Posted on 05/12/2013 7:38:23 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Pay People to Cook at Home By KRISTIN WARTMAN
THE home-cooked family meal is often lauded as the solution for problems ranging from obesity to deteriorating health to a decline in civility and morals. Using whole foods to prepare meals without additives and chemicals is the holy grail for today’s advocates of better eating.
But how do we get there? For many of us, whether we are full-time workers or full-time parents, this home-cooked meal is a fantasy removed from the reality of everyday life. And so Americans continue to rely on highly processed and refined foods that are harmful to their health.
Those who argue that our salvation lies in meals cooked at home seem unable to answer two key questions: where can people find the money to buy fresh foods, and how can they find the time to cook them? The failure to answer these questions plays into the hands of the food industry, which exploits the healthy-food movement’s lack of connection to average Americans. It makes it easier for the industry to sell its products as real American food, with real American sensibilities — namely, affordability and convenience.
I believe the solution to getting people into the kitchen exists in a long-forgotten proposal. In the 1960s and ’70s, when American feminists were fighting to get women out of the house and into the workplace, there was another feminist arguing for something else. Selma James, a labor organizer from Brooklyn, pushed the idea of wages for housework. Ms. James, who worked in a factory as a young woman and later became a housewife and a mother, argued that household work was essential to the American economy and wondered why women weren’t being paid for it.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Yet again, NY Times stuck on stupid...
Smart people already cook at home for the money savings alone.
WTF is that?
The insurmountable problem for the NYT, and why they are losing millions by the day, is that their target audience can't read, either.
“Kristin Wartman is a journalist who writes about food, health, politics and culture.”
Obviously, she does none of these well....
They already do. It’s called SNAP, TANF, WICs, Section 8, EITC and all the other 85+ entitlement programs not connected with SS.
Problem is these people get their basics: cheese doodles, chips, Doritos, and such with it, but pawn off the rest for Newports, Forties and Lottos and cash with the rest.
Oh yeah...THAT will work. hahahaha
She probably never had a Home Econnomics class in High School to learnall about cooking, sewing, child care,...stay at home Mom.
Hey, why not? We pay people to sit on their asses watching TV all day instead of working, why not pay them to eat at home too. Next thing you know, we’ll be paying them to sleep, shower and s____t too.
As a young girl raised on an Iowa farm, I was astonished when I went to college in 1965 that most of my dorm mates could not cook. I have been cooking since age 10 or so and by that time was perfectly capable of preparing a meal for a for a crew of hungry men on the farm.
That said, I find it a struggle to work full time and cook. But retirement looms, so maybe I can do more then.
I think it's called the IRS.
A woman who expects to be paid for household work should also expect to be billed for room and board.
At our house, 90% of the meals are home cooked (can’t say the same for our kid’s families as they seem too busy). They always seem amazed when they come over for diner and we have cooked everything at home.
There are several reasons that people don’t eat at home.
The first is that they are lazy.
The second (and most importantly) is that through time the liberated woman’s movement looked down on the poor discriminated against housewife that actually did what mothers did prior to 1970....RAISED THE CHILDREN AND TAUGHT THE VALUES, MORALS AND WAYS OF ALL PRIOR GENERATIONS.
When the burned their bras and walked out of the family picture in the 1970’s, eating at home quickly vanished.
Now, we reap the reward for the destruction of the American way of life and family in the name of PROGRESSIVENESS and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS.
So basically, this is for women who can’t get satisfaction for doing a job well done but need the external reward (ie a paycheck- it’s like the trophy for every kid participating!) when contributing to their family.
A portion of the obesity issues MIGHT have to do with the fact that feminists have systematically demonized any sense of family priorities including meal preparation. I think there is now a fractured link between generations on basic recipes. I know how to make a pot of green beans taste good. I have friends who don’t unless they got some crazy overspiced,cheese laden, 30 step recipe from Pinterest.
These women were proud of the fact that they didn’t cook. Then they got married and had children. Going to their houses is almost amusing. It’s the same wide-eyed look as they exclaim “I’m learning!” They don’t have a choice now as it’s expensive to eat out and they realize taking toddlers to a restaurant is not only mentally exhausting for them, but abuse to other patrons.
A lot more people cook at home than we think and many can get vegetables, etc, by themselves. Just because they don’t live in the author’s perfect world doesn’t mean they aren’t serving decent meals.
BTW- I believe that obesity factors fit better on a matrix than some linear check box of items. We can’t blame just one thing.
My wife didn't cook back when she was my girlfriend. I taught her. She got a book of recipes and experimented. She learned quickly.
It's not hard to learn to cook. The basic ingredient is wanting to learn.
BINGO!!!!
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