Pity For a Dime
I just got finished watching the premiere of Morgan Spurlock's new series, "30 Days." The first episode consisted of Morgan and his fiancee (shit, I forget her name, OH YEAH Alex) giving up their normal, everyday lifestyle and living on minimum wage for 30 days.
When I first heard about this series, I was intrigued. I liked the movie he did, "Supersize Me," although it made me never want to eat fast food again, which is a good thing - instead I've switched to pizza! lol. I DVR'd it last night because I'm too much of a wuss to stay up until 11:00, since I have to wake up at 5:30 in the frickin morning.
Anyway, back to the topic. He and his fiancee start from scratch. They go to Ohio, stay at his friend's house the first night, and the next night they are on their own. They have nothing to start out with, except the equivalent of one week's pay for each of them at minimum wage rates. They find a very cheap apartment ($325 a month, I think), put a couple hundred down as a deposit, and need to raise enough for the rest of the month's rent and a month's security deposit (about $425) by the end of the month. It's in a very bad neighborhood (crack house downstairs), and is infested with bugs, but otherwise perfectly liveable but very modest.
Then they had to go out and get jobs. He gets a job as a temp laborer, she gets one as a busser/dishwasher at a cafe. They barely have enough money to eat, have to either take the bus or walk to their jobs and anywhere else they need to go, and they literally have to watch every penny they spend. They were lucky enough to find a "free store" for working people who can't afford stuff for their house/apartment, and get an old couch, mattress to sleep on, kitchen table, dishes, etc - just the basics. During the course of the month both of them get hurt or sick and wind up in the emergency room, which ends up costing almost $1,200, and they can't even miss work because they literally couldn't afford to eat otherwise. They start to argue and are basically miserable.
This really is an eye-opener to those of us who make a pretty decent living and complain that we can't get the 50-inch HDTV or a new SUV. Some people have JACK SHIT to live on, and barely make enough to feed themselves and their families, and don't complaint, and are just happy to be alive and with the ones they love. I'm most definitely not rich - not even close - but I'm far from what these people have to go through. I make in a day what these people make in a week or more. I started out pretty rough, though - skipped college for stupid reasons, my first apartment with my ex-husband (then boyfriend) consisted of basically a small step up from a studio apartment in a not-so-great part of town in suburban Philly, where there were roaches the size of..... well pretty fucking big. I'm talkin 4-INCHERS!
So, the moral of the story is, as I sit here and type on my computer with a full belly, watching digital cable, and sipping a Rolling Rock in my comfortable "luxury" apartment, I learned something -- to stop fucking complaining about shit that other people would kill to have, enjoy the "little things" and be happy for what I do have, and that I make the money I do.
TGIF!!!
When I first heard about this series, I was intrigued. I liked the movie he did, "Supersize Me," although it made me never want to eat fast food again, which is a good thing - instead I've switched to pizza! lol. I DVR'd it last night because I'm too much of a wuss to stay up until 11:00, since I have to wake up at 5:30 in the frickin morning.
Anyway, back to the topic. He and his fiancee start from scratch. They go to Ohio, stay at his friend's house the first night, and the next night they are on their own. They have nothing to start out with, except the equivalent of one week's pay for each of them at minimum wage rates. They find a very cheap apartment ($325 a month, I think), put a couple hundred down as a deposit, and need to raise enough for the rest of the month's rent and a month's security deposit (about $425) by the end of the month. It's in a very bad neighborhood (crack house downstairs), and is infested with bugs, but otherwise perfectly liveable but very modest.
Then they had to go out and get jobs. He gets a job as a temp laborer, she gets one as a busser/dishwasher at a cafe. They barely have enough money to eat, have to either take the bus or walk to their jobs and anywhere else they need to go, and they literally have to watch every penny they spend. They were lucky enough to find a "free store" for working people who can't afford stuff for their house/apartment, and get an old couch, mattress to sleep on, kitchen table, dishes, etc - just the basics. During the course of the month both of them get hurt or sick and wind up in the emergency room, which ends up costing almost $1,200, and they can't even miss work because they literally couldn't afford to eat otherwise. They start to argue and are basically miserable.
This really is an eye-opener to those of us who make a pretty decent living and complain that we can't get the 50-inch HDTV or a new SUV. Some people have JACK SHIT to live on, and barely make enough to feed themselves and their families, and don't complaint, and are just happy to be alive and with the ones they love. I'm most definitely not rich - not even close - but I'm far from what these people have to go through. I make in a day what these people make in a week or more. I started out pretty rough, though - skipped college for stupid reasons, my first apartment with my ex-husband (then boyfriend) consisted of basically a small step up from a studio apartment in a not-so-great part of town in suburban Philly, where there were roaches the size of..... well pretty fucking big. I'm talkin 4-INCHERS!
So, the moral of the story is, as I sit here and type on my computer with a full belly, watching digital cable, and sipping a Rolling Rock in my comfortable "luxury" apartment, I learned something -- to stop fucking complaining about shit that other people would kill to have, enjoy the "little things" and be happy for what I do have, and that I make the money I do.
TGIF!!!
posted by Miss_Vicki at 8:11 PM
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