re: Should we copy the Japanese school lunch program? (Yes, obviously we should)

Correct. If we serve breakfast and lunch at schools and require physical activity every day that takes care of a big part of the equation.

Even if they don't have the healthiest dinner you've accounted for over half of their meals and imparted some physical activity into their lives 5 days a week

There seems to be a sentiment that we should do nothing and then when things don't improve blame it all on minorities.

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No, but the cost will be prohibitive

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I'd say we can't afford NOT to do it

It will pay for itself in the long run

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No, but the cost will be prohibitive. We're broke from all the failed "Good Idea Fairy" crap.

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The long term benefits are worth the cost.

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On a similar note, I think more schools should adopt the no cell phone policies during school hours (including break periods)

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100%

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Better nutrition and no screen time during school hours would not only have great affects on physical health but there would be immense benefits with mental health and behavior.

Once fully implemented this would likely have untold positive benefits such as reduction in crime that I haven't even brought up yet.

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I fully agree.

Children should have zero access to cell phones during school hours.

I am also a firm believer in uniforms.

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I thought you'd run off

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So you’re a poor student of history.

First, we have much less upward mobility than much of Europe. We do have sheer numbers, because we have a huge population.

As for saving Europe, that was once, and 80 years ago, bub. And we actually played a huge role in starting WW2. On BOTH sides. And what have we done since?

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When I was in school many years ago breakfast and lunch was provided free of charge. Of course it was only provided for those already on welfare, food stamps and every other government funded system. Kids who grew up with a father who worked and provided like I did had to be sure they had enough to pay for their lunch that day.

At the time I thought it was crazy that someone else got something free that I didn’t especially while attending a public school. As I am older now I can look back and point out that a large portion of the kids on free lunch or now on government assistance. Likewise the same portion of kids paying for their own lunch are now paying for their kids lunch.

Moral of the story is if you give people shite for free they’ll learn to keep getting shite for free.

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That's a lot of words to say nothing.

I have no problem with all students at public schools getting free breakfast and lunch so long as it is healthy.

If the cost of education is free at the point of service, I don't see why school meals can't also be free at the point of service. It's worth paying for and would reduce the grocery costs of all families with school aged children.

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And?

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And the only way in which the initiative is going to be transformational in the way that the poster to whom I replied keeps claiming—to the point that it saves money in health costs, etc.—is if controlling lunch has a wildly disproportionate effect on the ultimate outcome. Which you and I both agree it won't.

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We could at least prevent them from eating poorly in the environments we control.

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And I not only have no problem with that, I have made the exact same argument here with regard to Big Mike's school lunch initiative. The taxpayers shouldn't be in charge of providing food for kids in the first place, but IF we're going to do it, it's basic common sense to do it responsibly. I've gotten the same downvotes for posting that here, more than once.

But that's not his argument.

His argument is that we should do this because it will transform obesity trends, not we should do this because it's simply adhering to common sense principles of basic responsibility regardless of the outcome (which is almost certainly going to be a meager flick of the needle, if anything.)

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Same with exercise.

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Again, I don't know where you were when Trump re-instated the Presidential Physical Fitness test and everyone here cheered and I asked them all why they cheered Trump and booed Big Mike for basically doing the same thing. I could have used some backup then.

That's my argument too. But that's NOT his argument.

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I have no problem with all students at public schools getting free breakfast and lunch

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That's because you live in a fantasy world in which "free" exists. In this world, it doesn't. Someone's paying for it.

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If the cost of education is free at the point of service, I don't see why school meals can't also be free at the point of service. It's worth paying for and would reduce the grocery costs of all families with school aged children.

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If the cost of education is free at the point of service, then why shouldn't food be free at the point of service? After all, it reduces the grocery bill for families with kids.

And if food is free at school and that's good because it reduces the grocery bill for families with kids, why shouldn't ALL food be free...we could reduce ALL families grocery bills that way!

And if we reduce grocery bills for all families like that, why shouldn't gasoline also be free? That way we could reduce transportation costs for families, which is definitely a great thing.

And if we're making the gasoline free, why not make cars free? I mean, some people can't afford one, and those people wouldn't benefit from the free gasoline initiative, which isn't fair. We need to provide them with a car so that they get the same benefit as everyone else getting free gas.

Now I'm definitely carrying this out to its logical conclusion, which I'm sure seems hyperbolic to you, but it's not. It's just carrying things all the way through. It's the same leftist logic, and it is what is absurd, not the degree to which I took it.

Bill Maher constantly chirps about wokeism, yet there's no chance he'll ever vote for anyone but a Democrat. That's because he deludes himself into thinking that wokeism is something other than the logical conclusions of things like feminism and identity politics...but it's not. It's just taking those ideas to their logical conclusions.

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That's a lot of words to say nothing.

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It was too few words, because it wasn't enough for you to comprehend the point.

His point is that giving people "free" stuff teaches them to rely on "free" stuff.

You respond by posting that we should give "free" stuff to everyone, not just some kids, which means you failed to comprehend the point entirely.

He wasn't saying some kids got it and some didn't, and that's not fair...that's what you heard because you've embraced the leftist ideology on this topic, but that's not what he said.

What he said is that giving people "free" stuff corrupts them and makes them weak and dependent, so we shouldn't be giving it to anyone.

He's right, of course. History confirms.