View Full Version : 30 Days
vancouver
04-04-06, 01:42 PM
So last night I watched a doucumentary produced by Morgan Spurlock called 30 Days.
Its the same guy who produced the Super Size Me doc. where he ate nothing but Maccy D's for a month.
Anyway in this episode he was experimenting to see whether he could survive on the mimium wage in Columbus, Ohio. Which is $2.95 or so - (feel free to correct me)
It was quite sad he and his fiancee worked all day for a pittance and they lived above a crack house. They did all sorts of menial jobs. :(
It shocked me. In fact he said it himself, '' how can the richest nation in the world have some much poverty.'' :shakehead
Their medical bills were huge - that amazed me. $200 for just walking in to the ER and getting a band aid. :shakehead
I am not naive to think that everyone in the States is earning a reasonble wage and living out the American Dream but I didnt think it would be this bad.
Tonight its about a homophobe living in a dominantly gay area of San Francisco.
RaceGrrl
04-04-06, 01:54 PM
Anyway in this episode he was experimenting to see whether he could survive on the mimium wage in Columbus, Ohio. Which is $2.95 or so - (feel free to correct me)
Minimum wage is $5.15, not $2.95. There are free clinics available to those without insurance, but many choose not to take advantage of them because it's easier to just go to the ER. The mindset of those particular patients is "I don't have a credit rating to worry about anyway, so why does it matter if I don't pay the bill." There are also family practice clinics in Columbus who charge patients on a sliding fee scale based on income. I know this because we have a physician who was a director of a free clinic at a local hospital and I've taken phone calls from patients who have the 'no credit so I won't pay the bill' attitude.
So last night I watched a doucumentary produced by Morgan Spurlock called 30 Days.
Its the same guy who produced the Super Size Me doc. where he ate nothing but Maccy D's for a month.
Anyway in this episode he was experimenting to see whether he could survive on the mimium wage in Columbus, Ohio. Which is $2.95 or so - (feel free to correct me)
It was quite sad he and his fiancee worked all day for a pittance and they lived above a crack house. They did all sorts of menial jobs. :(
It shocked me. In fact he said it himself, '' how can the richest nation in the world have some much poverty.'' :shakehead
Their medical bills were huge - that amazed me. $200 for just walking in to the ER and getting a band aid. :shakehead
I am not naive to think that everyone in the States is earning a reasonble wage and living out the American Dream but I didnt think it would be this bad.
Tonight its about a homophobe living in a dominantly gay area of San Francisco.
Wow! Here in Cbus?!? Was this on the BBC? I wonder why he chose Cbus for this...other than the fact that we have an abundance of crack houses? :shakehead
FYI, US and state minimum wage info is available here:
http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/america.htm
Ohio is available here:
http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/america.htm#Ohio
In high school I worked for $2.35 an hour as an amusement ride operator and hawking carnival games. It's fairly common to see fast food joints advertising positions for $8-$9/hour. From what I understand, the poverty in the south is far worse than it is here (note the states in the south w/o minimum wage laws), but there are certainly pockets of it throughout Ohiya. NE OH is especially bad these days.
-Kevin
vancouver
04-04-06, 02:03 PM
Wow! Here in Cbus?!? Was this on the BBC? I wonder why he chose Cbus for this...other than the fact that we have an abundance of crack houses? :shakehead
Cheers Kev for those links. Looks like I got my figures wrong :o
It was on late, 11.05pm. Memory goes all hazy after 10.30 pm.
It wasn't on BBC but on Channel 4. He chose Cbus because he wanted to concentrate his doc. specifically on the Mid West.
When he went to enquire about the crack house, the landlord said '' they only deal drugs, no violence, you''ll be fine.'' :thumdown:
doc in a box is much cheaper than the ER...
vancouver
04-04-06, 02:12 PM
Link (http://www.channel4.com/more4/documentaries/doc-feature.jsp?id=7)
extramundane
04-04-06, 03:05 PM
Spurlock actually produced this series for FX (http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/30days/main.html) and aired it last summer. Season 1 DVD should be out this summer sometime.
race chica
04-04-06, 04:52 PM
[QUOTE=vancouver]
Anyway in this episode he was experimenting to see whether he could survive on the mimium wage in Columbus, Ohio. Which is $2.95 or so - (feel free to correct me) [QUOTE]
In WI $2.95 is waitressing min wage. The theory is that tips subsidise the hourly pay up to the normal min wage. Is that what the job was?
Someone I know has three kids and no job. She's been out of work for nearly a year but she lives in a decent house in a decent neighborhood (subsidized housing). She has a serviceable car, cable TV, high speed internet, a couple of TVs, X-box and PS-2. All on a few dollars here and there and government assistance.
Most people suffering from the poverty in the U.S. have some other problem besides the minimum wage. Minimum wage jobs are only about 6% of the job market and many of those are not held by heads of households with no other means of support.
This guy is such a hack, especially if he said that minimum wage was 2.95. Blatant lies to prove his point.
What did he think would happen in Super Size Me? Dude was injesting 5000 calories a day. Did he think he would stay healthy? I don't care where you eat, you can cook it yourself, but if you eat 5000 calories a day, then you are gonna gain weight. Its not McDonalds fault. It's your fault for being a moron.
But maybe he isn't a moron, maybe its the people who bought his DVD expecting to see something other than common sense. He's rakin in the money right now.
Robstar
04-04-06, 09:01 PM
^ Could not agree more...
This guy is such a hack, especially if he said that minimum wage was 2.95. Blatant lies to prove his point.
What did he think would happen in Super Size Me? Dude was injesting 5000 calories a day. Did he think he would stay healthy? I don't care where you eat, you can cook it yourself, but if you eat 5000 calories a day, then you are gonna gain weight. Its not McDonalds fault. It's your fault for being a moron.
But maybe he isn't a moron, maybe its the people who bought his DVD expecting to see something other than common sense. He's rakin in the money right now.
Do you really think he made this movie w/o knowing the end result? As the saying goes in legal circles, don't ask the question if you don't know the answer. Also, I hardly think anyone rakes in money releasing a documentary on DVD...with perhaps the excpetion Michael Moore (I'll leave my opinion of him out of this discussion). Super Size Me helped focus attention on the issue of the unhealthy effects of fast food. It helped raise the awareness of this issue, and, along with other voices/discussions, has resulted on major changes in the industry. Kudos for that! :thumbup: In regards to common sense, in case you haven't noticed, common sense is severely lacking in some peeps. :(
-Kevin
This guy is such a hack, especially if he said that minimum wage was 2.95. Blatant lies to prove his point.
What did he think would happen in Super Size Me? Dude was injesting 5000 calories a day. Did he think he would stay healthy? I don't care where you eat, you can cook it yourself, but if you eat 5000 calories a day, then you are gonna gain weight. Its not McDonalds fault. It's your fault for being a moron.
I don't think the point of Supersize Me was the weight gain. It was about the lack of essential nutrients in McD's menu.
eiregosod
04-04-06, 10:41 PM
Spurlock never said that the minimum wage was $2.95/hr. he said that it was $5.-- per hour.
ui'm amazed that construction jobs in the USA pay minimum wage
Spurlock never said that the minimum wage was $2.95/hr. he said that it was $5.-- per hour.
ui'm amazed that construction jobs in the USA pay minimum wage
They don't. Not generally. The average pay for construction jobs in Ohio is around $20. Unskilled laborers generally start around $8-$10.
Sean O'Gorman
04-05-06, 07:14 AM
What did he think would happen in Super Size Me? Dude was injesting 5000 calories a day. Did he think he would stay healthy? I don't care where you eat, you can cook it yourself, but if you eat 5000 calories a day, then you are gonna gain weight. Its not McDonalds fault. It's your fault for being a moron.
This coming from the person who IMs me saying "I had a 2100 calorie breakfast, I really shouldn't eat the rest of the day." :gomer:
Spurlock never said that the minimum wage was $2.95/hr. he said that it was $5.-- per hour.
ui'm amazed that construction jobs in the USA pay minimum wage
Most skilled construction jobs in the St. Louis area (carpenter, electrician, plumber, etc) pay around $25 an hour an up. Apprentices start at around the $17-19 hour rate. Laborers are around $15-16 hour. Free medical provided by the Union.
vancouver
04-05-06, 01:26 PM
In WI $2.95 is waitressing min wage. The theory is that tips subsidise the hourly pay up to the normal min wage. Is that what the job was?
Yes, I think his fiancee was earning around that much whilst working in a cafe.
Al Czervik
04-05-06, 01:59 PM
Offered without comment, for your reading enjoyment: http://www.spurlockwatch.typepad.com/
oddlycalm
04-05-06, 02:06 PM
Did a single person here (with a functioning memory) actually see the show...? ;) The husband was working day labor for around $8/hr and the wife was working at a restaurant for just above mimimum. Tips didn't enter into it since she worked in the kitchen, but she did get one meal a day there.
Since both were from affluent backgrounds they had no idea of what to do in their suddenly reduced circumstances. That fact that she was an accomplished cook helped of course, but they had no idea how to manage without their own transportation. In the end they did mostly ok.
The implied message of course was that it's a tough life to be a working poor couple who don't know the ropes and with no friends, family or medical coverage. Duh.
oc
Edit - I failed to mention that this show was about as interesting as watching grass grow. I didn't watch another one.
extramundane
04-05-06, 02:28 PM
Edit - I failed to mention that this show was about as interesting as watching grass grow. I didn't watch another one.
I didn't see this particular episode, but the one where they place a stereotypical Jersey Italian and a ghetto-fabulous Manhattanite into an off-the-grid vegan compound is pretty entertaining.
And yes, the overall lesson in much of his work is “DUH! Use some common sense!” but I haven’t noticed common sense to be in abundant supply lately.
I've not paid much attention to his "documentaries". He basically takes a premise, that you can pretty much bet is just common sense, and makes a "documentary" about, what else, Morgan Spurlock.
The working poor have a tough go at it. Check.
If you eat nothing but high calorie fast food and don't exercise, you'll get fat. Probably get a tummy ache, too. Check.
Wait for the next exciting installment: When Spring comes in the Northern Hemisphere, it starts to get hot. Gotcha.
The only thing that makes it sort of interesting, is the human factor. Again, it's a documentary about, Morgan Spurlock.
(note: I think some woman did her own doc. about fast food, yet she exercised, and stuff. Lost weight? Don't remember. The yawn factor and all...)
Oh, vancouver, you will find the OffCamber lot to be rather cynical, especially when it comes to "Reality" TV.
By all means, ask us to clarify what the States are really like based on shows, but remember, you will get a jaded answer. Probably a very intelligent answer, but jaded, nontheless.
Just watch Ken Burns' "Baseball."
You'll learn all you needz to know. :gomer:
Just watch Ken Burns' "Baseball."
You'll learn all you needz to know. :gomer:
Two things more boring than baseball:
1. Documentaries about baseball
2. Golf
the summer is about relaxation w/ beverage & grilled meats, baseball fits in perfectly with this...
I mean, just because y'all don't have a summer up there, it's no reason to be hatin' yo. :p
Besides, she's the one who'll be sitting through the documentary, not us :D
vancouver
04-05-06, 03:40 PM
Oh, vancouver, you will find the OffCamber lot to be rather cynical, especially when it comes to "Reality" TV.
By all means, ask us to clarify what the States are really like based on shows, but remember, you will get a jaded answer. Probably a very intelligent answer, but jaded, nontheless.
lol
G, I now know that you all dont behave like those on Desperate Housewives. You'd be one sorry nation if you did. :p
I know that Americans dont like the idea off too much reality TV.
But you have to admit that is what 40% of all TV shows, over here and over there, are made up of. With exception of maybe Prison Break, Lost, 24, ER, Deal or No Deal and dare I say it Desperate Housewives. ;)
The vast amounts of USA based Reality TV being broadcast to other nations, misrepresents America.
My Marketing lecturer is from Charlotte, NC. In one class she went she went round the room asking people of their opinion of the USA based on what they saw through the media. The results shocked her. Most people said that they envisaged the States to be a place to be for a high quality of living, exotic temperatures, endless stores selling guns and ammunition, endless jobs and booming economy, high crime rates in parts and the people to be very religious but care free at the same time.
Some even thought it would it be ''cool'' to live in certain poorer areas of the boroughs of New York City, such as Queens or The Bronx. ''Cos thats where the ghetto is baby ... and 50 Cent came from there!''. - as one the students remarked.
But at least you dont have 'Help, I am a celebrity Get Me out Of Here' or Celebrity Love Island.
eiregosod
04-05-06, 03:50 PM
Just watch Ken Burns' "Baseball."
You'll learn all you needz to know. :gomer:
I dont know what that is. Is that two all American bubbas discussin' the weekend sports on the local sports channel, and fightin to get the better chance to bone the blonde TV assistant in the locker afterwards?
I dont know what that is. Is that two all American bubbas discussin' the weekend sports on the local sports channel, and fightin to get the better chance to bone the blonde TV assistant in the locker afterwards?
An excellent documentary on the game of baseball (for those who love the game):
http://imdb.com/title/tt0108700/
For some, like nrc, a waste of many hours.
-Kevin
the summer is about relaxation w/ beverage & grilled meats, baseball fits in perfectly with this...
I mean, just because y'all don't have a summer up there, it's no reason to be hatin' yo. :p
Uh, we don't live in Canada...home of the 24 hour summer. :gomer: :D
-Kevin
lol
G, I now know that you all dont behave like those on Desperate Housewives. You'd be one sorry nation if you did.
I know that Americans dont like the idea off too much reality TV.
But you have to admit that is what 40% of all TV shows, over here and over there, are made up of. With exception of maybe Prison Break, Lost, 24, ER, Deal or No Deal and dare I say it Desperate Housewives.
The vast amounts of USA based Reality TV being broadcast to other nations, misrepresents America.
My Marketing lecturer is from Charlotte, NC. In one class she went she went round the room asking people of their opinion of the USA based on what they saw through the media. The results shocked her. Most people said that they envisaged the States to be a place to be for a high quality of living, exotic temperatures, endless stores selling guns and ammunition, endless jobs and booming economy, high crime rates in parts and the people to be very religious but care free at the same time.
Some even thought it would it be ''cool'' to live in certain poorer areas of the boroughs of New York City, such as Queens or The Bronx. ''Cos thats where the ghetto is baby ... and 50 Cent came from there!''. - as one the students remarked.
But at least you dont have 'Help, I am a celebrity Get Me out Of Here' or Celebrity Love Island.
IMHO, y'all need to get out more. ;) This is a rather diverse nation...parts of that are all too true, but you left out the gay cowboys. ;) Please don't judge us by our reality TV shows. We really have you guys to blame for that phenomenon. :saywhat: You should watch South Park, The Simpsons, and the Family Guy to really know us Uhmericans better.
:)
-Kevin
Uh, we don't live in Canada...home of the 24 hour summer. :gomer: :D
-Kevin
Yea we have summer! It goes from end of July to early August.
Yea we have summer! It goes from end of July to early August.
Well, Cleveburg is actually south Canada, just like Cincy is really Cintucky. :gomer:
-Kevin
Well, Cleveburg is actually south Canada, just like Cincy is really Cintucky. :gomer:
-Kevin
Hell no. Canada is way cleaner and surprisingly more conservative. :saywhat:
Sean O'Gorman
04-05-06, 10:36 PM
Cleveland is not South Canada. Minnesota is South Canada. :p
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