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02-28-2012, 12:56 PM   #1
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Why Mitt Romney should have to pay $3,339 for a pizza

World News: Why Mitt Romney should have to pay $3,339.04 for a pizza - thestar.com

Mittbucks | How do you measure up?
QuoteQuote:
Mitt Romney made over $21.7 million in 2010. For most people, that number is so huge it's hard to comprehend. Mittbucks puts Romney's income into perspective for you, showing you what ordinary stuff would have to cost him before he could relate to your daily experience with money.


02-28-2012, 02:00 PM   #2
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He really is out of touch, but that's not why I dislike him(fear a little bit maybe). I wish he'd stop trying to pander to everyone from the moderates to the wackos and just tell us what his stances really are, but then how many presidents show their true colors to the voters?
02-28-2012, 02:11 PM   #3
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If you show your true colors, you don't get to be president.
02-28-2012, 03:54 PM   #4
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Wow, the conversion to 'rat bucks' for that pizza would make it like 24,000 dollars.

No wonder his wife's got two Cadillacs. Though, actually, at those relative prices, maybe she got stiffed.

02-29-2012, 06:53 AM   #5
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QuoteQuote:
A 20 oz. soda would have to cost him $248.05

23.5 million Americans live in food deserts, where 20% of inhabitants are below the poverty line and more than a third live over 1 mile from a supermarket. A problem in both rural and urban areas, food deserts contribute to the obesity epidemic in the US by "forcing the rural and urban poor to rely on processed foods and fast food, instead of fresh meat, vegetables, and fruit." (source).
When I lived in a food desert, I was eating healthier than ever because the only markets around were bodegas that had really fresh fruits and veggies, they sold meat, but the one thing they did not sell was processed foods.
How Walmart Turned Its Weak Urban Image Into a Public Interest Campaign Against Food Deserts : TreeHugger

O/T
02-29-2012, 07:08 AM   #6
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QuoteOriginally posted by mikemike Quote
When I lived in a food desert, I was eating healthier than ever because the only markets around were bodegas that had really fresh fruits and veggies, they sold meat, but the one thing they did not sell was processed foods.
How Walmart Turned Its Weak Urban Image Into a Public Interest Campaign Against Food Deserts : TreeHugger

O/T

Well, when there's bodegas around that sell fresh meat and produce, that's not what a 'food desert' actually is. Those things, along with accessible supermarkets, *going away or never having been built* is what makes a food desert.

Wal-mart moving in after destroying livable town centers is something I have pretty mixed feelings about: grudgingly thinking, 'Well, it's better than nothing,' but knowing the real problem is the rent's too damn high cause it's all about developer and real estate profits still.
02-29-2012, 07:13 AM   #7
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines “food desert” not simply as a lower-income area with no access to fresh food, but as an area without access to a supermarket or large grocery store. A supermarket is defined as a retailer with annual sales of $2 million, and it must contain all the traditional major food departments, including fresh meat and produce, dairy products, dry and packaged goods, and frozen foods.
These are the things that would have disqualified the places where I used to shop or a farmers market from being an oasis in a "food desert" according to the government. They had very little dairy, just whole milk and sliced american cheese, they didn't stock any traditional packaged or processed foods and there were no TV dinners. I am also doubtful that they had more than $2MM in annual sales.

02-29-2012, 07:19 AM   #8
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1 mile from a supermarket counts as a food desert? I guess I live in one. It's just over 1 mile to the local produce stand, 2 miles to the Vons(which I avoid) and 4 miles to Trader Joe's.
02-29-2012, 08:10 AM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by mikemike Quote
These are the things that would have disqualified the places where I used to shop or a farmers market from being an oasis in a "food desert" according to the government. They had very little dairy, just whole milk and sliced american cheese, they didn't stock any traditional packaged or processed foods and there were no TV dinners. I am also doubtful that they had more than $2MM in annual sales.
Well, part of the problem there is the prices I mentioned: also, I can see the reasoning: if a bodega can't actually supply the neighborhood with food, especially affordably, people have to go elsewhere somehow, or resort to what's available ...which in large measure is those gas station food marts, if anything. In some ways it's a lot better than nothing, though.

Farmers' markets are great, but would have to be open a lot more to be really useful, and at least in some cases, have more-affordable fare. (The one in this town is supposed to be quite good, but it's actually a lot further away than supermarkets, since it's on the other side of town. Sweetie went there a few times, though, (Tends to involve too much walking in too much sunlight for me, unfortunately,) and everyone loves it.

The real shame of it is that there aren't actual physical *markets* for local produce and such: in a way, those farmer's markets are a symptom of the very fact that the supply chain and other parts of the system actually exclude so many when the 'market' for a market is right there. Again, the inflated real estate prices, especially in this state, make livable town centers all but impossible: the town centers have been thinned of everything but what gentrification can make a go of it because the tax laws are such that the real estate developers can write off the inflated rents they aren't getting against the profits of developing mini-malls and tract-housing that's all set up for car-dependency: just like with residential housing, the rents aren't falling despite the economy and bursting of the bubble: this state's even incentivizing property owners to keep accessible shop frontage shuttered rather than available to such ventures.

So what we've got is quality-of-life-reducing, job-kiling, enterpreneurial-stifling *overhead* in the way. Even the didtinctly downscale local market that's just at the edge of what'd be plausible walking range for me (Lack of sidewalks aside: I'd need to bring a cooler on all-terrain wheels thanks to lack of passable sidewalks,) seems to have trouble keeping its shelves stocked.

A lot of the problem is really about the big money controlling all the things the people would *need* to have local markets that are in balance with the real economy, rather than the likes of a Wal-Mart sucking all they can out of local economies... If that. Even if it's not a place they consider profitable, they have the effect of starving out and sifling the areas they *don't* want to serve.

As for the '1 mile' figure, two miles of walking is nothing to sneeze at, time and energy and logisticswise, every time you need to carry home enough to feed your family, or yourself if you're old and/or disabled. Mind you, I'm all for walking, but for a lot of working people, that's a big deal. (It's part of why I'm keeping an old car on the road: if there were older people around in the neighborhood, I'd probably be helping *them.*)

Last edited by Ratmagiclady; 02-29-2012 at 08:21 AM.
02-29-2012, 10:25 AM   #10
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'Food desert' lol.... whatever the opposite of a food desert is, I live in it. There are two Tescos, two Aldis, a Lidl, a Co-op, and two Farmfoods supermarkets within a two mile radius and connected by regular bus services. There's also a myriad of Pakistani owned grocers and butchers everywhere you go in this part of town, with very cheap produce. I have absolutely no idea how so many of them can exist alongside so many supermarkets - grim, and probably illegal, working conditions, I imagine.
02-29-2012, 10:45 AM   #11
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QuoteOriginally posted by ihasa Quote
'Food desert' lol.... whatever the opposite of a food desert is, I live in it. There are two Tescos, two Aldis, a Lidl, a Co-op, and two Farmfoods supermarkets within a two mile radius and connected by regular bus services. There's also a myriad of Pakistani owned grocers and butchers everywhere you go in this part of town, with very cheap produce. I have absolutely no idea how so many of them can exist alongside so many supermarkets - grim, and probably illegal, working conditions, I imagine.

Really depends what the market favors, I suppose, ...I don't know if you live near a town center or what, but in America, there's been a lot of stuff inimical to people having ready access to supermarkets, and neighborhood markets can't pay the overhead... while the big-box buyouts have made it more profitable to build bigger and bigger markets further out from where people, especially lower-income people, actually live.. (And it doesn't help that the sprawl forces lower-income people into places that are further from public transport *and* any businesses that can keep up in the market nearer-by. )

Basically what's been going on the past twenty, twenty five years or so, is a real decline in livable cities and neighborhoods: it's all laid out for car-dependency both in commuting and doing just about anything else. One very viable adaptation to paying gas prices more like Europe's had all along would actually be to start putting little village centers in some of these sprawls and subdivisions. Decentralize the outlet end and organize the distribution to there, instead of having centralized outlets and expecting people to make their way there separately.

Last edited by Ratmagiclady; 02-29-2012 at 10:52 AM.
02-29-2012, 11:15 AM   #12
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I don't think I live in what can be considered a "food desert" even though I live in the middle of suburban sprawl. There are 2 convenience stores, a sandwich shop, a pizza parlor, a chinese takeout, and an ice cream stand a 1/4 mile from my house. The closest grocery store is less than 2 miles away. There are no sidewalks anywhere, but the shoulders are nice and wide. I would be in trouble if I didn't have a car. The closest bus stop is about a mile away and bus routes are eliminated every couple of years.
03-06-2012, 07:52 AM   #13
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Of course, Mrs. Romney does not even consider herself "wealthy." Ann Romney: "I Don't Consider Myself Wealthy" She says true wealth is in her friends. Perhaps they should try that sometimes.
03-06-2012, 09:17 AM   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by GeneV Quote
Of course, Mrs. Romney does not even consider herself "wealthy." Ann Romney: "I Don't Consider Myself Wealthy" She says true wealth is in her friends. Perhaps they should try that sometimes.
"Friends with Cadillacs"........................
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