Okay, obviously even with my sprucing up around here,(by the way, I finished the bathroom today! Everyone but me hates the color, oh well!) I have been watching too much TV. After my HGTV rant, I move onto Oprah.
As my favorite tightwad guru Amy Dacyczyn once said "I wanted to raise my fist and say It's not true, it can be done!" And unlike Contrary1 who felt warm fuzzies from the show, I felt angry. They had the guy that did the "Supersize Me" movie and his girlfriend go live on (or close to) minimum wage for ONE MONTH. They could not use their money or credit cards and even moved to Ohio for their experiment. ONE MONTH. Yes, they were broke, but I think rather whiney and it was only for ONE MONTH, so where do they get off saying "Oh we understand what you are going through", or "Oh it was so hard". Puhleeeze! Shes a chef, he's a filmmaker and they live in New York, cut me a break. Not only this though, they had a husband and wife and their 4 children that live off his $9.00 per hour job. She quit her job when their one child was diagnosed with autism. They barely make it paycheck to paycheck and are always afraid the end is near. Yes this is very scary, but what are they doing about it? THAT is my question! She said their groceries are $250 per week. What are they eating????? Way better than me even though I feed only a family of 5 and not a family of 6. Holy cow, I wish I could spend $250 a week! Why does'nt she take in some day care, or typing or something? Work in the evenings after hubby comes home?
I'm sorry, we raised 3 kids on 30,000 per year (actually under) for quite a few years before my husband got another job. I stayed at home and took care of the kids and worked lots of odd jobs to help out. It can be done!
They did have one woman on who broke her wrist so she could'nt work (don't know what her previous job was) and lost her job, therefore her home and had to live in a shelter. I felt bad for her, she did dig her way back out, but again she is living paycheck to paycheck. Could'nt she get a second job to put into savings or buy a car? Even for a little while for security? Instead she lives everyday terrified something will happen again.
I DO agree Health Insurance is killing many families!!! We have lived through that too! We just started regular insurance through my husbands company in February. For years we had to have individual health insurance and my husband had had a heart attack before. Guess what? Cha-ching!
Yes, they need to raise minimum wage, and find an affordable way for people to have health insurance, but the doom and gloom of Oprah??? Once again, pure sensationalism, not journalism.
Lets talk about Oprah
April 15th, 2006 at 05:18 am
April 15th, 2006 at 10:53 am 1145098392
April 15th, 2006 at 10:58 am 1145098706
I felt that she completely lost touch with a real life and became too concentrated on herself and too bias.
I didn't see the show but I read quite a bit on the Internet about it. I agree with you 100 %! The people she showed were wining instead DOING something about the situation.
The blogs on this great site (which I LOVE to read) show that if people put their mind to it and are willing to make some sucrificies they absolutely can survivie and find ways to get better financialy.
April 15th, 2006 at 02:30 pm 1145111443
April 15th, 2006 at 02:54 pm 1145112856
Now we can complain about how stupid that is, but I have been starting to think.....HOW can we set up a program to show people HOW to shop and eat with limited finances. So many people in that situation don't know how and they (and thier kids) go hungry toward the end of each paycheck.
It's so easy to complain about this. Who is actually going to take action?
April 15th, 2006 at 03:01 pm 1145113319
The supersize me couple, was just the jumping off point for the conversations to follow...........and I am for anything that gets conversations going.
The hour caused me to think of the (previously homeless) gentleman living in my back 40, and relating to how quickly things turned sour for him. His situation didn't bottom out because of a health concern, but a transportation issue. He has 2 vehicles, but they both quit and he has had a tough time getting ahead enough to get the parts to fix them. Gas being what it is; he has a tough time getting rides from anyone else either.
Watching "John" on a daily basis here, he is trying so hard to hang on to a bit of dignity. But, it must be one of the hardest things to live through. I think the show touched on this feeling a couple times, one gentleman said he wanted to get in his car & just drive, not come back. I think the hopelessness is something most people don't understand when watching the stories of others..........and hopelessness is really a dark hole where even a helping hand isn't going to cut it.
April 15th, 2006 at 03:15 pm 1145114157
But we ought to be able to. We ought to have safe shelter, healthy food and dignity, no matter what our take-home pay is.
April 15th, 2006 at 04:24 pm 1145118249
And DivaJen too, yes we should be able to cook organic, but if it is that important to us, can we make our own garden or container garden?
But in the end, is'nt it about choices? And our own outlook. If you are hopeless can't their be optimism? And doing what we HAVE to do to get by and hoping sometimes for something that we WANT, is that a bad thing?
The lady that had broke her wrist went through depression, but pulled herself out. I'm not saying its NOT depressing, but I am saying that Oprah makes it out to be HOPELESS and it is NOT. Many of us have been there and done that, some are still doing it, but we are still enjoying our lives!
I don't know who is going to take action on this, the government has done some things, although I am not sure that handing out food stamps is an option. But with their WIC program they do educate people. I guess some people just don't want to change.
April 15th, 2006 at 04:39 pm 1145119152
April 15th, 2006 at 06:22 pm 1145125350
With the debt diet thing Oprah is hosting right now, would she not be a perfect family to work on and with? Not that they said anyhting about debt but how about teaching them some money management skills? Why don't one of the financial gurus go and offer some assistance, she them how it can be cheaper. That is 1000 a month n food. they could easily cut that in half.
April 15th, 2006 at 09:32 pm 1145136764
April 15th, 2006 at 09:58 pm 1145138285
April 16th, 2006 at 03:25 am 1145157909
April 16th, 2006 at 04:23 am 1145161382
Guys, you have to remember that network TV, cable, and even PBS is a media business. Media is paid for by ads. Ads exist to sell you something. Every time an ad sells someone something, that someone spends money. In other words, all of TV exists to get you to part with your paycheck.
Oprah exists as a little bit as a public service, but she's there because she gets high ratings and increases ad revenue. It means that the message, "save and you will make it" will never, ever be spoken, and the message "ain't it a shame that people are poor, but aren't you lucky that you're not" will be promoted.
April 16th, 2006 at 04:49 am 1145162987
April 16th, 2006 at 05:44 am 1145166283
I don't know about selling his vehicles. Since he is a landscaper by trade, or construction, he really needs something that he can haul his tools to & from job sites. So, that probably isn't a workable plan. He could be taking advantage of not having to pay rent right now, but I have a hunch he isn't. Again, I've chosen to do this as just offering what I can, not trying to make people do things my way.
"john" has got a hair cut this week, has come in to shower and has also begun to wash his clothes at my place.....so, I do see some progress. He looks much better, seems to have enough money for food, although says he was not feeling well last week..... It may be time to invite him for dinner??
Not to worry, boomeyers, I'm not easily offended. I love the discussion this brings up. None of my "guys" I've helped have looked anything like the bunch on TV, so it is pretty much a different story. My guys would take some work to clean up for TV
I have seen hopelessness, both in my kids I've taken in over the years as well as the handful of gentlemen I've let stay on the property. It is often times learned hopelessness, and there isn't much a bystander can do or say to make it just go away. I am more comfortable doing something rather than nothing........and I still think the show & the poor examples they used are better than nothing. Perhaps something will begin to happen, even if it is just one person noticing another person who needs assistance.
April 17th, 2006 at 07:18 pm 1145301485
I didn't see this Oprah, but when I saw the commercial for it, I was surprised this author wasn't on the show.
April 18th, 2006 at 02:50 am 1145328641
April 22nd, 2006 at 04:59 pm 1145725141
April 24th, 2006 at 12:15 pm 1145880911
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April 27th, 2006 at 05:25 pm 1146158710