psychopathy side, if it’s on my assumptions of the behaviour of people high in the psychopathy spectrum when it comes to “not caring about others” being “bollocks” - say hyper-simpistic or way off - or if I’m using the wrong terminology)

uis ,
@uis@lemmy.world avatar

Doesn’t look like socialism to me. Buiseness being city-owned isn’t enough.

CaptainAniki ,

deleted_by_author

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  • PhlubbaDubba ,

    Socialism is ownership by the workers who run the store. What you’re describing is a customer cooperative, which is just replacing bosses with “the people”

    HYPERBOLE_TRAIN ,

    Your head is going to explode when you realize the workers are part of the citizenship that owns the store.

    PhlubbaDubba ,

    “I’ve never heard of foreign hires before.”

    CaptainAniki ,

    deleted_by_author

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  • PhlubbaDubba ,

    That’s state capitalism, there is an owner class and a worker class, the workers do not have the sole ownership of the shop, nor do they receive the full share of the fruits of their labor.

    jaybone ,

    Lemmy has the largest group of socialists I’ve ever seen argue about the definition of socialism.

    PhlubbaDubba ,

    Tbf, we’re working with a stated definition that’s translated from 19th century German

    Not to mention folks who imagine a definition in vision and spirit but not necessarily to the letter of what Marx described

    Shit’s gonna get down to exact doctrine real quick even in a room full of socialists all supposedly of the same clade of ideas

    vidarh ,

    It’s funny, because one of Marx best known works contains a diatribe against people carelessly talking about “full share of the fruits of their labor” and insultingly described the notion as Lasallean (see Critique of the Gotha Programme, chapter 1, where he utterly savages what became the German SPD over this).

    He thought it was utter bullshit to talk about that in an organised society, because in practice in a functioning society there are in fact all kinds of necessary deductions and redistribution necessary in order to ensure the needs of everyone is met.

    E.g. healthcare, funds for those unable to work, funding of societal needs such as schools etc.

    Even that, he describes as constrained by “bourgeois limitation”, pointing out that"

    “Thus, with an equal performance of labor, and hence an equal in the social consumption fund, one will in fact receive more than another, one will be richer than another, and so on. To avoid all these defects, right, instead of being equal, would have to be unequal.”

    The notion of “full share of the fruits of their labor” is not a socialist one at all.

    On the contrary, the main socialist slogan used to be “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” which goes directly counter to the notion of giving everyone the full share of the fruits of their labour.

    Nudding ,

    Fantastic comment

    Reddit_Is_Trash ,

    You’re right. They should tax 100% of my income and give me a weekly grocery credit!

    Oh, and it won’t be enough to buy a nice steak more than once a week. Even though I have a very prestigious position at my job, I’m given the same grocery allowance as everyone else

    Zoboomafoo ,
    @Zoboomafoo@lemmy.world avatar

    That’s one steak a week more than I’m currently eating

    Nalivai ,

    If you insist. The solution that sane people are proposing is way better, but if you want we can setup this weird system of punishment for you.
    But also you think that amount of steak should be somehow tied to the prestige of a job, so yes, for you specifically.

    bobman ,

    This is why I try to avoid using words like socialism and communism. Everyone has their own ideas of what they mean, and most of them aren’t exactly wrong because these are broad terms with different sects. So many times a person mentions either word, and then guys like you come out of the woodwork to be like “umm, actually…” Lol.

    I prefer to focus on real solutions to real problems (pragmatism.) This is a very pragmatic approach to solving the issue of corporations not meeting standards.

    Reddit_Is_Trash ,

    The stores left because of the crime, not because there isn’t a market for them. I’m sure there are tons of people in Chicago who would love shopping at a local grocery store.

    It’s not sustainable to run a business when your loss to crimes outweighs any potential profits

    PhlubbaDubba ,

    Invoking crime for this practice is just a tactic to pretend it isn’t red lining.

    guacupado ,

    Yeah. We all know how much Walmart is struggling to make profits.

    yawn ,

    By definition, if the business venture isn’t profitable, then there isn’t a market.

    REI in downtown Portland pulled out and publicly said it was because of rising crime, but it was really because the employees were trying to unionize.

    BeautifulMind ,
    @BeautifulMind@lemmy.world avatar

    The stores left because of the crime

    The crime stories (yep, they made a big buzz and media ran hundreds of stories about that one shoplifter in San Francisco) wildly overstated the actual amount of crime. It’s just so interesting that corporate news oversold that story, so much so that a person that didn’t know better would think that was a pervasive thing in urban areas and cities are all hellscapes of disorder and flames.

    Meanwhile, shareholders rewarded Walgreens’ management with a boost to stock prices after they reported they’d be pulling out of ‘crime-ridden’ areas. They didn’t leave because of the crime, they left for the stock bump and told the crime story to make it look less-bad

    PhlubbaDubba ,

    Is city ownership socialist though? Are the workers unionized? Do they have the right to decide what is and isn’t stocked?

    BeautifulMind ,
    @BeautifulMind@lemmy.world avatar

    Is city ownership socialist though?

    Not necessarily. That would turn it into something more like a public utility than like a for-profit business.

    I mean, it’s “not socialism” when the fire department or the power utility aren’t private, for-profit corporations, but it is if the grocery store is? LOL

    jaybone ,

    Are fire departments for profit?

    Fosheze ,

    You do get billed afterwords. At least my dad did when his house burned down 20+ years ago. However his insurance covered the bill.

    kent_eh ,

    That sounds kinda dystopian to me

    Trainguyrom ,

    My in-laws had a housefire a couple of years ago, and they live in the boonies outside of a small farm community.

    The volunteer fire department handed them a bill afterwards and told them “give this to your insurance. We only want what your insurance will pay so don’t worry about it if they only pay part or don’t pay at all”

    Its a dystopian racket, but at least its pulling a bit of money from the haves to get it to the have-nots and helps sustain a vital service to the community

    Pj55555 ,

    The stores all closed down due to high crime rate, I don’t blame them.

    guidothekillerpimp ,

    This is true. I don’t know why you’re being downvoted.

    Pj55555 , (edited )

    I know, the issue is well known. I’m sure I was down voted because the city is primarily black so to mention the fact of it’s high crime rate in a discussion that pertains to it is wrongly offensive to them, que sera sera.

    Trainguyrom ,

    A lot of the discussion related to retail theft is heavily racially-motivated and insincere. A short comment without nuance can look indistinguishable from a scary dogwhistle news segment, even if the short comment is accurate

    Mateoto , in A QAnon 'queen' and the Canada town that wants her gone

    Let’s get back to a time when we recognized and sidelined irrational voices in public discourses. Instead, we’re giving these charlatans room to spread nonsense, allowing others to wrongly validate it.

    WHYAREWEALLCAPS ,

    How do you do that in the age of the internet? How do you stop them from spreading their insanity on platforms like X, Instagram, Facebook, etc? If they aren’t violating guidelines, how do you sideline them?

    Lutefisky ,

    Her irrational voice equals guaranteed advertising clicks for media outlets. We decided long ago that money should be the principle motivation (above truth, evidence and facts) for media outlets in this country. This is one of the many damaging consequences of that idea.

    How do we even get the horses back in the barn before we close the door?

    TwoBeeSan , in New study definitively confirms gulf stream weakening

    Yeaaaaaah booiiii. Here come those feedback loops.

    throws_lemy OP ,
    @throws_lemy@lemmy.nz avatar

    Do you mean this?

    A collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) leads to global cooling through fast feedbacks that selectively amplify the response in the Northern Hemisphere.

    www.nature.com/articles/srep14877

    JasSmith ,

    So now we have global cooling to look forward to?

    throws_lemy OP ,
    @throws_lemy@lemmy.nz avatar

    I’m not good at explaining this, here’s the science on climate change

    Climate change and the developments it spurs carry the narrative of the Quaternary, the most recent 2.6 million years of Earth’s history. Glaciers advance from the Poles and then retreat, carving and molding the land with each pulse. Sea levels fall and rise with each period of freezing and thawing. Some mammals get massive, grow furry coats, and then disappear. Humans evolve to their modern form, traipse around the globe, and make a mark on just about every Earth system, including the climate.

    www.nationalgeographic.com/science/…/quaternary

    dangblingus ,

    If there’s an AMOC collapse, one of the likely outcomes is literally The Day After Tomorrow. The science in that movie is surprisingly grounded in reality.

    LibertyLizard ,

    Not even remotely accurate. It would cause notable changes and likely widespread famine but not anything as instantly apocalyptic as the film. Temperatures wouldn’t change dramatically aside from Northern Europe. The gulf stream’s effect on temperatures is smaller than people think.

    The bigger change globally speaking would be shifting precipitation patterns. This could lead to dramatic aridification of parts of Africa and India, and large increase in precipitation in North America. But it’s not going to trigger some kind of hemispheric ice age as depicted in the film.

    sturlabragason , in New study definitively confirms gulf stream weakening

    Goodbye Iceland.

    JasSmith ,

    Iceland is not the one made of ice. Confusingly, that’s Greenland. According to this data, Iceland would get colder over the centuries. They won’t disappear.

    Angry_Maple ,
    @Angry_Maple@sh.itjust.works avatar

    I think that’s what they meant, tbh.

    There are a lot of people who don’t do well with the cold, or they might not find it enjoyable to live in. A lot of Iceland’s heat comes from the ocean. If that heat goes, some people would likely move elsewhere.

    throws_lemy OP ,
    @throws_lemy@lemmy.nz avatar

    Iceland will be disappear under thick ice

    sturlabragason ,

    I should know I’m from there and currently live there. The decline of the gulf stream will heavily affect Iceland. It’s basically the only thing keeping this northern rock warm.

    In my lifetime the weather here has been getting more and more extreme by each year. (Was trying to find the source to back this up but i can’t remember where it is rn, probably here somewhere: www.vedur.is/gogn/)

    RubberStuntBaby , in Bob Menendez bleeds support from fellow Senate Dems

    I find it interesting that the Republicans aren't making more noise about this and demanding his resignation.

    FeelThePower , in Alabama inmate opposes being ‘test subject’ for new nitrogen execution method
    @FeelThePower@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    i could never live with myself if i put anyone to death, regardless of how horrific an act they committed.

    pyromaniac_donkey ,

    You’re a soft wrist

    crackajack ,

    It’s not like there hasn’t been a mistrial ever in history and executed an innocent person. Right? Right?

    pyromaniac_donkey ,

    Mistakes happen, get over it.

    crackajack ,

    Well certainly you will be saying that when you are sentenced to death.

    pyromaniac_donkey ,

    Death sentences are carried with DNA or self inculpation proof.

    crackajack ,

    Not every cases involve those.

    viralJ ,

    That’s why apparently the execution squads are told that at least one of them has blank bullets. And why two doctors do the lethal injection procedure simultaneously, but one of them is injecting saline. This way everyone can legitimately think “maybe it wasn’t me who killed them”. I think I read in in “Behave” by Robert M. Sapolsky.

    Kolanaki ,
    @Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

    Meanwhile, medieval executioners simply wore a hood so nobody knew who they were.

    viralJ ,

    Yeah but I think my answer was not about “I wouldn’t want anyone to know I killed someone” but more about “I couldn’t live with myself knowing that I killed someone”.

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