I was in downtown Seattle and a 'homeless person' passing by a fast food restaurant called out to the employees there “Got any leftovers?” and seemed disgruntled when the reply was, as you might expect, “No.”
Having worked such jobs myself, I know exactly why a fast food restaurant generally is not going to hand out food to anyone. Unfortunately it's not something I could have explained then and there to that person, because it has quite a few dimensions to it, and requires a certain amount of understanding of how our economic system functions, and how that is the result of Who We Are as our current accepted Nature as human beings.
So, I realized what I could do is write a blog about this point, and that way have some more
time and space to discuss the point, and where it will reach more people, which are really cool points that make blogging a cool platform for sharing information that is supportive, and obviously why everyone should have access to the internet. Because you know that that homeless person and probably most homeless
individuals, likely does not have any access to the internet, isn’t going to be able to read this blog. And ‘having access’ doesn’t just mean having
physical access to a
computer with internet, it means having also the education and ability to navigate the internet effectively and to effectively understand
words and meanings and an ability to distinguish between information that is supportive and that which is not. Everyone should be supported to have all these points, so that everyone has the equal opportunity to develop effective
living in reality.
So, what is usually the case within working in corporate fast food establishments and comparable jobs, is that there are usually very specific accounting procedures for keeping track of inventory of each and every single item that is utilized or sold on a daily basis, where even items like food items that become too damaged to sell or are otherwise not sold for some reason but are consumed or thrown away for some reason, are also accounted for. Records are kept of exactly where everything goes. I suspect this is primarily to discourage and prevent employees from utilizing products themselves for free or giving them away for free. Keeping track of the inventory overall is, however, primarily for the
purpose of maximizing profits and minimizing losses, through predicting the flow or demand of products in order to determine how much of what is needed when, so you don’t have too much that goes to waste and is a ‘loss’, and so you can have enough product available to sell according to how much is likely going to be purchased.
Interestingly, what this calculating shows is that we have the capability to utilize such calculations in a supportive way, where the starting point is not based in ‘profits/losses’, but in effectively distributing
resources and
goods according to actual need in ensuring that all have effective support in this reality.
So, why can’t leftovers be given away in most cases? Because all the product is accounted for, and even when there is some that cannot be sold not because it is bad or inedible, but because for example it is too small a portion to sell for the predetermined proportion/price, or maybe the item doesn’t look quite right, maybe it broke in half and this doesn’t ‘look good’ and so won’t be sold, why can’t these things be given away? Well, as an employee you’re often informed that if you give food away you’ll be reprimanded/there will be
consequences where you could potentially even lose your job or face a fine. Now, considering how tight the job market is now and has been getting tighter and tighter, and how low wages are, it would
be really stupid to take such a risk to one’s job, when it is your source of income and thus survival. Thus, the employees are not in such a position to give food away.
And obviously corporate companies that are in the business of profits are not going to condone giving food away for free, otherwise people would take advantage of this, and there'd be less income. And corporations do this because we have given the right to companies to exploit the resources for the profit of some, instead of ensuring that the finite resources of the earth are being effectively distributed to all parts of humanity so they can effectively support themselves.
I mean, the next
time you find yourself being ‘pan-handled’ by a ‘homeless person’ – ask why does this even exist in the first place? There’s the tendency to
judge homeless individuals as ‘
less than’ and to get annoyed when they are begging for food or
money. It’s treated as if their hunger and their homelessness is a lifestyle
choice when maybe in some cases it is, but for the most part it is the result of an ineffective system that doesn’t provide adequate support to everyone equally; there are countless articles of individuals becoming homeless not through choice but for example through deliberately being taken advantage of by the credit industry. This is well documented, you will find books and articles on the subject explaining in detail how this has been happening, with the result that individuals and families have their homes taken from them and those who have no other option, suddenly find themselves on the street, and once you are there it is incredibly difficult to get out.
Here in Seattle, it's a touristy place, and you'll hear the tourists
complain or talk down about the homeless people that try to pan-handle
them, and it's like it is detracting from what is supposed to be their lovely 'vacation experience'. And locals as well will complain and act like the homeless are in a way deliberately bothersome, ignoring the fact that these beings have no constancy, no security, no creature comforts that the rest of us have, not to mention being driven to do and say things most never would, because their physical body needs such as the need for food are so extreme to drive one to do anything - yet no one mentions doing anything to actually prevent the
situation of homelessness in the first place - so it's really bizarre to
like complain about the problem and yet not even realize or care enough to even ask or consider how/why it's happening, where we'd then see that we're allowing it
to be created in the first place - so we're really actually causing our
own irritation - yes that's right - the homeless are your creation, so
when you see a homeless person, or your nostrils are put out by the
smell, realize we've created this, we're responsible, and thus it's up
to us to do something about it, if we really don't want 'homeless
people' and 'beggars' to be existing anymore.
So it really doesn’t make any sense that we would get annoyed at/bothered by homeless people, we’re really actually bothering ourselves because we didn’t bother to set up our economic system properly to ensure that the situation of homelessness isn’t created in the first place.
This is what the
Basic Income Guaranteed or also called the
Living Income Guaranteed, would sort out, as it provide an income to those who need it, to ensure that everyone has a home. There’s no reason for anyone to not have a home, as we all do realize that a home is required for proper living
here, so there is no reason to
allow people to go homeless when we have every capability to house everyone – what kind of beings would allow that? Cruel and unintelligent ones who like to create problems for themselves like where you can’t just walk through a city without being accosted by individuals in need and often smelling quite fierce, because they aren’t even able to clean themselves effectively. I mean, this is like primitive stuff, we should be way beyond this. We can be. The option is now here in the Living Income Guaranteed. It is simply up to us to not accept anything less than the best lives for
ourselves, for support when we need it, and correcting our system to reflect that.
There's argument that having a basic income though would be a disincentive to working. But we are viewing this from the eyes of what is already here. I mean, what would you call disincentive? Being severely underpaid to the point where you have to take multiple jobs and still can't pay all your bills? Being short staffed and overworked, where the service you provide is often the cheapest it can possibly be and cutting corners is a requirement of the job so there is really no satisfaction in the service you're providing, and often facing disgruntled customers who don't like the poor service for the price they're paying when it's not like you are doing it on purpose? Receiving little to no paid time off or benefits? Where the company for whom your labor is making profits for has no regard for you? Where's the incentive in that? 
