Compassion anyone?

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

I cannot understand this whole SNAP debacle that is being played out and talked about. I do not understand how ANYONE can be against feeding the hungry. I am willing to concede that there will be waste and fraud. I cannot imagine what system(s) would not have *some* waste and fraud. That said, waste and fraud are bad, but, let's not go throwing the baby out with the bath water, eh?

Food is NOT an option for people. Neither is water. These two things are HUMAN RIGHTS as far as I am concerned. Nobody, anywhere, should be deprived of access to food and water. And you know what, these things, in their most basic form (ie. basic food staples, not fancy food feasts), should be free. That's right, free. For *every single person*.

I understand that to some cold-hearted demons out there, people only deserve food and water if they *work* for it. Well fuck that. Work is not the pre-requisite, IMO, for food or water. Those should be denied to NOBODY.

I have a question to ask folks here, and I'm not sure I will be able to stomach the responses, but here goes:

Under what circumstances should a hungry person be denied food/water?

Comments

[dwer.livejournal.com]

and thus you fail at humanity. Very well.

[404.livejournal.com]

Ah cool, personal attack.

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

You are attacking the dignity of all humans when you defend corporations wishing to take control of one thing that every single human being, planet-wide, NEEDS to live.

[404.livejournal.com]

Pointing out the reality that potable water doesn't magically appear, I guess that is an attack on humanity...

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

I can point that out too.
I can also point out that all human life needs water and if we are going to share ANYTHING on this planet we co-habitate on, it should be water.

If I didn't know any better I'd think you were inhuman.
But I do know better. You are human. Just inhumane.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

you think that water should be a commodity, instead of a natural resource available to all.

I didn't attack you. I described you.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Potable water is a commodity.

No should about it.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

I disagree utterly, totally, and completely.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

Go put your straw in lake Michigan for a while. Let me know how your bowel movements go.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

the fact that water sometimes needs to be treated before it can be potable has nothing to do with turning it into a commodity that only some people can afford.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

Someone has to treat it, create infrastructure to deliver it. In my book that makes it a commodity. One that people shouldn't be denied because they can't pay, but a commodity nonetheless.

EDIT: I should add, food is a commodity too.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

It's a service. The cost is in the treatment, not the existence of the water to begin with.

Food is different.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

By that measure, I guess gasoline is a natural resource also.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

How is food different? Seems that it would be exactly the same to me.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

The treatment is not a commodity?

are you saying that wells and treatment plants have no value?

That that the people who build and work in them should not be paid?

Because that's what it sounds like.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

not in the slightest. But that doesn't mean that there needs to be a profit motive attached to it, nor does it mean that it cannot be a provided service. Do you suggest that it is not in the national interest to make sure that people don't get sick from untreated water?

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Posit: Self interest and/or the prospect of social advancement (AKA Profit) is the most effective way to motivate individual people barring a direct threat to life and limb.

Given the above what is the best way to convince someone that they should dig a well for others to use, or work in a water treatment plant?

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

You don't need to agree.

The universe will do it's thing regardless.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

be as apathetic as you desire.

[paft.livejournal.com]

And if you can't pay for it you should....

What?

Die from dehydration? Drink from rivers and ponds? Use lake water to mix baby formula or give your kid a cool drink

Yeah, let's REALLY up the infant mortality rate.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

Food is a commodity. That isn't some statement saying people who can't pay deserve to starve.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

What's your alternative?

Are you really going to argue that a well has no value? that treatment plant workers do not deserve to be paid for their labor? and that or that irrigation rights should not be honored or negotiable.

Food is a commodity as well. Is it your belief that all farmers should be slaves servants of the state, and be required to work for free?

[paft.livejournal.com]

s: What's your alternative?

Not treating water like just another commodity.

I take it you're saying here that people dying from dehydration, cholera, etc., should just be considered the price of doing business.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

Not treating potable water like a commodity isn't exactly a valid option.

It IS a commodity.

[paft.livejournal.com]

So, just so we're clear on this.

You think people dying from dehydration, cholera, etc., should just be considered the price of doing business. It bothers you that they aren't, and that so many people who otherwise couldn't afford potable water have access to it.