@yakkoTDI you joke, but one of the big drivers behind creating Social Security in America was the discovery that, during the Great Depression, many senior citizens were eating cat food to stay alive, because they could not afford any human foods.

So many have been propagandized by conservative media and now want to abolish SS, yet don’t even remember scary parts of our past like this. It wasn’t all that long ago.

@haydesigner The people who are into that propaganda have also been programmed to think poorer old people having to eat cat food is great because it’s definitely their own fault so it’s what they deserve, and would never happen to “me” or anyone “I” care about. (The extra irony being, the people who believe that are pretty likely to end up in that situation themselves.)

@haydesigner @ravenblack Hopefully this part of the thread isn’t going to head into the sewer swamp it could head into if politics get pulled into it (which I am not doing)… but responding to what the two of you said:

There is a good chunk of this country who blame the poor for their “fate” and that if they only had worked hard this wouldn’t have happened to them (of course this is also a well known psychological bias called attribution bias where you think your hard work got your your success, not luck and bad luck, rather than your screwups got you bad fortune. Then when looking at others it is more luck rather than their hard work that got them ahead and it is their own fault when bad things happen). Those who claim to be christian on top of that clearly have not read parts of the new testament.

The reasons why people end up needing help are complicated and there isn’t “one reason fits all”. For example around half the bankruptcies are due to medical bills, especially cancer… Not being able to save for retirement or enough for retirement isn’t always not choosing to do it. When the employer has no plan or low matching or it takes 5+ years for the matching to vest that doesn’t help that situation. Those who barely make enough to make ends meet and they aren’t over spending, rather they are having to choose between needs and needs… those folks have a very tough time saving for retirement. The loss of pensions has had a huge impact on retirement.

The boomers are going to be in deep shit as they are the first generation without pensions (less than 25% of them have them), whatever stage of life they are in they “break” everything because there are so many of them and our society doesn’t plan ahead for that. Further as more than half the money invested in the stock market is from pension funds due to the federal government laws about required minimum distribution (and many are going to have to take out more than the minimum), that is going to negatively impact the stock market when more boomers are being forced to take money out than the generations below them are putting in (most people don’t really seriously start to save for retirement until late 40’s or kids are out of college if they go, or at least kids are out of the house and so there is more money in the household to even be able to save a significant amount). There isn’t enough senior hud, and the list goes on and on. Couple that with longer life spans than 50 years ago and there are plenty of problems on the horizon. There is going to be an uptick in senior homelessness and those living in significant poverty. Then there is social security and medicare underfunding and kicking that can down the road… the fraud in advantage plans, our largely for profit health care system, the vertical integration of health care where the different divisions control what is charged for care, for insurance and reimbursement rates (major conflict of interest)… and that list is much longer as well…

@haydesigner @yakkoTDI Seniors buying a large can of the cheapest cat food for themselves remained a thing in the '70s, when my X1 saw it happening at the grocery store where she worked. SS does not cover the needs of a lot of retirees, and many are past the point of being able to be productive in a job.

@yakkoTDI

@haydesigner @werehatrack @yakkoTDI not just an American thing either. I’ve seen the borderline homeless in Paris and Tokyo eating food out of the can; sometimes it’s Dinty Moore sometimes it’s Purina.

@Kidsandliz Agreed 100% There’s a reason why the pics all have the food on top of a bed of dry food, the amount isn’t impressive for the $$$. My 2 kitties would definitely want more

@tysontomko That is presuming your kitties would like it. Most of the rather large number of one star reviews were that their cats, and even the ferals wouldn’t eat it. Of course other reviews their cats liked it but this is an expensive risk that they won’t.

Even then, this would not even amount to a small snack for my 120 pound rescue mutt.

@djslack Well, you already have the blender out for margaritas, don’t you?

@ShotgunX it’d do in a pinch. I don’t see anything in the ingredients that would be especially harmful to humans

@medz @ShotgunX do they list the ingredients?
I’m a picky cat dad.

@ShotgunX @simeon527
There are ingredient links in the product write up above

@phendrick Yeah, but which one is an endangered species?

@Mio @phendrick The one in the top photo holding the camera.

@Kyeh he looks like a very good boy. So cute.

@gogrrl Thanks!

@gogrrl @Kyeh I don’t know, he looks like he’s planning something.

@Kyeh so cute!

@Kyeh and handsome!

@k4evryng @tinamarie1974 Thank you, on his behalf!
@mossygreen He’s probably just trying to figure out how to get me to dole out some cat treats. (He can be pretty persuasive.)

@Kyeh He looks like he is a little low on head skritches. Please pass some along from me.

@k4evryng @Kyeh @mossygreen @tinamarie1974

(He can be pretty persuasive.)

I think you mean he has you well trained.

@yakkoTDI He says thanks, he definitely needed that!

@k4evryng @Kidsandliz @mossygreen @tinamarie1974
Who, me? Nah … excuse me, I have to go add some bits to the dry food bowl because (gasp!) there’s half an inch of clear space visible at the bottom.

@k4evryng @Kidsandliz @Kyeh @mossygreen @tinamarie1974

@bugger Hey… the dog food is TURKEY!

@violue You really should feed them better.

@violue add some broth and a potato and baby, you’ve got a stew going!

/giphy stew going

@shahnm I don’t let them eat anything weird without checking online to see that it’s not toxic for them first, and I certainly don’t give them those things as a regular part of their diet.

@violue OMG heaven help the small green lizards, frogs and crickets/grasshoppers that get into where I live now and used to live. Lizards all that is left behind are the rear legs. Frogs the same. Crickets and grasshoppers are only missing their heads. Cockroaches they don’t eat. They play with them until they are dead. One night I woke up to one of the cats running around my bed, jumping on and off. I turned on the light. She was playing with a roach. When it would get off the bed she’d go get it, carefully holding it in her mouth to bring it back onto my bed to continue play time. I grabbed it and threw her toy out the window. She was not happy with me.

@Kidsandliz @violue We have long since accepted that a deceased (or nearly so) palmetto bug on the floor is officially a broken cat toy.

@shahnm @violue Why not? Insects are high in protein, and lettuce is a good source of fiber.

@Chakolate @shahnm @violue Would you like two recipes for spiders? I have some given to me by my daughter from when she helped her mom cook them in Cambodia.

Hmm but then again when she told me about them and I asked her if she wanted spider for dinner (wondering what the reception would be walking into Petsmart asking for their biggest juiciest tarantula but no tarantula food), fortunately for me she said, “No mom. Spider no good. In this country we have chicken”.

@Chakolate @Kidsandliz @violue

Would you like two recipes for spiders?

Yeah… uh… I’m good. Thanks though.

@Chakolate @shahnm @violue Well just in case you get hungry and have a spider farm in your house…Easy to cook.

Daddy Long Legs type spiders roast like a marshmallow over a fire. Legs curl up and burn off so no need to prepare the spider just stab a stick through the body and roast.

Now tarantulas that is another matter. According to her using her words at the time (in Cambodia tarantulas can have bodies 8" or so in diameter so these suckers are big) first a grown up takes the poison thing out. Then the children pluck out the hairs. Then you cut them up and stir fry them.

When I showed her an article of Angeline Jolie and her Cambodian son eating spider in Cambodia my kid said, “Cambodians smart. They trick rich people from other countries into paying for food only poor Cambodians eat.”. Loved it.

@Chakolate @Kidsandliz @violue

@Chakolate @Kidsandliz @shahnm @violue in American history, lobster and clam were food for the poor because they were leftover from giant corporate trawl ships. Since smaller fishers needed something, they started hunting these. Cue over consumption and pollution. Then these became rarer and then were expensive high class food.

@brainmist ingredients are a link on the homepage.

@bblick Mine love canned pate Friskies. Someone gave me some Sheba and for the most part all they ate was the gravy and left the meat behind (although had it been pate they may have eaten more). On the other hand my nearly 20 year old cat all she would eat near the end was pate Sheba - likely because it had a strong odor and so she could tasted it more because of that.

@PooltoyWolf It’s an inflationary market segment.

@PooltoyWolf @werehatrack people who promote that are full of hot air.

@fredmavis Mine also prefer pate and tend to only eat the gravy in other kinds.

@fredmavis @Kidsandliz We have one who actually adores the bits-in-gravy style. He’s a bit odd.

@fredmavis I think it actually is pate from other pictures of it I have seen online. In fact, some people complained it was like a brick. I think they just mix it up for the PR shots to make it look better.

@fredmavis @WhoCares742 It’s definitely pate, and our cats have mixed and largely unenthusiastic responses to it.

@MrNews Clio is a cutie. And she knows it.

@MrNews Clio also looks a little low on head skritches. Please pass some along from me.