The article is actually decently well written good-faith satire meant to address how poverty and hunger are inherent to capitalism as a system. The title was just too bold lol
this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2024
886 points (96.8% liked)
Memes
45655 readers
2259 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
“No one works harder than hungry people”
While this is probably true, the problem is that their reward for this hard work in no way comes close to fixing their hunger problem.
Meanwhile the assholes in control of the economy and responsible for their hunger problem are taking all the rewards and hoarding it for no better reasons than to compare with other assholes.
To quote the article in question (highlight is my own):
"[H]ow many of us would sell our services so cheaply if it were not for the threat of hunger? When we sell our services cheaply, we enrich others, those who own the factories, the machines and the lands, and ultimately own the people who work for them. For those who depend on the availability of cheap labour, hunger is the foundation of their wealth."
So is the title “the benefit of world hunger” more of a cynical title, then? Or is it actually making an argument in favor of world hunger for the benefit of our economy?
Both. It's satire.
The "benefit" of world hunger is that it keeps people locked in their place and entrenches the status quo. This is actually true, and the author believes it, but he doesn't like it.
Many people benefit from world hunger though, and every time you hear that poverty is a hard problem to solve you should ask yourself, how much of that is actual problems and how much is the status quo resisting change?
It's an ironic title. Like saying "A benefit of loosing your legs is that you don't need to buy shoes anymore. I mean I can't get down the stairs to leave my apartment, but at least I never have to shop for shoes again!".
The benefit is real, but it's also clearly not in proportion to the drawbacks presented, so focusing on the benefit is a joke.
No one works harder than people whose lives are threatened [for example, by starvation] and they are working to not die.
The logical conclusion of this is that we should bring back slavery and extermination camps because that's how you maximize the efficiency from of humans. /s (obviously)