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Just handing out free MREs to people would probably be quite a good policy if you don't mind it being hilariously expensive and generating an enormous amount of packaging waste.
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Apr 30, 2018 00:56
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OwlFancier posted:Just handing out free MREs to people would probably be quite a good policy if you don't mind it being hilariously expensive and generating an enormous amount of packaging waste. Hmm...let's see. It's loving math time. Let's guess $7 a meal. So $21 a person a day for their meals. That's $7,665 per person per year. Ballparking the U.S. population at 300,000,000 (it's currently more than that, bee tee dubz) that's a cost of $2,299,500,000,000 a year. The GDP of the U.S. is around $18.5 trillion. 
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Apr 30, 2018 01:02
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also lol at the idea that soldiers have to suffer through MREs because of noble freedom when the military spends money trying to make MREs tasty because, bad food kills morale
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Apr 30, 2018 01:20
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I know that there are ones that get complained about but every time I've had a chance to eat one it was pretty drat tasty for being a thing that comes in a bag and you cook with science magic. Also that pound cake is the poo poo.
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Apr 30, 2018 01:24
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DrNutt posted:I know that there are ones that get complained about but every time I've had a chance to eat one it was pretty drat tasty for being a thing that comes in a bag and you cook with science magic. Also that pound cake is the poo poo. The ones that soldiers despise tend to not last long. Because... boner confessor posted:also lol at the idea that soldiers have to suffer through MREs because of noble freedom when the military spends money trying to make MREs tasty because, bad food kills morale That's one of the reasons why MREs are the way they are. It doesn't matter where you are if you have some MREs you have hot food that's not home cooked but is good enough.
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Apr 30, 2018 01:28
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Aight I had an idea that I'd heard soldiers complain about MREs but if you have had one and say it's not bad I defer
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Apr 30, 2018 01:31
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Defenestration posted:Aight I had an idea that I'd heard soldiers complain about MREs but if you have had one and say it's not bad I defer They get old if you eat them for a month straight instead of having freshly prepared food, but just by themselves they're pretty good ever since the military went to the wetpacks rather than the horrible dehydrated poo poo from the 80s.
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Apr 30, 2018 01:35
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I imagine also there's enough of a cultural expectation that people will complain about them even if they're not objectively bad, the same way even pretty good cafeteria food carries a stigma.
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Apr 30, 2018 01:44
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Defenestration posted:Aight I had an idea that I'd heard soldiers complain about MREs but if you have had one and say it's not bad I defer They're full of preservatives and not nearly as good as actually fresh-cooked, properly prepared food. I mean they're still vacuum-packed stuff full of chemicals that'll keep it edible for a decade. "Edible" doesn't necessarily mean "tasty" so it's basically guaranteed that some unit, somewhere is eating MREs that are a few years old because hey they're still good, right? Plus like was said it gets repetitive; there are limits on what you can put in them from a preservation standpoint and they're also pretty dry as less water means less spoilage. The other snag is association; chances are if you're eating MREs you're out in the field and nobody likes that. They're a reminder of the shittier times of military life so of course they're going to complain. I'm also reasonably certain that bitching about absolutely everything is a time-honored soldier tradition that dates back before Rome.
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Apr 30, 2018 02:00
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MRE's are designed for some huge soldier carrying an enormous pack over mountains. If you gave them to SNAP recipients, they'd quickly all become the size of Trump. Maybe poor-haters should suggest packets of dehydrated vitamin-enriched gruel. All the nutrients you need, taste of wallpaper paste, just as Oliver Twist liked it.
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Apr 30, 2018 02:13
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If you are curious about MREs then there's, well, this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swa-CZsfKnI He will attempt to consume everything that probably won't immediately kill him.
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Apr 30, 2018 02:16
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ToxicSlurpee posted:Hmm...let's see. It's loving math time.
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Apr 30, 2018 02:40
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darthbob88 posted:This figure is actually high, because A) That's $7 for 1250 calories, for a daily total of 3750 calories, and assuming you're not actually fighting a war or something equally strenuous, you can probably get by on two meals instead of three, so cut that figure by about 20-30%, and B) they're not proposing to hand out MREs to everybody, they're going to give them to the filthy welfare-leeching poors, a population of only 45 million. So the actual total is going to be around $280 billion, or 4 times the current SNAP budget. The party of fiscal responsibility, ladies and germs. I was thinking "what if we just gave everybody MREs?" for the cost. But yeah, I know the premises are flawed I just got curious about how much that would cost and decided to calculate it. That number sounds more reasonable. Even so feeding literally every American with nothing but MREs isn't a crippling chunk of America's GDP. Acting like feeding the poor costs too much and whatever they're buying is too good for them is loving stupid. $280 billion compared to America's GDP is best described as "crap all." It's simultaneously hilarious and depressing that these people scream and yell nonstop that the poor are literally eating America to death financially when it just plain isn't that much money overall.
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Apr 30, 2018 02:43
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MRE's look kind of fun, like airplane food. Lots of little packets of surprises.
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Apr 30, 2018 02:44
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BarbarianElephant posted:MRE's look kind of fun, like airplane food. Lots of little packets of surprises. Also fun trading opportunities.
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Apr 30, 2018 02:46
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Also apparently good cigarettes in the vietnam and earlier ones?ToxicSlurpee posted:I was thinking "what if we just gave everybody MREs?" for the cost. But yeah, I know the premises are flawed I just got curious about how much that would cost and decided to calculate it. That number sounds more reasonable. I have a suspicion the same people who think replacing food stamps with MREs is a good idea would go insane if you handed out as much rice as anyone wanted free for the asking. OwlFancier fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Apr 30, 2018 |
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Apr 30, 2018 02:48
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BarbarianElephant posted:MRE's are designed for some huge soldier carrying an enormous pack over mountains. If you gave them to SNAP recipients, they'd quickly all become the size of Trump. Reminder some shithole red state modified SNAP benefits to prevent bulk buying of dry beans and rice.
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Apr 30, 2018 03:10
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OwlFancier posted:Also apparently good cigarettes in the vietnam and earlier ones? Yeah cigarettes were packaged with MREs because basically everybody smoked in those days. I think the tobacco companies were also involved in that decision. If memory serves they used to hand out free cigarettes to new soldiers knowing full well they'd mostly be teenagers who didn't know any better then would get addicted. They'd play it up like "we just support our troops that much!!!" No you fuckers, we know what you were up to. But yeah the other side of that is they've probably never actually eaten an MRE and just assume they're basically filled with grotesque nutrient paste. That or they just assume that every poor person lives no nothing but steak and lobster while soldiers eat MREs and only MREs. Plus your average MRE also has extra stuff that the poor person just plain doesn't need. It has stuff like a portable, one-use chemical stove, plastic cutlery, and the like. There just isn't much need to give that to your average poor American. I could see for the homeless but not a bog standard poor person. And you're right; they would totally lose their minds if you just handed free rice. That image is literally just mixing the talking points of "ARE TRUUPSSSS!!!!" and "gently caress the poor."
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Apr 30, 2018 03:25
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The ciggies aren't surprising more just that they're apparently good quality, interesting to look at, much chunkier than modern ones.
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Apr 30, 2018 03:28
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PhazonLink posted:Reminder some shithole red state wisconsin, which i agree is a shithole but not sure if its a red state ToxicSlurpee posted:But yeah the other side of that is they've probably never actually eaten an MRE and just assume they're basically filled with grotesque nutrient paste. my assumption is that the author of the meme assumed MREs are the cheapest possible option like nutraloaf to feed soldiers, who choke down their horrible rations out of love of flag and country. when in reality MREs are fairly expensive because, you want to ensure combat soldiers get adequate food (also eating nothing but MREs is a huge caloric intake because the assumption is that men living off MREs are generally large, fit dudes doing tons of physical work) or the author is an old vet from when field rations really were horrid just because food preservation techniques have advanced rapidly in the last few decades boner confessor fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Apr 30, 2018 |
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Apr 30, 2018 03:28
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boner confessor posted:my assumption is that the author of the meme assumed MREs are the cheapest possible option like nutraloaf to feed soldiers, who choke down their horrible rations out of love of flag and country. when in reality MREs are fairly expensive because, you want to ensure combat soldiers get adequate food (also eating nothing but MREs is a huge caloric intake because the assumption is that men living off MREs are generally large, fit dudes doing tons of physical work) From what I heard the MREs in those days were pretty salty but it was all canned food so it wasn't nearly as bad as one would expect. But yeah it's probably more likely that it's somebody that's only experienced their own MRE purchases which aren't the ones the military gets because those are soooo expensive!!!! And gently caress these MREs expire soon so I better eat them! Oh they were all $2 a piece and are four years old. Ugh...this is terrible. Yeah I didn't consider that angle. OwlFancier posted:The ciggies aren't surprising more just that they're apparently good quality, interesting to look at, much chunkier than modern ones. Giving your soldiers goodies like that keeps them happier, hence the MRE food generally not being awful. Three hot, filling meals a day has been one of the most important logistical things for literally the entirety of military history. There are a lot of reasons for that but literally every military that isn't hilariously incompetent has figured that out. Hungry soldiers eating poo poo food fight like crap.
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Apr 30, 2018 03:38
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ToxicSlurpee posted:Giving your soldiers goodies like that keeps them happier, hence the MRE food generally not being awful. Three hot, filling meals a day has been one of the most important logistical things for literally the entirety of military history. There are a lot of reasons for that but literally every military that isn't hilariously incompetent has figured that out. Hungry soldiers eating poo poo food fight like crap. I think I read about this before... Napoleon posted:An army marches on its stomach. Wait, older than that... Sun Tzu posted:My logisticians are a humorless lot … they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay.” Further.... Alexander posted:The line between disorder and order lies in logistics…”
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Apr 30, 2018 03:48
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MREs have improved significantly since I first began eating them, poo poo, 11 years ago? Time flies, I guess. Either way, they don't have the hotdog one or the vegetable omelet anymore, those were loving horrible. Now they've got fancy poo poo like Beef Brisket and Spinach Fettucine. Beef Taco and Chili Mac are still supreme, however. I still get a little ill thinking about the vegetable omelet. Also, the Arctic MREs are fuckin awesome, the only issue being you need to boil water for them since they use dehydrated Mountain House meals. Some of the preservatives they use in them will stop you up worse than the regular MREs too. Last time I came out of the field after a week in the snow, I poo poo out a goddamned baseball bat.
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Apr 30, 2018 03:59
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I was gonna say, don’t MREs constipate you like crazy? If you only poo poo once a week, that’s more time you could work in the salt mines.BarbarianElephant posted:Maybe poor-haters should suggest packets of dehydrated vitamin-enriched gruel. All the nutrients you need, taste of wallpaper paste, just as Oliver Twist liked it. Isn’t that just soylent? Although I’ve seen recipes for DIY versions that are literally pennies a day for a full 2000 calories. I’ve been tempted to try it myself but that’s because I’m a crazy person
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Apr 30, 2018 04:53
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Coffee And Pie posted:I was gonna say, don’t MREs constipate you like crazy? If you only poo poo once a week, that’s more time you could work in the salt mines. they dont constipate you on purpose but iirc bulk fiber is difficult to work into processed food
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Apr 30, 2018 05:10
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Thump! posted:I still get a little ill thinking about the vegetable omelet. Ah yes. Good old cat puke omelette. I'll never figure out how something so universally loathed made it into production. It looked nasty, smelled nasty, and tasted nasty. 3 for 3.
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Apr 30, 2018 06:12
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The Governor of Arizona was in a picture where some people were proudly holding up an OK hand sign. Now I'm in the terrible position of understanding 4chan's "ironic" racism and having to explain it to all my friends.
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Apr 30, 2018 06:55
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I'm pretty sure Lenin specifically said that the goal of communism was to pave the way for socialism. Not the other way around. OwlFancier posted:Just handing out free MREs to people would probably be quite a good policy if you don't mind it being hilariously expensive and generating an enormous amount of packaging waste. If people got three per person and per day in the household then poor people would probably sell them and buy regular food and have money left over to spare. Katt fucked around with this message at 08:29 on Apr 30, 2018 |
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Apr 30, 2018 08:21
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Katt posted:I'm pretty sure Lenin specifically said that the goal of communism was to pave the way for socialism. Not the other way around. In modern terms it makes more sense to say that for party communists the goal of socialism (managing things for the benefit of the whole people) is communism (common ownership of the land, means of production, etc.), and most one party states with communist parties refer to themselves as socialist states, with the end goal being communism, but I can't find any evidence that Lenin specifically said it either way around. He wrote a fair bit though, so it's possible that those words did appear in that order in one of his books. Guess that means Obama is a Leninist. 
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Apr 30, 2018 08:56
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boner confessor posted:they dont constipate you on purpose but iirc bulk fiber is difficult to work into processed food Our boys need prunes!
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Apr 30, 2018 12:45
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My dad told me that during the first gulf war there was a gently caress up, and his unit (or whatever) was stuck eating "thanksgiving turkey dinner" MREs for 3 weeks. He said the saving grace was that at one point they were able to get a bunch of tobasco sauce.
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Apr 30, 2018 13:38
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Katt posted:If people got three per person and per day in the household then poor people would probably sell them and buy regular food and have money left over to spare. And if they didn't sell them off this would be pretty bad because, as I think someone else mentioned this earlier, each MRE is about 1250 calories, they're designed with the assumption that they are being consumed by soldiers who are in the field burning a bunch of calories moving significant distances with a full pack or at COPs that are still being built so they're shoveling dirt into Hescos all day. Having people eat three a day would balloon them to hilarious sizes and we'd end up with a whole new set of Seinfeld-esque EPORW memes going "what's with all the fat poor people?!". I do highly recommend searching "MRE" on Terminal Lance though, there's a whole bunch of great strips about them and they're pretty great.
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Apr 30, 2018 15:02
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LeJackal posted:I think I read about this before... Sun Tzu was born about 2 centuries before Alexander the Great FYI.
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Apr 30, 2018 15:11
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Orange Devil posted:Sun Tzu was born about 2 centuries before Alexander the Great FYI. His works also encompass like 200 years of warfare in the present tense. It's been speculated that the book is in fact the collected works of several writers over a few centuries.
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Apr 30, 2018 15:47
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Defenestration posted:
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Apr 30, 2018 16:15
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Obviously giving MREs out is too generous, what we should be doing is distributing Plumpy'nut (fortified peanut paste) to people. It's used as a relief food because it requires no prep and is stable for two years, and is edible by all ages (unless you are allergic to peanuts, RIP). It costs $60 delivered for 150 packets, and each packet is 500 calories. Assuming 2000 calories a day, it would cost $1.60 to supply someone with a day's worth of food, so it actually beats out SNAP in terms of cost-effectiveness. Of course, you would be giving all the money to a single French company instead of distributing it to all the local markets and shops throughout the US, which is a big deal for many economies and keeps the wheels on tons of little towns turning. The people hating on SNAP and similar programs never seem to process that the money the government gives out is churned directly through the economy.
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Apr 30, 2018 16:20
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Socialize Soylent imo.
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Apr 30, 2018 16:23
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Ashcans posted:The people hating on SNAP and similar programs never seem to process that the money the government gives out is churned directly through the economy. I tried to explain to my dad that the money generated by SNAP and EBT funds essentially pay for themselves, but he's a gigantic FYGM type so he said "I want to choose which charities to support, and I don't want to pay for these lazy people to sit around and eat at my expense!"
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Apr 30, 2018 16:41
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The Macaroni posted:No because they're buying steak and lobster imported from overseas, except when they're trading their benefits for drug money TEST ALL BENEFIT RECIPIENTS NOW. It amazes me that people still honestly go "steak and lobster" when in reality you can't even buy food with SNAP if it was warmed up first because then it stops being groceries.
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Apr 30, 2018 16:55
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This one really annoys me, as if the only thing that's missing to stop the opioid epidemic was a ban. Also: Who's controlling all three branches of government right now again? Why would it need activists to tell that mysterious party what to do if the solution is so obvious? Are they just really dumb or actually malevolent?
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Apr 30, 2018 17:01
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