every time someone says “just cook it’s not that hard” i lose a little more faith in humanity. I’ve spent >14 years cooking as a hobby and for health/finances but “just cook” to me sounds just like
“just fix your own car”
“just paint your own walls”
“just grow your own food”
“just homeschool your kids”
“just sew your own clothes”
you can absolutely do these things yourself! but it’s also become socially acceptable, socially expected even, to outsource these kinds of specialized tasks to specialists.
“but everyone needs to eat!” yeah, everyone needs clothes too and we don’t expect people to make their own anymore because we collectively decided we wanted everyone to spend more time at work instead.
There’s a reason, in the US, that few people make their own clothing, despite being the one good that we haven’t figured out a way to completely remove the human labor aspect of it.
TL:DW JoAnn’s Fabrics became a monopoly, and imploded due to Private Equity restructuring them. This means that fabric, and even raw fiber, is now harder to source. It also meant that even while JAF was in business, it was cheaper to buy premade clothing than make your own since sometime in the 1970s.
The same thing has happened with food suppliers, though the big 4 haven’t imploded, yet.
I remember as a little girl asking my mom to sew me a dress “because then we don’t have to pay for it,” and her explaining to me that fabric isn’t free, and it’s not even cheaper than clothes anymore. I was so disappointed and bewildered. Today, I’m still disappointed.
She also taught me how to make bread and I asked her if it was cheaper than store bread, so we sat down with grocery store receipts with the price of flour etc. and worked out that our recipe came to about $0.50/loaf (in ~2007). We didn’t factor in the cost of labor, heating gas, electricity for the bread machine, etc. but it was one thing we enjoyed knowing costed less than even the cheapest bread at the store.
I still make bread, but am afraid to do the math again.
To be clear, the big 4 food suppliers I’m referring to supply restaurants and other commercial food companies, not grocery stores. Those four are why every damn restaurant in the US tastes the same. We legally aren’t allowed to buy from the farmer’s market or grocery stores as our normal supplier. If it is a one off thing then we can go to the grocer for some onions or whatever.
Everybody should at least know how to cook basic meals. It’s an essential survival skill. Being a car mechanic or a professional educator is not the same.
~100 years ago, most people either know how to do most of these things or had an immediate family member who did. Today, that’s no longer true.
It probably would be better if we all still usually knew how to do all these things (at least in my opinion). But we collectively decided that it was more important that most people just know enough to keep themselves and some kids alive between shifts at work.
Just because a bunch of us have the blessing of the ability to cook food doesn’t give us license to expect all our fellow citizens to do it when we have actively encouraged them not to need this skill anymore.
I’m lucky that my mom taught me basic sewing repair, and I really wish most humans knew even basic sewing because of how staggeringly wasteful modern fashion is. But most people would call me crazy if I started insisting that everyone should know how to sew and that people who don’t are inferior, irresponsible, etc.
Even if they didn’t, how likely am I to convince more people to sew if I come out swinging with insults?
Are you seriously advocating that people shouldn’t bother to know how to make food for themselves? Because instead of suggesting we bring back home ec, get better wages and be less insulting to people who can’t cook, which would ask be improvements to everything, you’re saying we should throw in the towel.
I’m not at all saying to throw in the towel. Quite the opposite. I just want people to be more understanding and less judgmental so we don’t push people even further away from learning self subsistence habits like cooking.
I completely agree with you. I think what the US needs is more readily available AND relatively healthy food options. As a European, walking through the isles of an American grocery shop is utterly depressing.
every time someone says “just cook it’s not that hard” i lose a little more faith in humanity. I’ve spent >14 years cooking as a hobby and for health/finances but “just cook” to me sounds just like
“just fix your own car”
“just paint your own walls”
“just grow your own food”
“just homeschool your kids”
“just sew your own clothes”
you can absolutely do these things yourself! but it’s also become socially acceptable, socially expected even, to outsource these kinds of specialized tasks to specialists.
“but everyone needs to eat!” yeah, everyone needs clothes too and we don’t expect people to make their own anymore because we collectively decided we wanted everyone to spend more time at work instead.
There’s a reason, in the US, that few people make their own clothing, despite being the one good that we haven’t figured out a way to completely remove the human labor aspect of it.
https://youtu.be/4VJxJesgF8Y
TL:DW JoAnn’s Fabrics became a monopoly, and imploded due to Private Equity restructuring them. This means that fabric, and even raw fiber, is now harder to source. It also meant that even while JAF was in business, it was cheaper to buy premade clothing than make your own since sometime in the 1970s.
The same thing has happened with food suppliers, though the big 4 haven’t imploded, yet.
I remember as a little girl asking my mom to sew me a dress “because then we don’t have to pay for it,” and her explaining to me that fabric isn’t free, and it’s not even cheaper than clothes anymore. I was so disappointed and bewildered. Today, I’m still disappointed.
She also taught me how to make bread and I asked her if it was cheaper than store bread, so we sat down with grocery store receipts with the price of flour etc. and worked out that our recipe came to about $0.50/loaf (in ~2007). We didn’t factor in the cost of labor, heating gas, electricity for the bread machine, etc. but it was one thing we enjoyed knowing costed less than even the cheapest bread at the store.
I still make bread, but am afraid to do the math again.
To be clear, the big 4 food suppliers I’m referring to supply restaurants and other commercial food companies, not grocery stores. Those four are why every damn restaurant in the US tastes the same. We legally aren’t allowed to buy from the farmer’s market or grocery stores as our normal supplier. If it is a one off thing then we can go to the grocer for some onions or whatever.
ah yes the free market enabled by small government 🤦♀️
Everybody should at least know how to cook basic meals. It’s an essential survival skill. Being a car mechanic or a professional educator is not the same.
other essential survival skills include:
~100 years ago, most people either know how to do most of these things or had an immediate family member who did. Today, that’s no longer true.
It probably would be better if we all still usually knew how to do all these things (at least in my opinion). But we collectively decided that it was more important that most people just know enough to keep themselves and some kids alive between shifts at work.
Just because a bunch of us have the blessing of the ability to cook food doesn’t give us license to expect all our fellow citizens to do it when we have actively encouraged them not to need this skill anymore.
I’m lucky that my mom taught me basic sewing repair, and I really wish most humans knew even basic sewing because of how staggeringly wasteful modern fashion is. But most people would call me crazy if I started insisting that everyone should know how to sew and that people who don’t are inferior, irresponsible, etc.
Even if they didn’t, how likely am I to convince more people to sew if I come out swinging with insults?
Are you seriously advocating that people shouldn’t bother to know how to make food for themselves? Because instead of suggesting we bring back home ec, get better wages and be less insulting to people who can’t cook, which would ask be improvements to everything, you’re saying we should throw in the towel.
I’m not at all saying to throw in the towel. Quite the opposite. I just want people to be more understanding and less judgmental so we don’t push people even further away from learning self subsistence habits like cooking.
I completely agree with you. I think what the US needs is more readily available AND relatively healthy food options. As a European, walking through the isles of an American grocery shop is utterly depressing.