this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2025
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Bulk beans and rice are the OG poor person food.
Canned soda, cold cuts, and single serving boxed pasta are horribly expensive by comparison.
Anyone who actually had to live cheap would know that. But for some reason "eating like shit" is always conflated with "being poor". As though rich kids don't regularly get stuffed full of quick cook crap by parents too busy working late or traveling long distances to cook proper meals
Poor people are unfortunately disproportionately targeted by junk food. Food deserts are a real thing in rural or poorer areas. Bulk rice and beans are accessible, but most poor families in America don't seem to realize this.
I've known many people and families that are convinced that this is the only way to eat. My partner's friend is very ill/malnourished because he doesn't realize he can eat cheaply outside of the food from the gas station he works at. I've also known many that don't cook for themselves at all and order out every day multiple times - regardless of income level. My aunt had severe GI problems and balked at me when I suggested an elimination diet to her after months of her going to doctors with no relief (because it'd require her to cook).
I feel this is a failing of our education and healthcare system. Ensuring that people know how to nourish their bodies is fairly basic stuff.
Lower middle class people are targeted for their disposable income. Actual poor people are living in food deserts and other economic wastelands, where getting their hands on anything costs time as much as money.
Right. But that's just it. Fast food exists to get middle and upper class people back to work sooner. You'll eat as much fried chicken and burger as a Silicon Valley Techbro or Real Estate magnet as any dock worker or medical assistant.
It's what we have historically taught as far back as elementary school in more developed school districts.
But even they aren't safe under the current regime
I've lived in a food desert for most of my childhood and generally very poorly my entire life and have known many other disadvantaged individuals. If the only game in town are convenience stores, gas stations, and small grocery stores - people eat what they stock; which is usually complete garbage. These places also generally accept food stamps - you don't need disposable income to eat junk food. Even food banks are mostly full of shit (if there is even one accessible).
Your notion that there is a middle class is where I'll stop directly engaging. There is an upper class and a lower class in America. Lower class individuals don't spend disposable income feeding themselves, they spend their income.
Doctors don't generally teach nutrition to patients and neither do schools in any practical way.
How much can a banana cost, $10?
Also, poor people have a conglomeration of health issues while working multiple jobs. You're not going to be eating a quick apple or salad with bad or no teeth, hey! Simple "healthy" options are laden with added salts, sugars, certain ethnicities are naturally lactose intolerant in addition to their bodies simply being resistant to storing calcium. There's simply not time to work, shop, and cook, assuming you have the means to do so, and then there are whole families spending a lot for extended stay hotels because they don't have credit or rental references, and rooms with kitchenette are significantly more expensive.
There are other constraints. No stove or hotplate, but someone donated a microwave or immersion idk it's called but boils water. There have been times when if a neighbor hadn't allowed me to come over and cook my meals to carry home, I would've lived on potato chips. Slumlords are real.
No, rich kids have a cook, nanny, au pair, etc that cooks them meals. If the parents can't afford a person to cook for their kids, then they're upper middle class at best.
You're running on a very rarified understanding of "rich" and "poor"
I've been unemployed for almost a year now and rice and beans is the shit. Twenty pounds of rice for $10, canned beans for like $1/each, and some spices, and I'm good to go for a while. I do splurge on vegetables and fruit when they're on sale though.