[AtlasBarfed]

If you're a republican, people can't do this because of their failings and choices.

If you're a democrat, it's because the economic deck is stacked against people.

I thought that a very large majority of credit card debt was healthcare costs and other structural life costs, so that is score one for the democrat view, although we are a very unhealthy population (so back to the republican view a bit)

Then again, the real estate bubble showed that people were getting way too much house (republican view)... of course enabled by almost no oversight of the lending and financials underling it (democrat view).

[bjourne]

Poverty and unhealthy eating goes hand in hand. If you work for more than 8 hours a day and/or with long commutes, how on earth will you have time to cook? The US has a huge poverty problem that is well-documented in countless studies. It has nothing to do with republicans vs democrats, it has everything to do with believing the facts!

[magduf]

The US does have a huge poverty problem, but that's not the whole story. There's tons of middle-class people living paycheck-to-paycheck because they just have to drive a BMW or have some giant house they don't need, or eat out all the time and get two glasses of wine with each dinner. Yeah, this doesn't describe the poor people getting by on minimum wage, but there's countless $50-100k people who this describes perfectly.

[bjourne]

Do you have any evidence to back up your claims? Because I think you are just regurgitating right-wing talking points. The myth of the poor person who is poor only because he or she spends way to much money on extravaganza.

[magduf]

Oh please; I see it all the time, including in my own family. "Right-wing talking points"? From what I can tell, it's frequently the Trump voters who this describes well.

Did you even read my post? I specifically noted this doesn't apply to poor people (the ones the right-wingers will claim are only poor because of bad choices), I'm addressing middle-class and up people.

[WalterBright]

> how on earth will you have time to cook?

As a non-cook myself, I can fry some eggs in 3 minutes or so, and a steak a bit longer. Sometimes I'll dump a bowl of frozen veggies into a bowl, put a pat of butter on top, microwave for a couple minutes, and it's ready to eat. A can of beans takes a couple minutes.

The idea that to eat decent food requires much prep time in the kitchen isn't true.

[bjourne]

You also have to drive to the supermarket and take care of the dirty dishes. But you are right, it's not the minutes per se, it is that if you work more than 8 hours/day, you don't have much energy for anything else.