this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2026
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Aside from all the other issues with this, $3 a meal per person is $270-$280 per person per month on food. Many people can't afford that anyway.

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[–] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 50 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)

If people can eat for that cheap wouldn't it just be a negligible amount off the top of a billionaire's wealth to feed everyone?

Starting to think they don't care if we eat

[–] Gucci_Minh@hexbear.net 21 points 1 month ago

I wonder what their plan is once there's no more need for proletarians and we all starve to death. Do the handful of billionaires just hang out in New Zealand surrounded by robobutlers?

[–] LeninWalksTheEarth@hexbear.net 16 points 1 month ago

work until you die, while under a caloric deficit.

[–] DragonBallZinn@hexbear.net 15 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Not to mention just how stupid the porks are for quite literally going “whole hog” on this.

The porks aren’t hiring at the moment, and this is reserve army of labor, no? How are they supposed to actually have workers to stand by and wait for them to be in the hiring mood if all the workers they’re “saving for later” starve?

[–] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think in the time of monsters a lot of this rational thinking is completely gone

[–] Self_Sealing_Stem_Bolt@hexbear.net 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fsilsons with years of covid brain damage are running the show now. Theres nothing but the barest understanding of the ideology that justfies this shit. They are flying blind.

[–] DragonBallZinn@hexbear.net 7 points 1 month ago

I am calling for all of us to collect these fuckups as receipts. Chuds pride themselves as white men naturally being able of running everything well, just collect these receipts and ask them again if they call rising poverty and inflation “well-run”?

All of this to appease the egos of 27% of the US population. I hate it here and I hate the Antichrist.

How are they supposed to actually have workers to stand by and wait for them to be in the hiring mood if all the workers they’re “saving for later” starve?

"The slave is sold once and for all; the proletarian must sell himself daily and hourly. The individual slave, property of one master, is assured an existence, however miserable it may be, because of the master's interest. The individual proletarian, property as it were of the entire bourgeois class which buys his labor only when someone has need of it, has no secure existence." - Engels

[–] LeninWeave@hexbear.net 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

That's only cheap if they're prepared meals TBH. If it's cost of ingredients it's not that cheap.

Still easy to feed everyone, though.

[–] Euergetes@hexbear.net 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] Acute_Engles@hexbear.net 3 points 1 month ago

Yeah first time

[–] BabyTurtles@hexbear.net 47 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I mean the real funny part was "a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, corn tortilla and one other thing".

Eat like a privileged gym bro but just really tiny portions mkay?

[–] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The only I'm reaching 2000 kcals with these ingredients for 9€ is by mostly stuffing myself with tortillas. Not very whole foods.

[–] reader@hexbear.net 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

if the "one other thing" is beans, and you are a small person with modest caloric needs, you could actually do this in my area. but you need to be able to cook and refrigerate the fresh foods. (plus as the OP says, nearly $300/mo/person on food isn't actually that small of a budget)

napkin math6.18 3lbs chicken thighs (1lb per day = 800 kcal) 2.79 30x corn tortillas (10 per day = 500 kcal) 3.00 1lb broccoli (entire lb per day = 150 kcal) 1.50 can of black beans (1.5 can per day = 630 kcal)

2.06+0.97+3.00+2.25 = TOTAL $8.28, 2080 kcal

leaves enough room to maybe involve some oil or seasoning occasionally, or dial up the beans or tortillas for more calories. Still a joke of a proposal I just enjoyed doing the math.

[–] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 2 points 4 weeks ago

I'm always amazed how cheap meat is in the US.

Then again the brokkoli is like twice as expensive.

[–] 7bicycles@hexbear.net 34 points 1 month ago

A spokesperson did say their analysis showed "hundreds of thousands" of other options to eat healthy for $3 a meal, built around foods including poultry, cottage cheese, frozen broccoli, sweet and white potatoes, frozen blueberries, whole grain bread and butter.

no beans or pulses lol

You always get the feeling this sort of thing is heavily informed by what I call "gas price thinking" in that the anchor point for prices is the cheapest once in a year fluke deal you could find and then assume that is what things cost all the time

[–] Wmill@hexbear.net 33 points 1 month ago (2 children)

And when restaurants go under we'll be blamed for it too, honestly I do less then three but like that shit takes planning and effort and this person clearly hasn't shopped in ages for their own food shit is going up and makes planning harder

[–] 7bicycles@hexbear.net 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Infrastructure is also so often ignored. I know years back when me and my friends were poor a lot of them were in some sort of rinkydink housing on account of being poor and what you get his maybe a mini-kitchennette, usually with no freezer and a minifridge which makes buying cheap and preparing bigger batches to save time so much harder

[–] Wmill@hexbear.net 15 points 1 month ago

True not to mention if I'm taking the bus or walking no way am I gonna bring home a 50 lbs bag of beans home and have to settle for paying more for smaller quantities

[–] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Then you have some recipes that work for, then some of the ingredients spike in price and it's no longer really feasible but you get told that rise in grocery prices is below inflation on average.

[–] Wmill@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah at this point I don't do recipes more stables with various flavor variations based on what I got on hand

[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 32 points 1 month ago

I just spent $100 on groceries the other day, it only got me 15 things and my fridge is already empty.

[–] WIIHAPPYFEW@hexbear.net 29 points 1 month ago (3 children)

That’s like a single microslice of banana bread from a convenience store lmao

[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

A candy bar is like $2, on what planet am I getting a chicken breast, broccoli, and a soft tortilla for $3????????

[–] segfault11@hexbear.net 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

they said a piece of chicken, technically one bite is a piece

[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[–] reader@hexbear.net 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

if you buy 3-4 meals worth at a time you can make this work where I live. Not including costs to get to the store or prepare the food ofc.

[–] DragonBallZinn@hexbear.net 10 points 1 month ago

Something something cruelty is the point, but I hate being lectured on people on how that is “stealing”, but porky refusing to make jobs and fulfill his end of the bargain, let alone wage theft ISN’T stealing?

[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago

A single packaged slice of banana bread from the convenience store has you on the short side of economies of scale, twice over.

A banana bread loaf from a grocery store will cost around $4, for eight of those slices. If you buy the mix and make it yourself, it's $1.50 at most.

A bunch of bananas (1 kg), 1/2 of a 5-pound bag of all-purpose flour, 1/16 of a box of baking soda, 1/6 of a 48oz bottle of neutral oil, and 1 quart of whole milk will give you at least 3 good loaves that aren't loaded with sugar- close to a day and a half of caloric needs- and run you up about $4.90 at the grocery store.

I had to know this intuitively from the time I fed myself on $50 a month.

[–] CarbonConscious@hexbear.net 25 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I mean I like that something like this is being considered at least. It's always been a bafflement to me that the liberal establishment hasn't tried to trot out more of these actually ameliorative programs for food or housing, let alone health care.

It's always disheartening to hear the numbers about how much it would cost to just outright end homelessness, child starvation, etc. Because usually the numbers are less than that year's military budget increase. Like, we can't even pretend to try?

That said, $3 a meal as an answer to poverty starvation does give very how-much-could-it-cost vibes.

[–] BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk 2 points 4 weeks ago

I've been thinking for years at this point a salary-sacrifice, state-run hello fresh would be fucking awesome. Would need to be properly run, get actual expert chefs and nutritionists in to design it, contracts for farmers, plan well in advance. Doing it on a massive scale would (hopefully) be more efficient, reduce waste, provide jobs and be a source of social cohesion.

Let it be optional, the better off subsidise the less well off. Kind of like the NHS for food, even allow top ups for "special" meals as and when.

[–] Elysia@hexbear.net 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

doggirl-sweat That'd be about double what I aim for per month in Euro, as a fellow poor (though I have time to cook for myself, which saves a lot of money)

If that's an improvement... things are pretty rough

[–] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 27 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What American pols (republican and democrat) never address is that due to structural problems it's insanely difficult if not impossible for poor Americans to eat healthy food. There are food deserts. Fresh fruit and vegetables are often hard/impossible to come by. Cheap food is pumped full of high-fructose corn syrup. Etc. These issues need to be addressed by state and federal governments.

Now that I'm thinking about it - I wonder how often AOC or Bernie talk about this problem. I have no idea. My wild guess is that they give it lip service once in a while.

[–] reader@hexbear.net 2 points 4 weeks ago

AOC types will talk about food deserts but idk what concrete measures there have been to address them besides zohran's municipal grocery stores idea. And obviously food deserts are only one small slice of the problem

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[–] DogThatWentGorp@hexbear.net 22 points 1 month ago

They'll literally do anything else before any kind of wealth redistribution, huh?

[–] Abracadaniel@hexbear.net 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Something I learned from China travel videos is that $3usd gets you a great meal in many parts of China.

[–] Soot@hexbear.net 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

As someone who went to China, I can tell you that less than one dollar will get you a great meal, like enough steamed dumplings to fill you for a day. 3USD will be a hecka good noodle bowl, drink and dessert in the right shops. 7USD will get you a fancy sushi meal with all the extras.

And that was just what my dumb ass found, there are probably many cheaper, better places.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Nazi Germany also promoted 10 pfennig meals for poor. Iirc that was groats plus pig lard and salt.

[–] deforestgump@hexbear.net 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] DisabledAceSocialist@hexbear.net 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] deforestgump@hexbear.net 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If you can, try to use archive.ph or any other archiving service. A lot of folks have websites like this blocked or can't access them for various reasons.

[–] DisabledAceSocialist@hexbear.net 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I've changed it to a different site.

[–] InappropriateEmote@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's obviously not mandatory or anything, but posting an archive link is always a nice thing to do even when the news site you're posting isn't paywalled or blocked. For one thing, if the article gets changed or removed, it will still be there on the archive site, in the form it was when the snapshot was taken. It also doesn't give that site traffic when people reading your post click through to read the article, and usually that's good, considering the profiteering of mainstream news sites is not something leftists like to contribute to. Those MSM sites also can't track people who see the archived version instead of going to their site. And finally, although sometimes some ads will get archived along with the snapshot of the news site, generally it makes it a lot better for folks who don't use an adblocker, as it cuts down if not eliminates intrusive ads.

So yeah, no big deal, but it can be a helpful, considerate thing to do for future reference. I'm only explaining all this because you asked the person requesting the archive link what they meant.

OK, I'll try and remember for the future. I'm not that good with technology so didn't know about any of this.

[–] communism@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I probably spend under 50 USD a month on food—not by choice, because I can't afford to buy more. I'm not hungry but I do yearn for being able to eat with more variety and to eat more expensive foods as a treat from time to time. So yeah, I think this is just out of touch, although I've never been in the US and I understand the food is both more expensive there plus people have more money there, so maybe it's less unreasonable in the US.

[–] DisabledAceSocialist@hexbear.net 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

But if you consider that's per person, so a family of four would be spending well over $1000 a month on food under this plan, it's unachievable for most I would say.

[–] communism@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 weeks ago

For sure. I'm not financially responsible for anyone else, and it's hard to understand how capitalists expect people to feed their kids with the kind of money they hand out with minimum wage or benefits.

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