Do people ever find it strange that they have to pay for the things they need? They should find it strange because it is strange. The human being needs a couple different things to survive. The first would be food, and without food a human being will starve to death. The second is water, and without water a human being will die of thirst, lastly is shelter, human beings need shelter to endure the elements.
In a place like Chicago, being homeless is a death sentence. Yet, each of these extremely necessary parts of the human experience are locked behind a paywall. One must fork over cash in order to live.
Food Behind Paywalls
The commodification of humanity’s needs is the primary reason why humanity is not free from class oppression. Locking food behind a paywall creates an economic barrier of entry, which forces people to have to climb that wall through getting one or more jobs. Forcing people to sell a third of their lives in order to simply survive and have the things they need can’t be indicative of a healthy society.
Healthy societies don’t waste foods in the way that America does. If America utilized all the food that it wasted and managed to send all the uneaten food to families who have none, America might look a little different. Resources like food and water are things that people need to survive, and put simply people will die without them. So, why then, do people pay for food and why water?
America Simply Chooses Not To
Put simply, it seems that people pay for food and water because they have both have been made into American industries instead of social services. Money, and currency are fabricated concept that are entirely made up. America has enough food to feed all of its own citizens and then some. “Each year, 119 billion pounds of food is wasted in the United States. That equates to 130 billion meals and more than $408 billion in food thrown away each year. Shockingly, nearly 40% of all food in America is wasted,” according to Feeding America.
This level of food waste is simply unacceptable. America has to do better when it comes to the distribution of food. Food waste happens as a result of many things, including but not limited to:
- Uneaten food that is thrown out at homes, stores, and restaurants.
- Crops left in fields because of low crop prices or too many of the same crops being available.
- Problems during the manufacturing and transportation of food.
- Food not meeting retailers’ standards for color and appearance.
America Has the Means
America has a military budget that is approaching $1 trillion and gets closer every year. Maybe it is time to slice a cut of that budget to get the ball rolling on this problem. America doesn’t need more military bases when its people are starving. People shouldn’t have to pay for food when literal billions of pounds of food get wasted every year.
Why can’t the government simply give away the food that gets wasted in the fields to people that wouldn’t be able to pay for food in the first place. It seems like the only thing stopping people from having the food they need is the greed of wealthy. The most vulnerable sections of society, that being those who cant afford the essentials, can’t access those essentials because of the fabricated notion of currency.
Written by Kenneth Mazerat
Sources:
CBS News: Almost half of Americans can’t pay for their basic needs by AIMEE PICCHI
Feeding America: Food Waste and Food Rescue
EPA.gov: Preventing Wasted Food At Home
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Katrin Gilger’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
First Inset Image Courtesy of Aidan Buie’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
