Hacker News Reader

> privileged Westerners

What about the folks that are poor? Those are the biggest group, and it's a little tone-deaf to call them privileged just because they were born in a place that contains folks that got rich.

View on HN

There's a huge misconception that eating vegan is expensive. Vegan diet staples are dirt cheap. Legumes are absurdly inexpensive, especially when compared with meat. If governments ever get around to closing the loophole of externalizing costs (for instance, through a carbon tax), then the difference would grow even wider.

When you're poor, changing a habit in such a major way involves a ton of willpower. It's hard to have that willpower when there's a million things that absolutely must be solved (a lot of them involving money). Money is what buys you the ability to have luxuries such as making nonessential dietary changes.

I think they meant "those people who are Westerners who are also privileged" and not "all Westerners, who are all privileged".

If it's just the privileged few that go vegan, how would it be a solution to anything at all? That's why I assumed this person meant everyone.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com