this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2026
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Late Stage Capitalism

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[–] WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 1 points 2 hours ago

I have a suggestion: let corporations adopt children.

[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 3 points 4 hours ago

Richest nation in the history of our species...

[–] Glytch@lemmy.world 32 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

Enforcing this will cost more than just feeding the kids would.

[–] bagsy@lemmy.world 9 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

You forget that slavery is still legal for prisoners. They will put you in prison for stupid reasons because they want tons of free labor.

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 hours ago

Land of the free labour.

[–] Nomorereddit@lemmy.today 20 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

We've been a prison country for a long time now bud. They'll find a way.

[–] ThunderQueen@lemmy.world 12 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

America is 3% of the world population, yet has 25% of the worlds prison population. America runs on prison labor and debt slavery

[–] Nomorereddit@lemmy.today 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Nope, this isnt a labor supply solution.

This is just for the love of the game.

[–] ThunderQueen@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

Unfortunately it is a little of both. So many of our industries are subsidized by prison labor that it would be very disruptive for them to change it. Absolutely not saying we shouldnt. Just that that is why the centrist fucks wont move a muscle on prison reform

[–] Sunflier@lemmy.world 3 points 13 hours ago

Probably higher now.

[–] Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Is there any other country where "lunch debt" is even a thing?

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 15 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

Maybe we should do what Israel does and give people a monthly $260 per child payment until the child turns 18? I mean we pay for it there so why not implement it here?

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 29 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

Why do we even have this orphan-crushing machine?

[–] SippyCup@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago

Torment Nexus isn't built yet

[–] Bakkoda@lemmy.world 10 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Imagine a child who grew up in lunch debt. Constantly aware of how awful their life is. Now take a portion of them at 18, give them training and weapons and send them to some country they grew up being told is bad and even responsible for their suffering. Tada.

[–] JennyLaFae@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 7 hours ago

My mom worked full-time as a lunch lady, my dad full-time as a janitor. We had reduced lunch ($.40) and once got a letter for -.$20 with a $.34 stamp.

[–] presoak@lazysoci.al 10 points 19 hours ago

The more you crush them the harder they work.

Same for adults.

[–] Hubi@feddit.org 132 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Please come back when you can afford to make a purchase. Your kids are starving. Carl's Jr. believes no child should go hungry. You are an unfit mother. Your children will be placed in the custody of Carl's Jr.

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 68 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That movie isn’t funny anymore.

[–] DJKJuicy@sh.itjust.works 19 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

President Camacho knew that there was a problem and actively recruited the smartest person he could find...completely unrealistic.

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 10 points 19 hours ago

Terry Crews, without any additional training, would literally be the best president since Carter.

[–] yoyoyopo5@lemmy.world 18 points 23 hours ago (2 children)
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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 36 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Didn't pay your Minch money? Then the state will now spend thousands over thousands of dollars to ruin your child's life!

[–] AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 30 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

Seriously fucked up. They could feed all those kids for free for a fraction of what it would cost the state to forcibly put them in foster care.

I'm always reminded that the cruelty IS the point.

[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 16 points 20 hours ago

They could feed all the children for free for the cost of forcibly taking one child away.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 4 points 17 hours ago

They're going to pay those other parents a stipend. Pay a case worker and their manager, pay an attorney. Those case workers are already bruised and battered nearly to death.

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[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 13 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

So that whole "greatest country in the world" thing was just propaganda?

Well shit.

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[–] AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 27 points 20 hours ago

whY wOn'T pOEpLe hAvE MoRE kIdS??

[–] Chivera@lemmy.world 15 points 18 hours ago

Something you'd hear Americans say it happens in communist countries

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 10 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

Meahwhile, Some counties in Maryland have made school lunches free for all kids.

[–] jve@lemmy.world 8 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)
[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 3 points 14 hours ago

Basic school food is one of those things; it's not free, but it's not that expensive done in bulk. These kids need a couple of bucks a meal, only on school days

[–] Nomorereddit@lemmy.today 4 points 16 hours ago

Baltimore city, free lunch and breakfast! Grades and performance....not so good tho.

Don't let perfection be the enemy of good, I say.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 54 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The district says that it is trying to collect more than $20,000, and that other methods to get parents to pay have not been successful. Four parents owe at least $450 apiece. The letter claims the unpaid bills could lead to dependency hearings and removal of their children for not providing them with food. "You can be sent to dependency court for neglecting your child's right to food. The result may be your child being taken from your home and placed in foster care," the letter read. After complaints, district officials announced they plan to send out a less threatening letter next week. Luzerne County's manager and child welfare agency director have written the superintendent, insisting the district stop making what they call false claims. Their letter calls the district's actions troubling and a misrepresentation of how the Children and Youth Services Department and its foster care program operate. Wyoming Valley West's lawyer, Charles Coslett, said he did not consider the letters to be threatening. "Hopefully, that gets their attention and it certainly did, didn't it? I mean, if you think about it, you're here this morning because some parents cried foul because he or she doesn't want to pay a debt attributed to feeding their kids. How shameful," Coslett told WYOU-TV.

What a lovely person this Charles Coslett, attorney at law, is!

https://www.10tv.com/article/news/nation-world/kids-could-end-foster-care-over-lunch-debt-school-district-warns-parents-2019-jul/530-1952542e-0f2c-4b3a-b6f0-a32de5dbce58

[–] Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 48 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

because he or she doesn’t want to pay a debt attributed to feeding their kids.

$450 is like two trips to the grocery store these days, or even less for a big family. Maybe the parents aren't paying the school bill because they did spend the money on food. Everything's expensive as hell.

How shameful

Yes, threatening parents for being poor in an unaffordable country without social safety nets is shameful.

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[–] Bazell@lemmy.zip 26 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I cannot explain how, but I feel that this is just another start of great scheme on how to make Epstein's island 2.0.

[–] paul@lemmy.org 10 points 22 hours ago

I can explain: the US government is filled with people connected to Epstein's island. People who either engaged in pedophillia or are completely fine with it. They've got an unlimited supply of children from the immigrants they're abducting off the streets. America is an evil country.

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So instead of free lunch we will take and house your kids and feed them and deprive them of family. Which will cost 100x more and is 10000x more evil than making kids pay for lunch

[–] BigBananaDealer@lemmy.world 9 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

i swear this pic is a decade old

[–] K1nsey6@lemmy.world 6 points 18 hours ago

If it's in the US it's older than that, our school lunches in the 70s didn't look this good

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[–] Retail4068@lemmy.world 6 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (5 children)

I feel like pointing out a 6 year old edge case, where the school was rightly screeched at by just about everyone saying this is insane, followed up by an immediate apology, and funding to provide food to everyone is both a poor example of propaganda as well as a pretty decent case for safety kicking in at some point.

Sounds like the school was pretty poor and just made a bad and desperate decision to try and get more parents to pay.

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