I've seen tons of articles over the past few months about a looming hunger crisis, both in America and abroad. Hardly a day goes by without the media publishing photos of endless lines of cars queuing up at food banks. There have been alarming warnings of mass Third World starvation, particularly in Africa, and the UN World Food Programme has been begging nations to increase their humanitarian aid. I would never deny that poverty and hunger are serious and widespread problems (in a global context), and I'm sure the lockdowns have increased food insecurity among the West's poorest too. However, I'm a little skeptical of the warnings of "200 million projected to die of hunger due to covid," and in particular the claims of impending Western mass starvation.
Africa has had very few coof deaths relative to the rest of the world, likely because it has a very young population and less dense living conditions outside of the major cities. Much of Africa did lock down (though I question how effective enforcement could possibly be), which has predictably harmed its economies through loss of jobs and trade. However, the predicted spike in mass hunger has yet to materialize.
Basically, it seems like people on the ground think that the coof-related hunger projections were overblown, and that the main causes of food insecurity in Africa are still conflict and economic issues. Yet the UN and other organizations are still shilling their faulty predictions and attempting to guilt the West into providing more aid money.
I'm more skeptical of the American hunger projections since naturally I'm more familiar with the situation in my own country. I absolutely believe that people are financially struggling due to the lockdowns, that much is indisputable. But I get the feeling that the media is pushing dramatic food bank images and similar doomerism in an attempt to increase public demand for further economic intervention. I've seen articles basically saying "Americans want more socialism because of covid," where the authors exploit some poor family in a transparent attempt to gin up support for stuff like UBI. I obviously sympathize with those in desperate straits, but my bullshit detector starts to go off when I read things like this:
This lady is lucky enough to have kept her job, she has a husband, and yet losing free school lunches for her kids was enough to drive the family into hunger? I'm sorry, I don't buy it. If three extra PB&Js a day sends you into destitution, you shouldn't have had three children. The article also features this photo of another lady making use of the food bank:
Not the image I'd personally choose if I wanted to convey a plight of severe hunger. The article continues:
What a surprise. Of course, the media claims that the only solution to this problem is substantially increasing welfare benefits. I think a worthy long-term solution would be to stop encouraging family breakdown and to stop incentivizing people to have kids they can't afford. And about those massive food bank car lines -- I have no idea if this hypothesis is correct, but perhaps it deserves some consideration -- could the panic to increase home food supplies be driving people to take advantage of free food resources, even if they aren't going hungry, because they're afraid of crowded supermarkets and empty shelves?
I'd like to know what my fellow farmers think of the American coof-hunger issue -- totally legit, or exaggerated by the media for political gain?
Africa has had very few coof deaths relative to the rest of the world, likely because it has a very young population and less dense living conditions outside of the major cities. Much of Africa did lock down (though I question how effective enforcement could possibly be), which has predictably harmed its economies through loss of jobs and trade. However, the predicted spike in mass hunger has yet to materialize.
Basically, it seems like people on the ground think that the coof-related hunger projections were overblown, and that the main causes of food insecurity in Africa are still conflict and economic issues. Yet the UN and other organizations are still shilling their faulty predictions and attempting to guilt the West into providing more aid money.
I'm more skeptical of the American hunger projections since naturally I'm more familiar with the situation in my own country. I absolutely believe that people are financially struggling due to the lockdowns, that much is indisputable. But I get the feeling that the media is pushing dramatic food bank images and similar doomerism in an attempt to increase public demand for further economic intervention. I've seen articles basically saying "Americans want more socialism because of covid," where the authors exploit some poor family in a transparent attempt to gin up support for stuff like UBI. I obviously sympathize with those in desperate straits, but my bullshit detector starts to go off when I read things like this:
This lady is lucky enough to have kept her job, she has a husband, and yet losing free school lunches for her kids was enough to drive the family into hunger? I'm sorry, I don't buy it. If three extra PB&Js a day sends you into destitution, you shouldn't have had three children. The article also features this photo of another lady making use of the food bank:
Not the image I'd personally choose if I wanted to convey a plight of severe hunger. The article continues:
What a surprise. Of course, the media claims that the only solution to this problem is substantially increasing welfare benefits. I think a worthy long-term solution would be to stop encouraging family breakdown and to stop incentivizing people to have kids they can't afford. And about those massive food bank car lines -- I have no idea if this hypothesis is correct, but perhaps it deserves some consideration -- could the panic to increase home food supplies be driving people to take advantage of free food resources, even if they aren't going hungry, because they're afraid of crowded supermarkets and empty shelves?
I'd like to know what my fellow farmers think of the American coof-hunger issue -- totally legit, or exaggerated by the media for political gain?
