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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

30 Days: Living on Minimum Wage

In my gifted and talented class as part of our war, poverty and hunger unit, we watched an episode from the TV series 30 days. The host, Morgan Spurlock, and his fiancee challenge themselves to live a different lifestyle for 30 days. In this episode, the couple challenged themselves to live on minimum wage for 30 days. After seeing the show, I was asked to respond to a few questions.

1. What surprised you when watching this episode?
What surprised me the most was how much the couple began to argue. They would get so angry with each other, over a few dollars. When the kids came to stay with them the two became even more angry and things were heated.

2) Do you think this was a realistic portrayal of living life on minimum wage? Why or why not?
I actually don't think this was realistic. First of all, many people living in poverty have kids. Also, the real experiences can't be shown in a TV series. For example the couple rented a house in a bad neighborhood. But you never got to see how truly bad it was, when in reality people who make the minimum wage might live in bad neighborhoods where bad stuff happens. In the show I feel they had to make it safe for the cameramen and whatnot.
3) Overall, what did you learn from viewing this episode?
I learned how difficult it really is to live in poverty. It is so strenuous on not only the mental health of the people, but on the physical health of them too. People are worn down by living in poverty, and it is so incredibly difficult to make ends meet. I learned that I should appreciate what I have, and not waste anything.

3 comments:

  1. I agree with your answer to number 2. Even though Morgan and Alex were living in bad conditions, other people still have it worse, and they were probably in better conditions than other people ACTUALLY living on minimum wage. It also is really strenuous for the people living in poverty

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  2. I didn't mention the couple fighting in my blog post but I noticed that too. I realized how difficult it is to live off of minimum wage as well

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  3. I think you are right about how there are people living in worse conditions and the real life experiences can't be shown on TV. I remember how Alex and Morgan got angry at each other because they're trying to save as much money as they can. I learned the same thing about how difficult it is for people who live off of minimum wage and live in poverty.

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