Questionable Content 12: Artificial Unintelligence

[Wraith]

Where I'm at, $3 gets me a kg of potatoes, or about 800 calories rounded up. My point isn't that Oreos in particular are calorie dense, but that cheap junk is more calorie rich than you're giving it credit for. Being mostly corn syrup will do that.

You're right, a $3 bag of potatoes is reasonably nutritious - except that to some people, $3 might as well be $3000 whether they're buying vegetables or cookies. Herein lies the difference between "not having much money" and "being in abject poverty".

The implication being that Clinton thought she was referring to the former, but Brun is referring to the latter.

[Ibrinar]

That is a ridiculous potato price. (Well I got potato calorie wrong anyway. Though do you haven't at least any super cheap white bread in your heathen country, it might not be proper bread but is calories dense and still better than Oreo?) Anyway where exactly did I say snacks don't have calorie I said they don't replace meals? Eating ten mars bars meets your cal requirements that doesn't mean they leave you sated.

[Honest Tiefling]

Could also be luck of the draw, because if her family relied on things like food donations, she might just not have gotten raisins. I worked at one briefly, and they sorta just handed out whatever they got their hands on, which was often a strange selection of vegetables. Persimmons got in there once, and I've never had those before from an middle class upbringing.

Also, I am suspicious of the guy comparing kilos of potatoes for the example of a poorer family in the states. I get the feeling that your information might be a little different...Almost...Foreign.

However, if appliances aren't a thing due to being in a car or similar situation, oreos might be preferable because I've heard you shouldn't be eating potatoes raw. Of course, if Brun is not from the area where the comic is set, the idea that only a Wal-mart or other grocery store that didn't have produce at good prices is still a factor. I'm not really sure how prevalent food deserts really are, but I'm not going to be up in arms about someone mentioning it as an off-hand joke.

We also need titles, guys. My best idea is 'Robo-love Drama'.

[georgie_leech]

We also need titles, guys. My best idea is 'Robo-love Drama'.

Oh man it's that time already. My vote is "That's My "Internally Screaming" Face.

[Wraith]

Questionable Content 13: It Is YOU Who is The Dork!

[AvatarVecna]

Questionable Content 13: It Is YOU Who is The Dork!

Seconded.

[Mith]

Questionable Content 13: It Is YOU Who is The Dork!

+1 vote from me.

[Traab]

Speaking as someone who has lived on food stamps (Thats government paying for food on a monthly basis for those who may not know) Buying in bulk is generally the best option possible when money is tight. Bulk serings ted to be cheaper per unit. Just as an example, you can buy a full pork loin for about 14 bucks in my neck of the woods and get two dozen chops out of that. Thats a damn fine main course right there. Yes, this all assumes you have both a freezer and time to cook, but even so. Arguing about the difference between poor and "poor" is kinda futile because, as I think has been mentioned already, there are all sorts of different standards depending on where you live, and even those who live in the same area will often have slightly different circumstances. For the record i will put my hat in the ring for raisins being super cheap and a solid thing to eat as they keep for so long (they kinda suck in summer cause they get sticky and clump together) But its not THAT surprising someone would have ever eaten it, even for reasons that have nothing to do with money. I live in ct btw, so im a north eastern feller myself. I could probably drive to their apartment from my place.

[Vinyadan]

Partially unrelated question: is there an allergy to raisins? Could Brun be about to collapse?

[Keltest]

Partially unrelated question: is there an allergy to raisins? Could Brun be about to collapse?

Conceivably she could be allergic to grapes, which would thus extend to raisins and other grape-based products like wines, but that seems... unlikely. Grape allergies are rare, and severe "get me to the hospital now" allergies rare even among that group.

[Shadow of the Sun]

As someone on the spectrum, I have a lot of difficulty trying new food. It's also part of my OCD, as well. Kinda surprised that Brun hasn't shown that yet.

[mythmonster2]

Questionable Content 13: It Is YOU Who is The Dork!

Sounds good to me, as well.

[John Cribati]

Welp, she doesn't very much like raisins it seems. I'm also weird with food, in that I eat more for texture than taste. Like, you know how certain flavors you like can be wrong if it's the wrong kind of thing? I'm like that with everything. I like chocolate milk but not chocolate bars, Meat and fish have to be moist and soft no matter how good it tastes, carbonated drinks burn my entire mouth and nose except when that drink is a malta... I can go on.

[Max_Killjoy]

Texture is a HUGE deal for me when it comes to food. There are things I don't mind the taste of that I find vile because of the texture. And the same texture can be fine for one food and vile for another -- meat should never be chewy... fat and gristle make my insta-gag.

Plus there are some foods that to me stink like hot wet Russian restaurant garbage, that other people can't even smell.

But I love carbonated beverages, almost to a fault -- love the fizz, and as a bonus it gets all sorts of other tastes and stuff out of my mouth.

[Shadow of the Sun]

I'm another person for whom texture is a big deal. In fact, I can't eat most meats simply because the texture feels wrong to me.

[Knaight]

Where I'm at, $3 gets me a kg of potatoes, or about 800 calories rounded up. My point isn't that Oreos in particular are calorie dense, but that cheap junk is more calorie rich than you're giving it credit for. Being mostly corn syrup will do that.

Corn farming subsidies do all sorts of weird stuff to prices. Calorie for calorie really cheap icecream is often one of the cheapest things around.

[Morquard]

I had raisins before, but mostly as part of cereals and muesli or baked goods, not simply as a snack on their own. That idea just sounds strange to me.

Grapes on the other hand, yes. I have some of those in the house as snacks right now.

[truemane]

I grew up in an upper-middle class home in a fairly rural part of the world, but then spent about a decade raising two kids, in a very urban part of the world, deeply mired in poverty. And I can say, having seen two sides, that the interaction between food and money are complex things that don't have easy answers. And there are way more sides to the matter than I've seen. I've just had the benefit of seeing it from two very different angles.

It is true that, calorie for calorie, junk is cheaper than not junk. But the real benefit of junk food (or was for me anyway) is time and ease of effort. A lot of people forget, or don't know, just how exhausting it can be to be poor. I remember keenly the back-to-back 16 hour work days, always on your feet, long hours on inefficient transit (or walking) because we couldn't afford a car, bad shoes, never enough sleep, etc etc.

And I'd be home on a Thursday evening, have four hours to spend with my kids before bedtime, another three or four 16 hour days after that, and the last thing I want to do is spend an hour and change making food when frozen pizza is 25 easy minutes away.

All that being said, I had raisins around both in my youth and in my poor young-adulthood. So it also struck me as a strange way for Jeph to walk into the conversation about privilege and wealth.

[Max_Killjoy]

Poverty can be, and very often is, grinding... physically, mentally, and emotionally.

I just wish the conversation about poverty hadn't turned to the finger-pointing, social-revanchism, and class-baiting of "privilege".

[Cikomyr]

Are we still talking about the sociopolitical issues brought up clumsily by a slice of life webcomic?

[halfeye]

Corn farming subsidies do all sorts of weird stuff to prices. Calorie for calorie really cheap icecream is often one of the cheapest things around.

Calorie for calorie, the highest value per weight is in fats.

There are a huge number of calories in margarine, and if that's not cheap enough, lard or dripping is cheaper still and about the same calorie content, the calorie content of butter is similar, but it tends to be more expensive.

[AuthorGirl]

Questionable Content 13: It Is YOU Who is The Dork!

I approve of this.

[Willie the Duck]

I grew up in an upper-middle class home in a fairly rural part of the world, but then spent about a decade raising two kids, in a very urban part of the world, deeply mired in poverty. And I can say, having seen two sides, that the interaction between food and money are complex things that don't have easy answers. And there are way more sides to the matter than I've seen. I've just had the benefit of seeing it from two very different angles.

It is true that, calorie for calorie, junk is cheaper than not junk. But the real benefit of junk food (or was for me anyway) is time and ease of effort. A lot of people forget, or don't know, just how exhausting it can be to be poor. I remember keenly the back-to-back 16 hour work days, always on your feet, long hours on inefficient transit (or walking) because we couldn't afford a car, bad shoes, never enough sleep, etc etc.

And I'd be home on a Thursday evening, have four hours to spend with my kids before bedtime, another three or four 16 hour days after that, and the last thing I want to do is spend an hour and change making food when frozen pizza is 25 easy minutes away.

All that being said, I had raisins around both in my youth and in my poor young-adulthood. So it also struck me as a strange way for Jeph to walk into the conversation about privilege and wealth.

Thanks for this. This is the most cogent of all the responses I've seen here. I too have a mixed experience -- grew up struggling middle class, great uncle left my parents a lot when I was out of the house, I'm a ridiculously overcompensated professional, but my forays into addiction and recovery (and sponsorship) along with working in healthcare has given me a tourist's view of the extremely marginalized. All I can say is that "complex things that don't have easy answers" is the truest thing. Between food deserts, lack of working appliances, cheap, sugar-packed (or fat packed, such as the lard sandwiches and fry-bread government food rations brought to reservation diets) food, and so on can easily make junk food the easiest to afford (to actually eat).

But also, I also found this entire foray into privilege and wealth very strange and more than a little stilted.

[Vinyadan]

I am extremely ignorant when it comes to this stuff. There is a very good comic out there which deals with life in poverty, "How to Be Homeless", which has been pretty much the only window I've had to get something of an idea. I think it's worth reading. IIRC it also says something about potatoes somewhere.

[eee]

Are we still talking about the sociopolitical issues brought up clumsily by a slice of life webcomic?

Naw, we're talking about raisin bread now...

[Wraith]

New Thread, since this one is about to tip over the edge of oblivion... aka, Page 51.