http://www.globalresearch.ca/american-dream-food-loaded-into-dumpsters-while-hundreds-of-hungry-americans-restrained-by-police/5329966

“American Dream”: Food loaded into Dumpsters while Hundreds of Hungry Americans Restrained by Police

Quote :

"Hundreds of poor people waiting outside of a closed grocery store for the possibility of getting the remaining food is not the picture of the “American Dream.” Yet on March 23, outside the Laney Walker Supermarket in Augusta, Ga., that is exactly what happened. Residents filled the parking lot with bags and baskets hoping to get some of the baby food, canned goods, noodles and other non-perishables. But a local church never came to pick up the food, as the storeowner prior to the eviction said they had arranged. By the time the people showed up for the food, what was left inside the premises—as with any eviction—came into the ownership of the property holder, SunTrust Bank. The bank ordered the food to be loaded into dumpsters and hauled to a landfill instead of distributed. The people that gathered had to be restrained by police as they saw perfectly good food destroyed. Local Sheriff Richard Roundtree told the news “a potential for a riot was extremely high.” “People got children out here that are hungry, thirsty,” local resident Robertstine Lambert told Fox54 in Augusta. “Why throw it away when you could be issuing it out?”"

Considering that nearly 20% of US children are in "food insecure" households, this is disgustingly criminal.

But of course, this will be justified by people who hold the view "if you own something, you can do whatever you want with it" in absolute terms.

Quote :

"In Richmond County, there are about 20 evictions per day, and the area surrounding the supermarket is one of the poorest in the state. According to the last available data, the poverty rate is 41 percent."

And it was done in such an area... like rubbing salt into a wound. Bet a lot more than the national average of 20% of the children there go hungry. Totally sick.

Quote :

"This story is not some bizarre exception. It reeks of the truth of capitalism and is strikingly similar to the H&M scandal that broke in 2010 when clothes were being shredded before being thrown away, so as to make sure the value of the merchandise was unaffected."

Another disgusting example of the same practice.

Conclusion... definition and modus operandi of a capitalist society:

Quote :

"In a capitalist society, the motive behind the production of food is not to feed people, housing is not made to give them shelter, clothing is not made to keep them warm, and health care is not offered primarily to keep people healthy. All of these things, which are and should be viewed as basic rights, are nothing other than commodities—to be bought and sold—from which to make a profit. If a profit cannot be made, usually due to overproduction in relation to the market, the commodity is considered useless by the capitalist and destroyed."

I don't know how anybody could be so callous, heartless, and cruel.

Extreme Capitalism... not that far from Passive Terrorism


[Edited on April 20, 2013 at 10:04 AM. Reason : ]

4/20/2013 9:57:14 AM

If you want the American dream of advancing from your economic class, you need to go somewhere else that has better class mobility.

4/20/2013 10:03:09 AM

I agree, we've done a really nice job of fucking up capitalism by discouraging entrepreneurs via regulation, protectionism, and cronyism/corruption. Maybe try Hong Kong.

4/20/2013 10:05:31 AM

If you want the "American dream", you need a place with high class mobility and low inequality. Instead of Hong Kong I would suggest Denmark.

[Edited on April 20, 2013 at 10:11 AM. Reason : or another Scandinavian country maybe]

4/20/2013 10:09:36 AM

Hugo Chavez would be so upset.

4/20/2013 11:42:45 AM

I wouldn't have taken the risk of giving away items potentially past their expiration date to a group of people that would gladly come back and sue me if they were to get sick from it. The bank had nothing to gain and everything to lose by donating away those food items, so they made the right choice from a risk management standpoint.

[Edited on April 20, 2013 at 6:15 PM. Reason : .]

4/20/2013 6:14:04 PM

denmark? really?

explain yourself.

4/20/2013 7:43:02 PM

...Nordic countries are continually found to be highly mobile.

I mean, what is he supposed to say?

4/20/2013 11:09:29 PM

Also, low inequality

4/20/2013 11:21:18 PM

cost of living, income taxes, VAT taxes...

i dont think the poor are flocking to this utopia known as denmark.

4/21/2013 12:26:00 AM

4/21/2013 12:45:51 AM

Quote :

"I wouldn't have taken the risk of giving away items potentially past their expiration date"

Where does it say they were expired? Expired goods usually don't sit on supermarket shelves.

4/21/2013 3:19:39 AM

^^^It's probably more about restrictive immigration policy and the fact that it isn't anywhere near a country full of such economic migrants (hint hint, the ones who even have the means to make a stretch for a better place try to cross as few national borders as possible).

4/21/2013 6:28:17 AM

Quote :

""

bahaha, indeed

4/21/2013 7:17:48 AM

So the key to success is being very white and hating Muslims?

I think you guys are voting for the wrong party.

...and you can shut the fuck up OEP. I don't think you've ever directly addressed me before, but you shouldn't. If I want my underwear investigated by an experienced sleuth like you ill let you know.

4/21/2013 10:30:48 AM

y0willy0, this disagreement could easily be because the "American dream" is a vague term that might mean something different to each of us.

To me, this concept of the "American dream" is primarily about class mobility. I understand this term as being about the ability to rise from any socio-economic class to prosperity, about being able to start out with nothing and build an empire for yourself.


What does the term mean for you?

4/21/2013 10:41:35 AM

Quote :

"i dont think the poor are flocking to this utopia known as denmark."

people with AIDS flock to africa

politically oppressed people flock to north korea

bombing victims flock to boston

how else would they have gotten there?

4/21/2013 1:02:26 PM

4/21/2013 4:19:34 PM

I am curious... Do you think the 5,700% population difference between USA and Denmark may change the ability to compare the two?

4/21/2013 7:56:53 PM

if i compare it to individual states and show you that its still a better place for the American dream, will that satisfy your question?

4/21/2013 8:08:17 PM

Quote :

"Where does it say they were expired? Expired goods usually don't sit on supermarket shelves. "

supermarkets that are bankrupt and getting evicted don't care about managing their shelves for expired goods. the non-perishable goods were donated to a local food bank, but the perishable items that were of questionable shelf life and upkeep (think a bankrupt store cares about how well the vegetable chillers work) were sent to the dump. your article didn't bother to mention this because it doesn't tug at the heartstrings quite as much, but other news agencies clarified this.

4/21/2013 10:57:27 PM

the homeless / starving had rather eat botulism than nothing at all

4/21/2013 11:12:19 PM

I thought it said the local church never came to pick the food up?

4/22/2013 8:36:37 AM

Quote :

"the non-perishable goods were donated to a local food bank"

were they? if so, that's great. can you provide the link to the report you read?

Quote :

"So the key to success is being very white and hating Muslims?"

accuses WHOLE country (denmark) of hating muslims...
goes to chit chat and posts several violently anti-muslim comments.

maybe i should be like him and accuse the WHOLE usa of "hating Muslims"

4/22/2013 8:52:46 AM

eleusis is just talking out of his ass yet again.

local news report:
http://www.wrdw.com/home/headlines/Augusta-grocery-store-getting-evicted-200060001.html

Quote :

"Cans of baby food, canned vegetables, packages of Ramen noodles and boxes of tissues were all hauled off to the landfill."

4/22/2013 9:40:30 AM

This reminds me of a situation a couple of months ago where 1600 pounds of deer meat donated to a homeless shelter was destroyed, as mandated by the department of health: http://houston.cbslocal.com/2013/02/25/louisiana-forces-homeless-shelter-to-destroy-8000-worth-of-deer-meat/

I agree with an earlier post. These types of free food giveaways expose the bank/store/charity/whatever to all kinds of risk. Common sense, if there is such a thing, says that people should be able to browse and take what they need with the caveat that the bank or the store is exempt from any kind of lawsuit related to expired food.

Blaming this on "capitalism", whatever the label means to you, is laziness. I doubt there was some banker twirling his mustache and laughing maniacally at the plight of the poor while this was going on, it simply wasn't worth the risk given the hyper-litigious environment.

[Edited on April 22, 2013 at 10:10 AM. Reason : ]

4/22/2013 10:05:09 AM

I agree with you that you can't simply blame capitalism at face for what happens, it's the hyper-litigious environment. But you can still blame capitalism as it created the hyper-litigious environment by being unable to manage externalities and define property rights. How else did you think it came about? Civil cases are always one of those two root causes. Either someone is accused of causing another costs they are not compensated for (externalities) or someone is accused of using some physical or intellectual property without compensating them for it (property rights).

4/22/2013 10:37:00 AM

The bank who ordered the dump obviously didn't care to write up the waivers for people to sign. If they had wrote up waivers than they could have been exempt from any legal backlash. However, a institution for making money rarely thinks about anything else than making money. It is Capitalism if you look at it that way.

[Edited on April 22, 2013 at 11:13 AM. Reason : .]

4/22/2013 11:12:35 AM

Quote :

"But you can still blame capitalism as it created the hyper-litigious environment by being unable to manage externalities and define property rights."

You can blame capitalism in the same way that you can blame irrigation, language, and Western philosophy, but it's not helpful for addressing the problem. The author wants to push their worldview, but in doing so misses the mark.

Increasing litigiousness is inevitable in a monocentric legal system. We can conceive of systems with competition and collaboration in dispute resolution services, but that's not what we have now. There's no "give" in our system. There's no mechanism by which ridiculous laws regularly get repealed or phased out. Now, we get law on top of law on top of law. We depend on law enforcement and the judiciary to exercise "good" discretion and ignore silly laws or lawsuits, but in most cases, individuals will follow the letter of the law because not adhering to it means being disciplined or worse.

Ideally, we move to a polycentric system of law where the flaws of any given system are exposed by the others, or the virtues are adopted. I don't want to derail this thread too badly getting into the "how", but I think one cause of this kind of waste is described above. There's nothing about a market economy that makes these types of wasteful events necessary, though. Capitalism is a scapegoat, not an explanation.

Quote :

"The bank who ordered the dump obviously didn't care to write up the waivers for people to sign. If they had wrote up waivers than they could have been exempt from any legal backlash."

Surely you understand that there's a little more to it than "writing up the waiver". Large banks sometimes have entire departments devoted to risk management. It might seem simple from the article, but the cost to the bank of covering their bases completely could be higher than we might guess. Banks are probably the most vulnerable to lawsuits since everyone knows they have money.

[Edited on April 22, 2013 at 11:24 AM. Reason : ]

4/22/2013 11:21:14 AM

Quote :

"if i compare it to individual states and show you that its still a better place for the American dream, will that satisfy your question?"

I suppose a closer comparison can be made. But it's still compromised by the fact that the federal government plays a huge hand in how states function, and that is affected by this nation's large heterogeneous population.

Denmark, and other similar countries, are practically on a different playing field and a useful comparison can't really be made, IMO.

[Edited on April 22, 2013 at 11:24 AM. Reason : words]

4/22/2013 11:24:20 AM

okay, so factoring in the federal contribution to states, which state should I move to so that I can pursue the American dream?

4/22/2013 11:35:00 AM

I live in the Augusta area - here is an update to the story:

http://www.wfxg.com/story/21813129/food-bound-for-landfill-donated-to-food-bank-instead

4/22/2013 11:46:30 AM

Quote :

"There's no mechanism by which ridiculous laws regularly get repealed or phased out."

This isn't about laws, this is about fundamentals. Civil cases don't have anything to do with law enforcement. When we talk about civil suits they will be about externalities or property rights, not about drinking milk in public on a Tuesday afternoon, the government established those laws, it has to prosecute them. Civil suits are about who owns what in a divorce, if I have to pay your medical bills after my dog bites you, if you used my idea without paying for it, if you downloaded my song illegally, if your medicine caused me to get cancer, if you didn't pay back money I loaned you, if your construction damaged my tree, if you don't meet the terms of a contract we both signed, they all fall into one of two areas that capitalism doesn't handle in a black and white manner. Those are fundmental problems with capitalism, they come along with any system that requires ownership, you can't blame them on "silly laws". The silly law thing has to do with criminal courts, but it's a red herring even in that discussion.

4/22/2013 12:51:07 PM

From reading different articles, it sounds like the bank didn't own the store's inventory, therefore, it wasn't their place to destroy or donate the food. Sounds more like there was such a quick rush to vacate the building that the business owner didn't have time to figure out what to do with the food and therefore threw it away as the most expedient way. Don't think this is a case of price or market manipulation (especially given the nature of food versus other products especially compared to the H&M scandal). This has less to do with evils of capitalism and more just the absentmindedness / poor judgment of a single business.

After all, if the business owner was truly motivated by money, they would have simply donated all those goods for the tax write off.

4/22/2013 3:44:32 PM

Quote :

"This reminds me of a situation a couple of months ago where 1600 pounds of deer meat donated to a homeless shelter was destroyed, as mandated by the department of health: http://houston.cbslocal.com/2013/02/25/louisiana-forces-homeless-shelter-to-destroy-8000-worth-of-deer-meat/ I agree with an earlier post. These types of free food giveaways expose the bank/store/charity/whatever to all kinds of risk. Common sense, if there is such a thing, says that people should be able to browse and take what they need with the caveat that the bank or the store is exempt from any kind of lawsuit related to expired food. Blaming this on "capitalism", whatever the label means to you, is laziness. I doubt there was some banker twirling his mustache and laughing maniacally at the plight of the poor while this was going on, it simply wasn't worth the risk given the hyper-litigious environment."

4/22/2013 11:07:37 PM

BobbyDigital is just talking out of his ass yet again.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/09/suntrust-evicts-supermarket_n_3045954.html

"Perishable food was taken to a landfill; however, we’d like to correct the record. Nonperishable groceries were sorted by Thompson Building Wrecking Company and donated to a local food bank."

4/23/2013 6:33:30 PM

when free crap is involved, people will get absolutely stupid

4/24/2013 7:48:38 AM

Quote :

"when free crap is involved, people will get absolutely stupid"

I used to work a marketing gig where I set up events and gave out free samples... People go nuts over free stuff and demand as much as they can carry..

When I would kindly tell them it was only 1/person, their sense of entitlement would cause outrage.

4/24/2013 10:12:14 AM