Atlas Shrugged: The Mocking

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Flashback Megan: Obesity

In its entirety:

Why not food stamps?

1) The poor don't need more food. Obesity is a problem for the poor in
America; except for people who are too screwed up to get food stamps (because
they don't have an address), food insufficiency is not.
2) Food stamps only imperfectly translate into increased cash income, meaning that the poor will spend . . . more money on food.
3) If the increase in food stamps takes the
form of expanded eligibility, rather than larger grants, the administrative
issues and public outreach will delay your stimulus until well after it is no
longer needed.
4) The limits on the type of goods available to food stamp
consumers, and the growing season, mean that some (it's hard to say how much) of
the food stamp spending will simply draw down perishable stocks rather than
generating new economic activity. Eventually this will probably generate more
economic activity, but probably well after your stimulus is needed.
5) The economy doesn't need a food sector more distorted by daft government programs than it already is. If you want to give money to the poor, give it to them. Even if they spend it all on drugs, it will hardly be much worse than spending it all
on increasing their already astronomical obesity rates.


You see, the problem with the poor is that they are too fat, and if you give them food stamps they'll buy food and just get fatter. So don't give food stamps to families so they can feed their children; the kids are too fat anyway. What's that? You'd like evidence? Silly people, don't you know Megan went to a private prep school? That's all the evidence you'll ever need.

I'm not sure what she's trying to say with #4. The USDA lists the following as eligible food items:


Foods for the household to eat, such as:

breads and cereals;
fruits and vegetables;
meats, fish and poultry;
and dairy products.

Seeds and plants which produce food for the household to eat.


That's a pretty wide variety of foodstuffs. Considering all the food issues Megan has (she is constantly discussing what she will and will not eat and how giving up food is morally superior), I have a feeling Megan, a former Catholic, does not look at food as nutrition. Instead it's a way to reward and punish people, and an indication of worthiness.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Her Catholicism may feed her GUILT about food. She makes food a moral issue: righteousness and purity demands eating as little as possible, and only the "proper" kind. Every time she eats anything at all, especially if it is something currently not "approved," she is teetering on the edge of eternal damnation.

Having an Issue like that makes her hate people who ignore her deeply held belief that Eating = Weakness and Food = Evil Temptation.

Gluttony is a sin, fatness is evidence of that sin, which certain people appear to be unashamed to show. That's a Threat to the Social Fabric. We should not -- cannot! --encourage the poor to wallow in sin, right out in public, where everyone can see. It might encourage others to indulge. Think of the children.

Or,

Shorter Out. Fucking. Rageous post: Let them eat Atkins!

Susan of Texas said...

There are so many layers to peel away before you get to the rotten center--Megan's emotions/conscience are so dead that she doesn't care if anyone else lives or dies.

Anonymous said...

I'd love to plop her ass down smack in the middle of Tuthill,SD with 50 bucks and a car on it's last legs. That's Indian Country,she'd last about an hour.

The nearest grocery store of any merit is a SIX hour round trip. Which means the only food stores around are the ones attached to gas stations. I know folks who live there,it's THE poorest place in America(Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations-Oglala Sioux),average income hovers around 10K a year for a family of 4.

I'd love to see Survivor:The Rez with Megan and a half dozen of her asshole pals starring.

Anonymous said...

Posts like this are almost little sketches of satire. Megan, while imagining herself to highly sophisticated and worldly, reduces every group of people outside of her immediate social circle to a caricature based on what she's seen in the movies or figured in her imagination. The irony hurts!

This post was stunning in its ignorance about food stamps, the people who use them and why.

How about this gem: "except for people who are too screwed up to get food stamps (because
they don't have an address), food insufficiency is not."

Food insufficiency is not WHAT, Megan? That's not even a bloody sentence! Does she proofread at all?

Anonymous said...

Now that would be "must see" TV.

Anonymous said...

Whoops, Clever got in ahead of me. I was referring to Survivor: The Rez.

Susan of Texas said...

That's what they homeless are to Megan--people too screwed up to get an address.

I've called her Mrs. Elton, Becky Sharp and Veruca Salt, but even those references are too kind.

Anonymous said...

Julia,
I can see it now: "Episode One: Meet the Tribal Police."

Anonymous said...

Episode Two:
Go Ahead and Say That Shit to an Indian.