"Hunger can be a positive motivator."

[phantom power]

"Hunger can be a positive motivator."
-- Representative Cynthia Davis, commenting on subsidized school lunches for children. On her own website.

http://www.cynthiadavis.net/PDFs/cpr090604_Summer_Food_Program.htm

[Journeyman]

1. It's true. Most violent revolutions are begun by hungry people. . .

[closeupready]

6. Actually, that IS true.

n/t

[kenfrequed]

9. Yup

It is sort of an old rule. "Don't starve the peasants"

[Journeyman]

11. In 2005, I spent considerable effort trying to convince people that "Social Security". . .

was instituted in part to secure society. Take away people's rationale to support the system and they'll do away with the system.

[redqueen]

2. Saw that on Think Progress last month.

My first reaction was 'unbelievable' but it's really not. There are tons of idiotic Republican legislators, all over the country.


Here's a memorable example.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-evolution_14tex.ART.State.Edition1.298e1cb.html

[phantom power]

4. What's remarkable to me is that they say it out loud...

and that people still vote for them. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but they are such unapologetic social darwinists.

[Caliman73]

3. KO had he as "worst person" a few times.

She is a tool. She wants to scrap the public school food programs to save a bit of money and used the tried and true "personal responsibility" line and such drivel, not disclosing of course, that she had been a recipient of welfare at one point.

Just another "Joe the Plumber" with their "don't mind that I have benefited from the help of the collective, you all just have to pull yourselves up by the boot straps". Hypocrites!

[Horse with no Name]

5. She is a fucking loon

"The program, coordinated by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, provides food during the summer for thousands of low-income Missouri children who rely on the school cafeteria for free or reduced-price meals during the regular school year."

Her response:
"This is not a discussion of how to handle the public orphanage. These are children who have parents already providing meals for their children. This program could have an unintended consequence of diminishing parental involvement. Why have meals at home with your loved ones if you can go to the government soup kitchen and get one for free? This could have the effect of breaking apart more families."

[Hannah Bell]

7. let's try it on her.

[ejpoeta]

8. spoken like someone who has probably never felt the gnawing hunger,

the weakness....

[Horse with no Name]

10. I've never felt the gnawing hunger or the weakness

However, I can certainly empathize with those who have.
More like actually spoken by someone who simply doesn't give a shit about anyone else.

[ejpoeta]

13. i have. towards the end of living with my dad at 16 when we had no food in the house.

after awhile you just get used to not eating, i guess. it's not something i'd wish on anyone. and it isn't a positive motivator... when you can't even think straight, and you have no energy because you haven't eaten... but i think you are right.... someone like that doesn't give a shit about anyone but themselves and their family.

[Horse with no Name]

14. ....

:hug:
I'm sorry that you...or anyone...has ever had to experience this.

[guitar man]

12. speaking as someone who has been homeless and hungry

I'll attest to the fact that it can be a motivator. How "positive" it is I don't know. I have worked my ass off for years to keep my head above water. I paid my house off and have refused to borrow against it for fear of being homeless again. But the fear persists, in the deep dark of night I still lie awake sometimes with a gnawing fear that some mistake I make will take not only me, but also my wife and child back to where I was 22 years ago...homeless and hungry on the streets.

Surely, as a civilized nation, we can do better than this. No, hunger is not a positive motivator but a negative one. For the love of god why can't we evolve away from this kind of thinking?