The Politics of food banks - don't we all like free things?
Controversial topic - but I see the rise in the use of foodbanks is going to become a big political issue in this campaign. Cameron was particularly floored by it on Thursday night.
Now I merely make a few observations:
Lots of people go to Waitrose every day to get a free coffee - is the fact they probably now 'sell' far far more coffee than before this offer came in. Does this mean more Waitrose customers have developed a coffee addiction - or are their mainly middle class customers more likely to get coffee from them if its free rather than when they had to pay £2.20 for it.
I never used to go to the cinema regularly - now I get free cinema tickets via my health policy I go every week. I haven't become more interested in going to the cinema - I am more likely to go now as the ticket is free!
My retired father has started going swimming more regularly since his council offered free swimming to retired people - does he like swimming more now or is it just because its now free rather than costing £3 a time he goes more.
So is the rise in the use of foodbanks linked to the fact that there are more foodbanks offering free food - and if its free (rich or poor) we are more likely to take advantage of something?
Cos no one seems to make the connection - we all love freebies and are prepared to go to some lengths to get them middle class or poor.
Lets have a heated debate.:D:D
Now I merely make a few observations:
Lots of people go to Waitrose every day to get a free coffee - is the fact they probably now 'sell' far far more coffee than before this offer came in. Does this mean more Waitrose customers have developed a coffee addiction - or are their mainly middle class customers more likely to get coffee from them if its free rather than when they had to pay £2.20 for it.
I never used to go to the cinema regularly - now I get free cinema tickets via my health policy I go every week. I haven't become more interested in going to the cinema - I am more likely to go now as the ticket is free!
My retired father has started going swimming more regularly since his council offered free swimming to retired people - does he like swimming more now or is it just because its now free rather than costing £3 a time he goes more.
So is the rise in the use of foodbanks linked to the fact that there are more foodbanks offering free food - and if its free (rich or poor) we are more likely to take advantage of something?
Cos no one seems to make the connection - we all love freebies and are prepared to go to some lengths to get them middle class or poor.
Lets have a heated debate.:D:D
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Comments
I suppose it depends on how willing people are to give up everything they have just to get food from a food bank, because unlike people who shop in Waitrose it is only those in desperate need who can get food from a food bank.
Of course you have to apply - but if you get free food its surely an incentive. But you also have to apply for free swimming or a Waitrose card.
I don't deny the issue - but does this actually mean there is more poverty than in 2010 or just that food banks are now more widely available so understandably more people will use them.
I merely question if this signals a rise in poverty - or a rise in foodbanks. That is my point!
Do you know anything about how food banks actually work? You cannot just swan along and say feed me freebies! Perhaps you ought to actually understand how having to use charity to feed a family really feels. Or having to ask for a referral to a food bank?
Newspeak
Well there has definitely been a rise in people using food banks according to this.
http://www.trusselltrust.org/foodbank-figures-top-900000
Maybe more to the point would be to ask whether the people who use them would end up in poverty if food banks did not exist.
Simply not true.
Millions of people do voluntary work every month.
Yes that's right. Instead of working extra hours for money they are working for nothing to help people who are in trouble.
But do we know where these people sit on the Political Spectrum??
Hmmm.......Let me ask some of these bleeding heart Liberals to see if there are clues to that and get back to you.
So I don't agree with your starting point.
I estimate that only 32% of the population are Selfish Greedy Unempathetic Scumbags.
Why should they have to pay food banks are a good idea.
Charity is always a good idea however foods banks being a necessity to prevent hunger is not a good idea, nor is it moral.
Where did I say there was anything wrong with it - that is not the issue.
My point is - are there more food bank users because there are more foodbanks?
Because if something is offered for free - you are of course more likely to take advantage of it than having to go instead to a shop and pay for said food.
And as for humiliating - yes its never easy asking for things. But I spent 2 months last year visiting an elderly relative daily in a ward full of terminal cancer patients - people left without feeding properly, often not washed until late afternoon, vomiting constantly and left to lie in their s**t for some time until staff came back from their lunch to clean them.
If you want humiliating - well I have seen plenty of that - and asking for free food from a food bank is a lot less humiliating by comparison.
Yes we all like freebies but are you seriously telling me that, as a person who could afford to buy your own food, you would take - or condone the taking of - food provided for the more unfortunate members of our society.
Maybe you just have a very cynical view of human behaviour.
You only get a "free" coffee if you buy something else to eat at the same time.
No - you just cannot deal with the point raised.
Because of course we never had any poverty from 1997 to 2010 - it only existed since May 2010.
If we had had more foodbanks then - maybe more people would have used foodbanks? If there were no foodbanks - no one would use them. That is the point at hand - because the current argument is way too simplistic.
As per usual - no one wants to debate the issue as their minds are closed on the point. A bit like only Labour can save the NHS - forget PFI or Staffordshire - or they are going to solve the housing crisis - another tripling of house prices and ten times more buy to let landlords again?
Well said people make out everything before 2010 was rosy and sweet and we all had 13 years of high paid people, no one lived on the streets, the rich paid for the poor and we all smiled everyday when we woke up at living in such great times.
When in reality we were giving people tax credits to pay for low wages and children, the bankers were laughing at Gordon Brown as he swiped his GB credit card on anything and everything and as he sold off everything we had in reserve.
Well according to this there are more food banks now than there were in 2004
Not sure what that proves though other than during this Government people have obviously become poorer, otherwise there would be no need for the increase.
I always love this twee view of the world - no one ever takes advantage of things ever unless they are rich evil capitalist Tories of course!
An average of 20,000 kids die each day from disease and malnutrition in the world - poverty is of course all relative. Because you can always find someone more deserving than you?
Do you think people don't realise that poverty existed pre 2010? Do you think we don't realise the gap between the rich and the poor has been widening before 2010, actually pre 1997? What has poverty from 1997 got to do with this?
Mmmmmm I wonder?