Let them eat… nothing
Update:
Remember when this story seemed like silly hyperbole? Well now someone, other than me, and with a lot more clout, said the quiet part out loud. Poor people are supposed to subsist on cereal. That’s the big economy-saving idea from a wealthy CEO.
Carry on
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I find the disparity in health and diet messages depending on a person’s net worth interesting.
Panna and circuses went only so far during the fall of the Roman Empire.
During the 18th century, Marie Antoinette got herself into a fair amount of trouble, allegedly saying, “Let them eat cake,” when asked to comment on her husband’s starving subjects.
During Victorian/Dickensian/Civil War/Gilded Age times, plenty of people starved while the rich indulged, but many lived on the land and always had access to some food. A few street riots and fallen monarchies later, it became clear that rich folks were going to have to share at least something with the increasing numbers of poor urban factory workers. That’s when some pretty unlikely suspects, like wealthy New Yorker Teddy Roosevelt and even Lloyd George in the UK, supported at least some limited progressive reform laws, the US going for consumer safety and the UK doing more for miners…
