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Comment by truckerbill | Hacker News Reader

Do you and people you know own assets? Not accusatory - it's just there's a lot of working class people who can't afford to feed their kids.

It's about the cost of housing / basic necessities sucking up money from the middle classes. The money accumulates towards assets so people who own them don't notice anything is wrong (quite the contrary)

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>The money accumulates towards assets so people who own them don't notice anything is wrong (quite the contrary)

"Then people should just buy a house to protect themselves from poverty" - Chancellor of my country

When I realize I should have bought a home in 2012 instead of being in middle school.

Just had an idiot on Facebook tell me that tenants are dumb because they didn't save up enough to buy a house whereas landlords are smart.

Yeah, we all start with the same opportunities.

Yeah a lot of stuff has gone up in price. Mortgages are a big one. Car insurance has rocketed as well.

Wages - not so much.

I don't believe in a country that has food banks and free school meals that anyone reasonable is failing to feed their kids.

You can't just turn up at a food bank, it's not a free supermarket, you need a referral from social services, and their capacity is limited.

(anyone blaming poor people for badly managing their finances can be dismissed out of hand; this is a multi-century-old excuse that is simple ignorance)

>(anyone blaming poor people for badly managing their finances can be dismissed out of hand; this is a multi-century-old excuse that is simple ignorance)

Well that's an interesting statement, considering that the fast food, alcohol and gambling industries are booming in the UK.

Free school meals don’t happen everywhere at all times. Food banks are incredibly stretched. Many people are not “reasonable” but have alcohol/ drug dependencies or mental health issues and so their children suffer. Even if they manage to give their kids enough food the rest of their life can be incredibly difficult.

"can't afford" is not "failing to". If you have no money and because of that get donated food to give to your kid, you still couldn't afford it.

Food banks don’t help much if you can’t afford to cook the food you are given.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/may/09/more-than-2m...

Notice I said 'can't afford to' which your comment appears to support. I am being pedantic because there is an important distinction. If people can't spend money on feeding their own children they are certainly not spending money on things that usually support a healthy economy.

So we agree they aren't failing to because of the support that is given but at the same time they can't afford to? I'm not sure if that says more about the economy or how people manage their finances.

Giving a person a tin of beans which they will eat that day, instead of a fair wage and an affordable home does not make them any richer. It's frustrating to constantly go over basic facts with fools who live in a bubble. This is a systemic problem not a moral one.

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