Free meals

Our local organic grocery store gave away 500 meals (each brown bag feeds four people) to families who are struggling.  The need for private enterprises to do this may be difficult to understand if you don't know the US: after all, this is the richest country in the world, right?

Right. By many measurements it is (though how it survives current events remains to be seen). However, what it is lacking is the social safety net that other developed countries take for granted.  The US is probably the only one of the OECD countries where getting a sickness like cancer can cause you to go bankrupt, lose your house, your job, your insurance, and end up on the street.  If you lose your job (like 36 million Americans just did...), you are out of luck: you may be eligible for some assistance, but it is limited in time and in amount because, as Republicans like to say: "we don't want people to get lazy about looking for a job."  And as all insurance is private, that means that losing your job often results in losing insurance -- for you and your family.  Even with trillions of dollars of "additional aid" money made available, there are countless stories of families having gone hungry and parents choosing not to eat so their kids can.

It's a situation that has always been difficult for me to understand: why would Americans stand for this? And perhaps current events might have people reevaluate the issue. 

It also drives me nuts when I hear my compatriots in France bitch about whatever the topic du jour happens to be. Come on, I want to scream, take a look at what you have, at what is literally given to you day in and day out, and then... shut up.

sorry, one of those days where I needed to vent.