this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2024
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[–] [email protected] 139 points 2 months ago (3 children)

To be clear, if you're at all concerned about maintaining a food budget, even if it's $500/week the billionaire class is still your enemy.

[–] [email protected] 109 points 2 months ago (2 children)

To be clear, the billionaire class is your enemy

[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 months ago (3 children)

To be clear, the 100 million class is also your enemy

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I am always amazed how everyone is so focused on billionaires only

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It’s just a class that is absolutely exploring people. You can’t become a billionaire without it. You can absolutely become an honest millionaire so it wouldn’t make sense to use that.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (9 children)

Yeah like there are folks who are worth 10ish million who just bought a house 50ish years ago that gained a lot of value and had dual incomes that saved all their money for retirement.

100 million folks are on THIN ice, but there is probably an author or inventor out there who made something really nice and everyone they worked with was also well taken care of. Most of them are probably garbage, but not all of them have to be. Some famous actors also were well known for making sure everyone got paid what they deserved on set and were very generous.

I just don't see getting to a billion without someone being taken advantage of on the way though.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

Lack of understanding of class. Billionaires are just the obscene top of the top of the bourgeoisie and they do excercise disproportional power in the ruling class, but the class war isn't only about them, it's about the system which makes their power possible. For example China also have billionaires, but they aren't even 1/100 of a problem there.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Any billionaire can lose 90% of their wealth and have above 100 million left.

Many can lose 99% and have above 100 million left.

Some can lose 99% and still be billionaires.

The 100 millionaire will still have a million or more left after losing 99%, but that's not "live like hogs in the fat house forever" money at least. It's just "I don't have to worry if I lose my job" money.

A hundredbillionaire can lose 99% of their money and not make any perceptible changes in their lifestyle.

I propose the following:

Gap individual wealth at 50000x the national median annual income. Max wealth anyone in the US could have is, at present, under 2 billion. Other countries will vary, but generally it's plenty enough to motivate people to innovate, but nobody gets to be Bezos or Musk wealthy. Yachts should count towards this wealth gap, at a depreciation rate of 5% a year off the build cost. Primary residence doesn't count unless it's also used for generating income. You get to have one car, regardless of price, that doesn't get counted towards it, and the other ones count at market value. So you can have your classic car that appreciates in price, and a daily driver - without having to worry about the classic car's effect on your wealth limit.

Side effect is that now suddenly rich people near the gap will be a lot more interested in paying better wages to the working class. Why? Because then they'd get to keep more of their money. And to raise the median efficiently, you need to be raising wages for the poorest among us first and foremost.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago (3 children)

To be positively translucent, even someone with $1,000,000 in the bank has 1000x less than the poorest billionaire. For other disturbing facts, see https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

For everyone following along at home: this website is worth a click if you've never seen it before!

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[–] [email protected] 72 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Hell, even if you can easily afford way more than that, you are still closer to the person who can only afford $2 of food a day than a billionaire.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 months ago

The difference between a million and a billion is about a billion

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago

Ain't that the truth! I'm a lay off and a medical emergency from needing to do this diet.

Billionaires are either an apocalypse or a revolution away from needing to do this.

One of these is much more likely to happen tomorrow than the other.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Ok but for real tho. The average American severely underestimates how far you can get on rice, beans, lentils and chickpeas.

[–] AlecSadler 10 points 2 months ago (11 children)

Serious question, if I live off just that, I end up feeling like absolute garbage. That's even with supplementing it with greens like spinach and some other veggies and vitamin supplements. What am I missing?

Like, macro-wise, I can replace meat and other things, but it doesn't seem to hit the same?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

Get a blood test. You could have a micronutrient deficiency. It is common to develop either vitamin D, B or iron deficiencies when you cut meat since they just aren't as abundant outside of red meat and organ meat.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Feel free to ask me questions on how to eat on a budget so you can keep your strength up while organizing against those that wish nothing more for you to work until the day you die and own nothing of consequence!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Man where were you 8 years ago when I ate zero protein because I didn't know it could be cheap. Couldn't afford animal products and was conditioned to believe those were the only viable source of protein.

Btw I'd like to add textured vegetable protein to the list! It's one of my go-tos nowadays.

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[–] Imgonnatrythis 29 points 2 months ago (6 children)

What about eating people's cats and allegedly ducks as well? Did you know thousands of pets are euthanized each year? That's all just wasted food.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 months ago

"Also, do you really NEED to sleep?"

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago

I have a union and still just scraping by. But if I didn't have the union I'd have drowned by now

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago

I wish I could eat like this - not only for the cost effectiveness, but it'd be better for the environment than meat! Having IBD really sucks. I can only imagine how difficult it is in the US where the medical care is so expensive on top of everything else.

[–] MrScottyTay 20 points 2 months ago

Plant based whole foods, the fuel of the rebellion!

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What's the difference between a chick pea and a garbanzo bean?

spoilerI've never paid to have a garbanzo bean on my face

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That duck is looking pretty tasty right about now.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Just posted this a bit ago:

"Sean Aloysius O'Brien... They fished his body out of the Allegheny river a week before the strike ended. Thirty two bullets he had in him. Or was it thirty four?" -Miles O'brien

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Unionization isn't enough, we need syndicalism. They're like Unions but armed, more organized, more willing to strike and sabotage, and unlike Unions which attempt to hold back the Capitalists Syndicates replace capitalism entirely. Remember, why demand the scraps of the capitalists when we can take the means of production and the complete value of our labor.

Pro life tip: Read theory, join your local socialist or anarchist organization, get involved, strike, sabotage, just make sure to organize

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

"Hey won't this get us banned... oh right, ML!"

If they bring armed thugs to the strikes, only fair if strikers do as well. Negotiation only happens between parties on equal footing.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Syndicalism is nice, but without a solid analysis of Imperialism it risks taking on a Nationalist character if you're in the Imperial Core. Additionally, if you're in a de-industrialized nation like the United States, worker organization is more difficult along union lines, which is partially why Unions have historically struggled in the United States in recent years.

100% agree on reading theory and joining an org, just wanted to add some caveats.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (8 children)

I feel like since they are mostly water weight, the math doesn't always look great. But let's go through it!

For example: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Russet-Potatoes-10-lb-Bag-Whole/10449951?classType=REGULAR&from=/search

10 pounds of food for $3 sounds great, but in a pound there is only 300 calories about, depending on type/peel/etc. So 3,000 calories for 3 dollars. At $1 per 1000 calories it isn't bad.

But let's compare to this 5 pound bag of flour for 2.38, at 3 cents an ounce:

https://www.walmart.com/search?q=flour

A pound of flour has 1,600 calories. So this bag of flour that is cheaper than the potatoes, has 8000 calories for 2.50. But you'll need to put in some elbow grease to make it edible. Doing a sourdough is probably the cheapest way to do it since all you need is flour, water, salt, and the starter you made using flour, but it is more time intensive. So about 3,200 calories for a dollar.

Rice comes in with a very similar amount of calories, but just a little more expensive at 4 cents an ounce:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Long-Grain-Enriched-Rice-5-lbs/10315395?classType=REGULAR&athbdg=L1600&from=/search

Rice is a bit easier to turn edible though, so the extra dollar might be worth it for a 5 pound bag. 2,400 calories per dollar spent.

Then oatmeal comes in as our most expensive at 7 cents an ounce.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KV4H51G?tag=sacapuntas9-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1

At once again 1600ish calories for a pound of dry oatmeal, it is 1.12 per pound. So it is creeping up closer to the price of potatoes TBH, and if you were super on a budget the oatmeal would be the first to go. But I suppose potatoes aren't "that" much worse than oatmeal. But my thought was oatmeal is good breakfast option so wanted to include it, and the top bit is mostly setup for bottom.

Knowing this stuff is helpful to our daily lives because rich people hate us.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

Mmm, delicious advice duck ... is telling me to eat the rich?
Welp, who am I to question it's wisdom, must be the right thing to do.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (8 children)

I can buy oats and flour on the cheap around here, but chickpeas and dried beans? That's very quickly sounding like $10 a day.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

Bruh how? You can get kilograms of dried beans for $10.

It's more expensive for canned beans but for $10 are you eating 5 cans of organic beans a day?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (20 children)

Every time I cook rice it comes out bad. Tips? I'd like to be able to make edible rice without purchasing an appliance. Movies and history tell me this is possible??

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (3 children)

It's possible but the cheapest rice cooker is going to be more consistent than a seasoned pro. I can cook rice fairly well without a cooker but 1 out of 10 times it's awful.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I love my Instant Pot. You can probably find used ones now. It makes perfect rice and I use it to make oatmeal from steel cut oats nearly every morning. I also use it to steam vegetables like broccoli, especially potatoes for when I make mashed potatoes.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Rinsing rice does wonders. Without a rice cooker you'll need to strain it, but it's still worth it.

  1. Measure rice by volume. Let's say 2 cups worth
  2. Put into fine colendar and rinse until the water comes out clear. Mixing with your hand will speed this up. You can also do this in the pot you're going to cook in and dump water out
  3. Put strained rice in your pot
  4. Add cold water. The ratio of water to rice matters a lot and varies by species of rice. The ratio will be printed on whatever container your rice came in. For Jasmin rice it's 2 water to 1 rice, so for our two cups of rice you'll need 4 cups of water
  5. Cover, turn on medium-high heat, being to boil. Don't go far because it will boil over when it does boil
  6. Turn the heat down to low, crack the lid, and set a timer. The amount of time needed will vary based on rice. For Jasmin, 15 minutes is a good check-in time
  7. Pop the lid. See water bubbling up? If yes, replace lid and come back in a few minutes. If not, use a wooden spoon to get a peek at the bottom of the pot. See water? If yes, replace lid and come back fairly soon to check again. If not, your rice is done. Turn the heat off, fluff, enjoy.

We made rice for years using this method and it is a very reliable cooking method. Rice doesn't really leave you a lot of wiggle room though, which is where a rice cooker comes in handy. As an added bonus, some rice cookers come with water lines in them. I measure my dry rice into the cooker, rinse using the cooker, dump most of the water out, and fill to the appropriate level.

Different species of rice have very different textures and somewhat (subtle) different flavorss.

Some rice, like basmati, can be cooked using the pasta method (intentionally use way too much water and strain the excess off after the rice is cooked). I guess all rice could be cooked that way, but you would be giving up some starch.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Just thinking; maybe if people stop trying to get rid of political target and instead started target billionaires, then maybe, just maybe, the world would be a better place for everyone.

Just thinking.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I guess that's the main problem with billionaires, is we didn't pick any of them, and once they're a super billionaire we can't really do much about them.

Oh don't buy their products? They're invested in everything, most food brands are just different names for the same factories. Oracle billionaire? WTF are you going to do to protest Oracle? Politicians we, are supposed to, pick. Billionaires become billionaires generally by being the worst, then there isn't anything we can do about it.

So we need to get the politicians on our side to keep the billionaires in check... or violent revolution. I'm a pacifist so I like the first one more, but if the majority is up for the second one, I'm not gonna say ya'll are wrong.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

Two tips, one meme.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

A bag of dried chickpeas makes for two weeks worth of hummus.

Follow me for more health and finance advice

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Did you know that at lemmy, they have special discounts, where you can get two wisdoms for the price of one upvote?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

An arrangement where employees bargain collectively with their employer to have more leverage, usually collecting dues from members to help with things like strikes.

I think it's called a "sindicato" in Portuguese, though in English "syndicate" means something a bit different

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