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u/PirateJohn75 1d ago
I'm so glad we paid to have them not turn on the orphan crushing machine!
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u/RookNookLook 1d ago
r/OrphanCrushingMachine has been my favorite find this year
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u/TheLateThagSimmons 1d ago
New sub found. Awesome.
Has a very similar feel to the Torment Nexus tweet:
Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale
Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel "Don't Create The Torment Nexus."
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u/AhemExcuseMeSir 1d ago edited 1d ago
The national average for prison wages is 63 cents an hour. In Kansas, the high end of a regular prison job is 16 cents an hour. So basically each man donated an amount equal to 900 hours of work to be able to pay the unsettled debt.
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u/diamondmx 1d ago
Seems like we put the wrong person in prison. The person who decided to create "lunch debt" can spend a few years in there.
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u/WorldlinessRadiant77 1d ago
They are not necessarily there for something horrible either. The US loves jailing people for crimes that would result in a fine or probation in another country.
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u/OldDoubt1577 1d ago
And its only that low a lot of the times because the prison that hoes them out for labor keeps 90% of the income as their cut.
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u/StressOverStrain 1d ago
Does the prison not provide them housing, food, recreation, healthcare, social services, etc. etc.?
Why shouldn’t they pay for that as much as they can, like everyone else in society who has a job?
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u/Skydove01 1d ago
Prisoners should be paid like the rest of us, and the rest of us should have all of our basic human rights provided for, like prisoners sometimes get.
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u/OldDoubt1577 1d ago
Isn't the stated purpose of prison not rehabilitation? Also the tax payer already funds the prison for the above services, society doesn't see a benefit for prison labor since they end up paying the prison for those services anyway. Not to mention the wage suppression effect that prison labor has on low wage jobs. Hardly a benefit. And we don't hand out participation trophies for the bare minimum, if a prison didn't have any of the things you listed, it would be a crime.
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u/CornisaGrasse 1d ago
That's not really how it worked. They got donations from friends, family and prison guards, with whatever they put in. It was a fundraiser. I'm not saying it should be necessary, just that it wasn't these prisoners doing 900 hours of work each.
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u/Noob_Al3rt 1d ago
They did not work 900 hours for this. What a ridiculous statement.
They held a fundraiser like anyone else can, and their friends/family along with some of the prison guards donated.
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u/IndependenceOdd4669 1d ago
There is absolutely 0 shot that 30 inmates donated 900 hours of their time to a school lunch program.
Jesus Christ you guys are dense.
Not to mention they’re not working 8 hour shifts a lot of the time. 27,000 work hours would be thousands of working days. Thousands of working days would cost the state hundreds of thousands in inmate housing.
Make no mistake, this is a problem, but the reason it’s a problem has nothing to do with these guys donating money. It would be 100x cheaper for the state to directly pay for the students meals.
This was a PR opportunity and the money donated was likely put on their books by friends or family, and offered the inmates a reward for participating.
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u/Lt_Cochese 1d ago
It's a feel good story for the imates but an absolute indictment on our current priorities. I would guess more than a few of those men are in jail on BS possession charges to keep our for profit prison system profitable.
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u/JustAMinah 1d ago
....and are any of them gonna be released early for this "feel good" story?
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u/The_Last_Spoonbender 6h ago
God no. Who else gonna work those slave jobs then? We have already chased low wage immigrants anyway. Get ready boys, we have yet another war on drugs/homeless/criminals/etc to fill up those positions.
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1d ago edited 9h ago
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u/LoamyLoamisLoamy 1d ago
You still have to convince 11 other people to nullify
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u/urgrandpasdog 1d ago
Not exactly, just 1 can cause a mistrial by hung jury and it's very rare for prosecutors to keep trying after multiple mistrials
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u/UniqueLog8386 1d ago
Motherfucker, being in prison means you in jail. Miss me with the goofy shit.
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u/nhalliday 1d ago
They're wrong in that inmates are definitely still "in jail/prison", but inmates made to work are still objectively slaves. It's even enshrined in the Constitution (the 13th Amendment specifically) in pretty plain language, "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party has been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States".
Unless you have another word for people held against their will, forced to work, paid a pittance, and then forced to spend that pittance on their basic necessities like clothing, shampoo/soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste.
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u/UniqueLog8386 1d ago
Unless you have another word for people held against their will, forced to work, paid a pittance, and then forced to spend that pittance on their basic necessities like clothing, shampoo/soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste.
Yes, I do. Prisoners.
Ya'll keen to sit up here and play the noble motherfucker online, but not one of you is inviting ex-cons into your neighborhood. Unless you got setup, you are in prison of your own accord. It's entirely possible you got framed, but you wanna know what? It ain't that goddamn common. It ain't ethical to use them for labor, and I'm all for ending the practice, if for no other reason than you all would shut the fuck up and find something new to pretend you give a shit about.
But in no way is that comparable to slavery as we know it. Slaves in america didn't murder, steal, sell crack or cheat their taxes to be slaves. They just had to be black.
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u/nhalliday 1d ago
It is, by definition and intent when the system was created, slavery. It's concerning that you don't care at all - to the point that you believe anyone else saying they care must be lying and trying to get imaginary goodboy points.
While they had to commit a crime (ignoring the people who were wrongfully convicted, which happens more than you'd like to admit), are you really saying people who committed tax fraud or did some shoplifting deserve to be slaves simply because they broke a law?
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u/Nuts-And-Volts 1d ago
The entire concept of "school lunch debt" is abhorrent
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u/Strict-Carrot4783 1d ago
The ~900 billionaires who own the United States don't deserve to continue living.
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u/Thefar 1d ago
Is the US great yet?
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u/WordWordNvmber 1d ago edited 1d ago
I've noticed most of the posts on this subreddit come from obvious karma-farm accounts.
I've also noticed the most gleefully trite comments on doomer subreddits come from the oldest Reddit accounts. You've been here for 14 years.
My theory is that the elder Millennials who are still on here after 10-15 years, confusing themselves with intellectuals for repeating the same comments on ancient karma-whoring reposts, are the social and personal washouts who stayed online forever instead of moving on and starting families.
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u/sanman5635 1d ago
Does anyone know how to actually do this? I have some money that I could spend on a folding iPhone or something but would rather forgive school lunch debt.
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u/CaptainBayouBilly 1d ago
A child cannot have debt as they cannot enter a contract.
School cafeterias throw away enough food to feed every child 3 meals a day.
Compulsory attendance means that meals should 100% be included.
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u/Independent-Bug-9352 1d ago
Hope you all have checked your voter registration status and plan to vote Democrat in the upcoming Midterm elections that are our first chance to put the brakes on our regression and maybe even start turning the ship towards fixing this shit.
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u/squirrellysiege 1d ago
This reminds me of all the stories you hear of some kid saving their allowance or selling lemonade or something to pay off their school's lunch debts and all the adults just standby and say, wow, what a great kid, so generous.
How about no, fuckwads, give the kid their money back and let kids eat food without a debt! Can we do that!?!
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u/JRE_Electronics 1d ago
Totally fucked system when the people in prison are better human beings than the politicians who are supposed to be working for us.
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u/0x7E7-02 1d ago
"Enslaved"??? What the actual fuck?!?!? They committed crimes and are in prison for that. It's not like they are innocent lambs.
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u/SewerSocials This AOC flair makes me cool 1d ago
Not enslaved?
Go re-read the 13th amendment.
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u/moo3heril 1d ago
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
13th amendment, emphasis added.
Yes, enslaved
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u/Async0x0 1d ago
That doesn't mean prisoners are enslaved.
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u/moo3heril 1d ago
definitions of enslave (v)
- to make subservient
- to strip one of freedom
- to enthrall
Subservient? Check. Stripped of freedom? Check.
So again, yes, enslaved.
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u/UniqueLog8386 1d ago
I would love to go ask my ancestors what they did to get put on those boats, but I'mma go ahead and guess that it ain't gonna be "dealing meth" or "tax fraud".
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u/Async0x0 1d ago
There's an enormous difference between imprisonment due to legal conviction and slavery.
If you don't understand the difference then reading a dictionary isn't going to help you.
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u/moo3heril 1d ago
I'm not sure why you are putting words in my mouth. All I've done is clarify that this is an instance of enslavement, I made no other moral equivalency to any other practice of slavery.
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u/Async0x0 1d ago
I didn't put words in your mouth. I said prisoners are not enslaved and you disagreed using some generic, cherry-picked dictionary definitions.
Because of this, it seems you do not understand the difference between legal incarceration and illegal enslavement.
We're talking about law and ethics, not grammar. A dictionary does not help your case here. All you did was show that some authors can use the word "enslaved" to mean "subservient", which they of course can. That does nothing to speak to the legal status of legitimate prisoners or slaves.
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u/emusiqaar 1d ago
Because our tax dollars provide free education, housing, healthcare, and war funding to the Zionist genocidal state of Israel. Make sure to thank your representatives for this wonderful gesture next time you see them.
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u/Dawson__16 1d ago
I don't believe the story, but even if I did, it really, REALLY, depends on what those incarcerated men did to get there.
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u/scottishcastle 1d ago
On Reddit and the internet more broadly everyone in prison is either
falsely convicted
convicted of simple drug possession
People really don't want to admit that the vast majority of criminals are in there for violent crimes. And thanks to plea deals it's actually pretty hard to get incarcerated at all (just ask any rape victim if her rapist got any time at all). So the people that are incarcerated are usually the lowest of the low. But here's a cute story anyway!
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u/VectorJones 1d ago
Men whose current life no doubt came about in part from the neglect of not having any kind of food security in their youth, doing what they can to spare another generation from having to suffer that, while existing in the most difficult situation one can be in. Quite poignant, actually.
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u/Crevetanshocet 1d ago
That's why I'm happy to live in Europe, in a country where as a student my lunches cost me exactly 1€...
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u/Murky-Relation481 1d ago
That is why I am glad I live in a district in the US where it costs me exactly $0 to feed my kids breakfast and lunch.
The US isn't a monolith, and there are few things more diverse than school districts from a government perspective here, roughly 13,500 of them, each one an independent organization with their own policies and funding.
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u/Noob_Al3rt 1d ago
If you are on a reduced lunch program in the USA, that's about what you'd pay. If your income is low enough, the meals are free. If you have a normal income, meals are like $2 or $3. This is outside of districts where all meals are 100% free.
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u/Renatusisk 1d ago
How many hours did it take them to earn 4.267 dollars? How many?!
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u/Noob_Al3rt 1d ago
They met on August 3rd, so like two months to raise the money. Lol these are donated funds, no one was working specifically to pay off school lunches.
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u/RadiantLindon 1d ago
"School Lunch Debt" is not a thing that exists. If you try and collect from me for that, or try and deny my kid lunch, you're going to find yourself out of that job.
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u/Secure-Window-5478 1d ago
ELON or any of the US billionaires could wipe out school lunch debt the interest on their fortunes.
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u/North_Structure8210 1d ago
We sure do! America the corrupt shithole in debt up to its eye balls and nothing to show for it.
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u/zyzzogeton 1d ago
"Enslaved" is the correct term. Enslavement of the incarcerated is actually in the US Constitution via the 13th amendment which was ratified in 1865:
"...neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist in the United States, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."
It is a provision that is very difficult to remove now that it is ensconced in the Constitution as an amendment.
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u/Phill_Cyberman 1d ago
Does anyone know where this particular orphan-crushing machine started.
Public school has been doing free lunches for decades, right?
When did they start charging the children, and keeping ledgera of missed payments, etc?
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u/smilysmilysmooch 1d ago
Hopefully this will at least contribute to their parole hearings. Richest society in the world with prisoners paying off the debt of children.
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u/DRUGMUSIC_ 1d ago
being incarcerted is maybe why they made the donation, maybe they realised life is for simple living and that they can still have an impact behind confinment.
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u/CatCafffffe 1d ago
Yes, I agree completely. It's a tale of dystopian horror, not a feel good story.
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u/Either_Operation7586 1d ago
The Republicans could afford to help the kids in the schools but they don't care about the kids in the schools especially the public ones they feel their beneath them and these are also the assholes that purport to be religious and you can tell they're not religious or they're not following the word of God they're following the word of something more satanic.
We need to stop thinking that Mega and the conservatives are different or also centrists because centrists are just the same and they realize that there's no defending the indefensible so instead of having to defend Trump all the time they just say that they didn't vote but they did when you listen to the words they type it clearly shows what side they're on.
Especially if everything comes out of their mouths is but but but Democrats
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u/Illustrious-Emu8667 1d ago
This! Fuck the system, fuck the patriarchy, fuck the GOP and really all the politicians who aren’t fighting day in and day out (like Bernie and AOC).
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u/DatBeardedguy82 1d ago
"Enslaved men" is a real funny way of saying convicted criminals
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u/MurkyInvestigator810 1d ago
Are you unaware prisoners can be forced to do labor for no pay? Slavery is legal as punishment for a crime per the 14th Amendment. People can be criminals that deserve neither freedom nor enslavement.
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u/zombiepoppper 1d ago
How dare killers, rapists, and drug dealers be enslaved… lol. I’m a defense attorney, and even this proposition is ridiculous by any person in real life.
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u/username_tooken 1d ago
Telling that you see “30 incarcerated men” and your mind immediately jumps to “killers, rapists, and drug dealers”. Funny how that last description is more apt for the people running the government that incarcerates than it is the people they imprison.
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u/zombiepoppper 1d ago
I represent these three that’s why… Prison is no joke. In my state and county, most mid felony offenses are 1170h eligible and they serve it in county jail or at home (out of custody, PRCS). Prison is reserved for level 3 offenders. Some level 1 & 2 rehabilitation prisons exist like Folsom.
Obviously Kansas may be different. But regardless, you’re ignoring a large portion of the population that are convicted of robbery, felony assault, sexual assault, etc. for your own narrative purposes.
As for the government, that’s a separate issue and irrelevant to the issues presented.
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u/Brilliant-Book-503 1d ago
I've come around on "heartwarming stories" I think the world is complex enough that we can do both. We can recognize it's horrific that the system is fucked up in these ways while celebrating the people who work and sacrifice to help alleviate some of the harms that system does.
This whole "That's not heartwarming" trend feels to me like saying "It's not a nice story that your mom's cancer is in remission! She should never have HAD cancer". That would be silly, right?
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u/Acrobatic-List-6503 1d ago
Sometimes I wonder if people here are actually helpful.
This is a feel-good story... for the prisoners. Knowing that they actually did something good in their lives should help with their rehabilitation.
But nooooooo. We have to make it about somebody else.
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u/cozynite 1d ago
I’m happy the prisoners did something good. But yeah, it’s also an absolute reflection on our shit society that it even needs to happen.
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u/ambivalent_moon 1d ago
I think it’s fair to say that this highlights a systemic issue that needs to be addressed in a more fulsome way than hoping good-hearted people will cover the food debts of America’s children.
Why tf are any children “in debt” for the food they eat at the place where they’re legally mandated to go?
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u/Denim_Diva1969 1d ago
THIS is the question. And why tf are people evicted and or bankrupted by medical debt?!?USA! USA! USA! 🤬
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u/Acrobatic-List-6503 1d ago
Because the story is clearly about the prisoners.
So unless you people have actual solutions to this orphan crushing machine yourselves, be my guest.
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u/Acrobatic-List-6503 1d ago
I'm not pretending. I'm just tired of people complaining about things that they themselves won't even lift a finger to do. If they are so tired to the people in office not doing what needs to be done, why not run themselves?
It's just slacktivism, I tell you.
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u/11cDuygi 1d ago
What is it with the sob story-fication of lunch money being paid by any group except for the mfs who are actually supposed to fund it