Another friend hopped on the thread to gently remind Miles that having the ability to plan ahead and set money aside is a huge privilege in and of itself– as is having a giant freezer to store half a cow, and a car to go pick up the meat with. A lot more goes into budgeting for big purchases like a side of beef than how much money a person makes per year.
I also mentioned that you can get meat at Wal Mart and Aldi for less than two dollars a pound. I do it all the time.
Miles was not placated. “Again, an interesting discussion to have. A few points: if you’re making as little as you are, I would quickly say that I’m not making anywhere near four times what you are. This is an assumption that is, sadly, not true. Some day. Likewise, my family subsists off of zero government help, not food, not housing , not medicine. So I’m guessing that our incomes are, in fact, near the same. Just guessing (because I actually know my salary) . Again, it takes planning. And knowledge, and yes, an initial investment to make it happen. However, lamenting not being able to afford meat when someone else is paying for your food is not going to make quality meat any closer to your table. I would love to own a Lexus, but it’s not attainable within my means. So I drive my Malibu and am fine with it. Start small, find a good butcher and get a small chest freezer for $50 on Craigslist. But 1/8 of a cow, then 1/4 when you get more knowledgeable, then 1/2 then a whole. We didn’t jump in whole hog on our first buy. It’s a gradual process, but I promise they it will never happen unless you take steps to make it happen. Shit isn’t given, you have to make it happen. AGAIN, you must MAKE it happen. No one is going to hand you a freezer. No one handed me a freezer., I had to save for it. Is this really that difficult of a concept? Are we really under the assumption that everything is handed to us? Where’s my Lexus? I’d like leather seats, please. Tinted windows.”
People like Miles have fantastically inflated ideas of what help the government provides for struggling families. No wonder they think welfare is a scam. But I’ve never really heard of someone who honestly thought that needing EBT to keep my child alive was the same as complaining that I didn’t have Lexus.
Miles taunted us about the ribeye he was going to have for dinner, and then he disappeared from the conversation. I imagine he probably washed down his organic ribeye with a nasty microbrew that tasted like grape Tylenol, and that soothed my ire somewhat.
Just as I was reeling from his remarks, a woman named Elaine joined in the conversation. I don’t know what Elaine looks like but I imagine she’s a hand puppet voiced by the late Fred Rogers. “Wow, you guys are all really bad Catholics,” said Elaine, who is a Lutheran. And she wasn’t scolding Miles. She went on and on about how it’s not difficult to get into this whole meat-buying business; you just need to team up with neighbors, as many neighbors as it takes, until you can all buy a tiny fraction of a cow and fit it into your pathetic poor people freezers.
“Pretty sure I could talk the guys that cook meth in the basement of that house across the alley to go halfsies with me on a side of some grass fed beef. Howsaboutit, Elaine?” joked my friend.
“Why don’t you guys just buy more money?” joked another stranger.
“I hope his ribeye gives him tapeworms,” I griped.
“Bless Miles and his ribeye, Mary,” prompted a pious friend.
“May the Lord return the fruit of your good deeds a thousandfold, the fruit of your evil deeds a hundredfold, and the fruit of the good deeds you left undone fiftyfold– both you and your ribeye. Amen,” I said.
I think we all pictured ribeyes crashing into Miles’s roof like meteors.
Rebecca got on the thread at that point, and mentioned that she– she, an eco gardener with land and fields and a chicken coop– couldn’t afford to eat organic local meat when she was on EBT either. She either had to trade for it or did without. Miles didn’t return to the conversation to tell her how she could have farmed better, however. Perhaps he was constipated from all that meat.
There comes a point when we must admit that the ills in society are not the fault of society’s most helpless members, and that people of limited means need more resources rather than a lecture on thrift. The “must” in that sentence is a moral imperative, not a necessity. Miles and his ribeye are capable of denying the obvious until doomsday. Many people will continue to blame those who have no control over their circumstances for just not planning well enough. But the fact remains, if a poor person mentions that she can’t afford an item you consider a bare necessity for the health of your own children, there’s a very good chance that that person is telling the truth. Especially when other, less poor people chime in to say they can’t afford that necessity either. People who shop at Wal Mart instead of a farmer’s market are not doing it because they’re too stupid and unenlightened to find the farmer’s market– they’re doing it because it’s what they can afford to do in order to live.
Believe me: poor people have considered every possible way we could get our hands on a top-quality ribeye steak. If we still don’t have steak, it’s because we can’t afford one.
I guess I really should get to know my meat guy, though. Wendy and I don’t spend nearly enough time together.
(image via Pixabay)
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In