Originally Posted by Freebase Dali

I'm sorry if I'm late to this particular party, but I was browsing this thread and saw this post, and I wanted to try and understand your thinking behind it.
I apologize in advance if I misunderstand what you were trying to say.

I live here in a capitalist country (USA), and I support myself and have been doing so for years. Out of my own personal experience, I've noticed that healthy food like vegetables, non-processed, non-packaged foods, ingredients, etc. are not out of my reach as someone who has always been technically below the poverty line (and still currently as a student). In fact, I can provide for myself FAR BETTER by eating home-cooked, healthy meals that stretch FAR longer than a Burger-King value meal at almost the same price when broken down into ratios.
In fact, if I were to go to the grocery and strictly choose processed, packaged meals instead of individual ingredients that allow me to control content and output, I would pay around 2 or 3 times as much as I would otherwise.
How do I know this? Because I've been on both sides of that fence, and with some education and experience, I learned that there's a better way to live than relying on meals in a box, fast food, and all the other crap people shove into their faces in this country because it's just more "convenient" to do so. And guess what, I still income below the poverty line, and I'm a full time student, and I have money to pay the bills, emergency funds, and more money to play with.

So, in my experience, I've learned that the problem isn't what's available and not available. The problem is laziness. The problem is not being educated about how to get the most out of your money and buy healthy food, and how to make it last so that you're not purchasing meals based on whims and convenience.
America's problem isn't capitalism in that regard. It's Americans that are simply too lazy, uncaring and uneducated to actually do something good for themselves because it requires work and it requires a degree of self-control.

Believe me... Us lower-tier Americans can afford good food. I don't have Food stamps, and I don't collect unemployment. I don't have any sort of welfare. All I receive is an earned housing allowance from my GI bill while I go to school, and an additional pell grant per semester. WELFARE RECIPIENTS INCOME MORE THAN I DO. And somehow, I can buy healthy food and live right... (save for my drinking, of course) With plenty money to spare!
I'm guessing you're beginning to see the picture here.
It's about personal choices.
The only situation where personal choice is no longer an option for this is in a situation where a government is dictating what you're allowed to eat.
Yea, maybe that's the only way to get some of these people to straighten their lives out, but personally, I'd rather not be forced to live in a world where my decisions are made for me simply because of the inability of others to make them on their own.