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

[404.livejournal.com]

I know it's hard to believe, but both positions are correct.

[paft.livejournal.com]

Really? Nobody would deny poor people water if they couldn't pay? People just don't DO things like that?

How did that Cholera epidemic in South Africa happen a few years ago?

[404.livejournal.com]

Can't speak for SA. Tell me where it's happened in the US? I'll give you time if you need it.

[paft.livejournal.com]

404: Can't speak for SA. Tell me where it's happened in the US? I'll give you time if you need it.

So you've shifted your argument from "nobody would do icky stuff like that" to "Nobody would do icky stuff like that to white people in the first world." I guess that qualifies as some form of progress.

But you apparently don't know much about the California water wars, or the issues surrounding Fracking, both of which are replete with examples of corporations destroying people's potable water. Or maybe you believe that while a major corporation is willing to make what comes out of a middle-class homeowners faucet flammable, it would never, NEVER, in the name of making a buck, deprive poor people access to potable water. Is that really how you imagine these businesses are run?

Sure, they'll put their workers in dangerous conditions so that employees are poisoned, burned, suffocated, crushed, and otherwise disabled or killed, sure they'll pollute water systems to the point where what was formerly drinkable is not fit even for external use -- but deprive the poor of potable water? Suddenly, we're asked to believe, conscience would kick in and they just wouldn't do it.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

How did that Cholera epidemic in South Africa happen a few years ago?

To many people pooping in a bucket? Well that, and many people, who have been getting water for hundreds of years from rivers and streams decided that they weren't going to pay for water so the poorer could have the necessary infrastructure so they could have access to clean water. It wasn't that they couldn't pay, it was because there is a strong "I shouldn't have to pay for water" culture in SA.

[paft.livejournal.com]

ch: Well that, and many people, who have been getting water for hundreds of years from rivers and streams decided that they weren't going to pay for water so the poorer could have the necessary infrastructure so they could have access to clean water. It wasn't that they couldn't pay, it was because there is a strong "I shouldn't have to pay for water" culture in SA.

In the townships involved, it was not a matter of not wanting to pay. It was a matter of being unable to pay.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

In some cases maybe, but virtually no one was paying because nobody ever had to pay for water before. These were areas with no running water, except for communal taps that were installed to fight cholera outbreaks several decades ago. Many areas didn't even have those, and their primary source were rivers and streams. Money was needed to expand infrastructure so those people with no access to clean water. I should also add that under public direction, less people had access to clean water.

[paft.livejournal.com]

No, sorry, but the 2000 Cholera outbreak in South Africa was directly tied to the privatization of water and the raising of water rates to prices people in townships simply couldn't pay. Many who had had access to clean water now found themselves cut off. These weren't people who decided to stop paying out of pique. They stopped paying because they couldn't afford it.

[cheezyfish.livejournal.com]

What townships were those?