Oprah today : Could YOU live on $5.00 per hour?

[elehhhhna]

Should be interesting. It seems the answer is "yes" as long as you live in your car.

[MADem]

1. Of course, with the cost of gas, ya can't afford to actually DRIVE it! nt

[rfranklin]

5. When it gives up, you can't afford a new one...

so that's a losing proposition.

[elehhhhna]

20. That's why ya keep it parked in the Walmart lot. Walk to work.

[ProfessorGAC]

36. Why Would You Want To Drive It?

You don't drive your house do you? :evilgrin:
The Professor

[Jamison]

64. How could one live in their car?

The only way I could see someone living in their car is if they lived in Florida, Hawaii, or Southern California. If you tried living in your car here where I live any month out of the year except for July and August, you wouldn't make it...you'd freeze to death.

[pitohui]

80. well homeless live w.out cars in nyc and amsterdam and northern cities

clearly you don't freeze to death, but my experience and contacts in that area have always been in the south or west so i don't really know how they do it

even in louisiana, in the 80s, i heard of homeless acting out deliberately to get instutionalized in the colder months but really don't think that works any more, nowhere to put the non-violent mentally ill who can't pay

[MADem]

81. You'd need a REALLY good sleeping bag... n.t

[TheFarseer]

2. if you live in your mom's basement, rent free

and she cooks all your meals and does your laundry, then, yeah, I think you could live on $5/hour

[raccoon]

And if you don't have any medical or dental expenses, or mom

pays for those too.

[Warpy]

3. Sure you can

but only if you work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Then living on minimum wage is quite doable.

You just won't live very long without rest.

[Nikki Stone 1]

4. I'd like to see Oprah live on $5 an hour!

Macaroni and cheese dinners make it hard to keep the weight off.

[elehhhhna]

6. Honey she couldn't make it on 5 bucks a minute.

[undergroundpanther]

7. Oprah wasen't born rich

I think that is why she can't keep it off.Like all poorer people maybe she has metabolism damage from cheap food.Oooh but noo we can't blame the almighty corporations,for working people too much not paying them shit,not letting them form unions and fight these corporations for putting bad food for cheap on the markets that possibly causes addiction. Oh no ? the widdle helpless companies are not to blame for selling a bad product .. You can't blame the Companies when indigious people blow up when they get thier first cheap american eats.It's those natives faults they should just know the USDA food pryramid and follow it!

[SammyWinstonJack]

35. !

:rofl: Will she be handing out a few of her favorites things to her upper middle class audience members after that segment? :eyes:

[LostinVA]

42. Oprah grew up legitimately poor

And made it on her own against incredible odds. She gives literal fortune away to the needy. I don't begrudge her on cent she spends on herself. And the anti-OPrah sentiment on this board has always puzzled and bothered me.

[Booster]

58. I totally agree with you. It gets really old defending Oprah on this

board and I can't figure out if it's because people hate her because she's black or because she's a successful woman, or worse, both. My final word is she started out dirt poor and made it to where she is today, so I give her all the credit she is due.

[LostinVA]

60. Sometimes I'm afraid that for SOME posters

It;'s at least one of the reasons you stated. *sigh*

[CornField]

69. I couldn't agree with you more

Oprah has well earned every dime she has and no one should begrudge her the priviledge of living well. She's not doing so at the expense of others... she might very well be the only television personality who truly cares about general Americans and puts her money where her mouth is.

Poor, black woman... sexually abused as a child... makes it big. What's not to appreciate?

[Christa]

8. Coming from a billionaire

that is disgusting and gross :puke:

[nickinSTL]

11. How is it gross for her to ask whether people can live on

minimum wage?

She wasn't always a billionaire, you know. She isn't mocking people, she's legitimately asking about whether minimum wage is a living wage.

[Christa]

12. She is an opportunist

she does not really care at all.

[nickinSTL]

22. right...

I'm not saying you're wrong...but, that's a heck of a statement to make.

Sure, she could do more with the money she has, but I'm not sure I'd say she's simply an uncaring opportunist.

[KittyWampus]

24. Prove she doesn't really care at all. Provide something other than your

baseless assertion. Otherwise, your statement says more about you then Oprah.

[Occulus]

34. She gave a bunch of people cars

and forgot about all that tax. As I understand it, that caused quite some problems for some of the people who got a car from Oprah.

It at least shows that she didn't think about whether people would be ABLE to pay that tax, as anyone who has to worry about such things would.

That whole attention-grabbing incident took her down a peg or two in my estimation.

[Javaman]

70. Oprah does to a lot of good and yes, she WAS dirt poor, but...

As with a lot of people, but not all, who are self made, once they are made, they still use the old tactic of being "one of the people" who struggled and so on, but the reality is this: at a point, the wealth does take over.

She can empathize all she wants but she is wealthy at the end of the day and yes, she gives to many charities, but has she looked into the eyes of todays poor, lately? Perhaps that could help her began to remember what it is truly like to be poor in this country?

But remember, her poverty was in an age when our gov't had some semblance of caring. The gov't of today is a far, very far cry from those days.

I'm not in the least belittling her achievements, but she lived during a time when there were programs in place to help the poor, however TODAY, right at this moment, it is a very different playing field for people trying to survive let alone live.

moron* and his room full of dopes continue to cut programs and benefits to the poor. If it was tough before, it's become impossible now live on a job that pays 5 bucks an hour.

So disregard that she was poor for a moment and think of WHEN she was poor and compare it to today.

[MADem]

82. I thought she persuaded Pontiac to DONATE the cars in exchange

for the plug on her show....and that after the fact, she paid the taxes.

It was a publicity stunt, and not well thought through, either.

[pitohui]

39. i think she cares

why do you think she doesn't care?

she gives tons of homes, cars, etc. to people all the time, she's the black elvis, only i think she is even more generous and successful at getting the help out there

as far as tax on the cars, i think the gov't was wrong and oprah will win out in the end, you can go to irs.gov or read the irs literature for yourself, it says clearly that gifts are not taxable to recipient of the gift, the giver of the gift must file the forms and pay any gift taxes due

but the people who received the cars, etc. should not be paying any tax

it will get fixed, the law is clearcut on this

[LostinVA]

44. If you say that, then you know nothing about her

She gives away an incredible amount of money every year: to foundations, programs, communities, individuals, in scholarships. She earned everything on her own, and has always remembered where she comes from.

[Straight Shooter]

56. If you have to ask whether minimum wage is a living wage ...

... then you are seriously out of touch, no matter what your background or your roots. For one thing, how can someone making minimum wage save enough money to sustain themselves when they retire, because when they retire that minimum wage also means less Social Security (assuming that it's even there for them).

$5.00 an hour is pathetic.

[hatrack]

9. Oprah needs to read "Nickled And Dimed"

Better yet, she needs to make it her Book Club selection.

[justabob]

14. that is a great idea

What a good book that is! I wish more people understood. *sigh*

[debbierlus]

10. Why doesn't Oprah talk about Alito?

If she cares about the struggling poor, she would educate her audience on the threat of this man. The ultimate corporate whore.

[Christa]

15. I SO agree. nt

[KittyWampus]

25. Oprah is bringing the topic of Minimum Wage to the public's awareness

blowing past the Corporate Media who refuse to let Democrats get their message out and you are bitching?

All I can figure is Oprah bashers are jealous.

[SoCalDem]

75. If they DOUBLED minimum wage, most people would still be broke

No one talks about the difference between salary and take-home. You only get to spend what the bank gives you in exchange for that check. Low income people's money is ALL subject to taxation and every penny gets accounted for (unless they work under the table for cash).. They have no way to shield any of their income..It's all vulnerable

[TechBear_Seattle]

13. Done before: read "Nickle and Dimed"

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

Ehrenreich lived several months doing typical, low-pay service jobs including waitress, house cleaner and Wal-Mart clerk. In this book, she describes her experiences. Definitely worth reading.

[undergroundpanther]

16. If oprah

Does this show REALISTICALLY..It will be the first time in YEARS minimum wage has even been BROUGHT up as a human interest story.
Don't give Oprah shit on this until she shows her ass.Could you imagine how Scarborough would spin this?

Oprah was not born rich.
Maybe that is why she is even BOTHERING to ask the question and to do a whole hour devoted to finding out can you live on 5 bucks and hour.Yes it is ludicrous,but I don't see Larry King interviewing poor folks or CNN Paula Zahn or anyone else on TV looking at this. Oprah had the guts to speak out on mad cow. And she was coerced into silence.Who else did this? No our media for the most part is cowardly corporation worshipers.Oprah may be compromised but she is not sold out,yet.

[elehhhhna]

18. The preview looked realistic-- people crying, hungry...

It's not easy to sugar coat starvation and homelessness.

[undergroundpanther]

23. Than give oprah credit where credit is DUE

She might be a zillionaire today,she mighht be a bit tainted by the frivoloity of sucess ,but she was a POOR kid,She used to be a reporter in baltimore on local TV and she was treated like crap .. So she knows poverty and racism on top of that leaves scars on you and if you don't sell your soul to mammon and pretend to be "elite" and get a big head over your sucess and forget you ever were poor,your compassion and memories of poverty will stir you to make a show like this if you have the resources to do it and oprah DOES. Who else is bring up child abuse in the contet of educating people on how to stoop it ,Who ever brought up mad cow on tv and dared accuse the beef industry of raising calves on blood? CNN didn't.For the most part the left has no voice in the media now. Don't shoot down a potential ALLY with a TV studio and an HOUR every day on TV to cover issues MSN and all are too stupid pandering otr comprimised to do.

[TheCowsCameHome]

17. Like she and the super-rich have any clue.....................

[KittyWampus]

26. she grew up dirt poor.

[zanne]

28. Does that mean she can still relate to poor people?

[TheCowsCameHome]

30. How soon they forget....................

[bloom]

40. So how does it make sense to criticize her for bringing this up?

Wouldn't it make more sense to criticize here if she didn't? :shrug:

[Scout]

51. may one ask what you are doing to help the poor of Cape Cod? n/t

since you're bashing Oprah for at least trying...

[TheCowsCameHome]

54. Cheap innuendo. But how about getting after the pols, who actually

have the power to make the changes in minimum wage?

[LostinVA]

46. She's not "the super rich" -- she's a self-made billionaire

Who grew up poor, often hungry, and made it in a business that doesn't tend to treat women or blacks well.

[TheCowsCameHome]

53. Billionaire is not super-rich? OK, I give up - what is super rich?

[LostinVA]

61. She's a self-made woman -- sorry

She is not a daughter of privilege, riot someone raised in an ivory tower, and is certainly NOT someone who lives in luxury and spits -- or ignores -- those "beneath" her. "Super rich" has connotations far beyond what is in your bank account. And, she is not one of them. And, they do not -- and NEVER WILL -- consider her one of them. Oprah is definitely an outsider where the "super rich" are concerned. To them, she will ALWAYS be a poor black woman. And, I'm sure they despise her.

She's a good ole girl who made good, and who does good.

[derby378]

19. Too late - Morgan Spurlock covered this on his 30 DAYS series

He and his fiancee were the guinea pigs in this experiment. Eye-opening, to say the least.

[KittyWampus]

27. So Spurlock's program is the final word? How many people did it reach

as compared with Oprah's viewership?

[pop goes the weasel]

29. who? n/t

[MountainLaurel]

31. The guy behind "Super Size Me"

He has a television show now.

[Scout]

32. well, morgan just copied Barbara Ehrenreich... n/t

[Telly Savalas]

45. Ehrenreich was the first person to ever document poverty

in the United States?

This thread is a perfect example of why the progressive movement makes so little progress in the United States. A popular TV celebrity brings attention to a egregiously underreported social ill, and people berate her and have an inane pissing match over who really holds lefty street cred.

[Scout]

49. that is not at all what I said or meant

Barbara Ehrenreich lived the minimum wage life and wrote a book about it well BEFORE Morgan Spurloch did his TV show about same.

No one was talking about "lefty street cred" ... geeze.

[Dora]

52. Hear, hear. n/t

[SoCalDem]

78. you are so right..everyone should google "Harvest of Shame"

done in black& white..back in the day when major media had REGULARLY scheduled in depth documentaries about real issues in america

[DemInDistress]

21. sure could if this was 1950 nt..

[bleedingheart]

33. it all depends upon your standards...

you won't be able to find your own place to live. You will have to live communely with others. You will have to rely on the Food Bank, you will have to rely on Medicaid for health care and you will have to be very careful about every dime you spend. You will have to live in an urban area and walk to work because car ownership alone would kill your budget.

So let us see...$5/hour comes to...

$10,400 a year


Where I live you will have to pay local tax $104 per year, and there is FICA and the Medicare tax...($745)

So that leaves you with...$9551 per year...which is $795/month.

If you lived off of Michelina frozen meals and two boxes of cereal a week along with one bag bag of apples and a bag of oranges... Michelinas are about $1 a pop at Giant Eagle...and cheap cereal is about $3-4 a box. Oranges and apples..that varies...by bag. so...that comes to...

Frozen meals 14 meals a week $14
Cereal $9 a week
Milk $6 (two gallons)
Fruit $8 a week....

$37 a week for food (and this is a skimpy meal plan) ...$148 a month for food....$647 for the rest...
Well if you have to rent your own...well that could be around $350 in a cheap place or to share a reasonable place...leaves $297 for the remainder....utilities, bus fare, phone, heat, and perhaps some extra food...

but this is just a 'by the seat of my pants budget' and probably way off in some aspects...and this does not account for having kids, cars or any other expenses like expensive medication....

It is basically living on the very edge of poverty....

[KitSileya]

59. You'd need a freezer for the food.

How much would that cost? A refrigerator for the milk. How much would that cost? Would you be able to save up the initial investment? Would you have space for it? You'd also need a microwave or an ordinary oven, and the electrical system in your apartment would have to be sound enough to handle the use of it. WHat about drink? Can you drink the tap water in your apartment or must you buy bottled water? What about clothes? If you can't afford buying our own washer, how much would you have to use to wash your clothes?

It's absolutely hairraising, the minimum wage in America. When I teach my pupils about it, they're horrified - they do the math compared to Norwegian minimum wage (NOK196,000 or $30,400 - a loaf of bread costs a dollar, a liter of milk, a dollar and 55 cents here, for comparison.) And while we pay 28% tax on minimum wage, we don't have to pay for either medical care, nor higher education. We are guaranteed a year maternity leave at 80% of salary if we've worked 6 of the 10 months prior to birth. If not, we get a $5000 maternity benefit. My students, most of whom are vocational students, quickly have their eyes opened to the benefits of workers' unions, and governmental regulations on corporations.

[bleedingheart]

62. oh I am not an expert on this issue...

and as I posted rent/utilities ...that is a big one that could eat up most if not all of the budget and leave nothing for food...hell to live decently a single person without kids would have to have at least two full time minimum wage jobs to survive and then they would have no life to speak of...they would work one place and have to go to work another place and all their spare time would be spent sleeping.

I think that what people have to first ask is...what is an acceptable way to live...and then view that in terms of what people on minimum wage are living like...

You mentioned washing clothes in your post... many people on fixed incomes will wear clothes more than once before washing and they don't wash sheets, towels as frequently as some people would on higher incomes...and they maximize their washing by washing everything together at a laundromat...no sorting stuff into separate loads...that wastes money...plus they air dry what they can...

[KitSileya]

65. I know.

According to Norwegian standards, one wouldn't be able to live decently on minimum wage in America, simply because Americans have to pay for so many services that Norwegians get covered by the state - paid for, in most cases, by those with high salaries.

As for living frugally, I know about that. Even tho' I am a well paid high school teacher with a Master's Degree, I have had to live extremely frugally up until now. I only got my job this school year, and Norway is notorious for its equality in wages, which makes higher education pay off a lot less than in most other countries. My salary is only 1,5 times the minimum wage, but I have student loans, and entered the workforce 10 years after those who usually earn minimum wage in Norway.

The Norwegian taxation system is incremental - you pay 28% on the first 200,000, 36% on what you earn above that, and top taxation kicks in at about 450,000, when you pay 50% on everything earned above that sum. That makes it easier for those earning little, but of course there is still national debate on poverty. No matter how well off the people in general are, there are still some considered poor. However, Norwegian poor (or even European poor) is quite different from American poor, and American poor is quite different from African poor, but perhaps not as different as the first two. That's not something most Americans are willing to realize. If Oprah can shed some light on this issue, more power to her. I am not going to scoff at getting the message out just because I don't like the messenger. That smacks too much of hacking of my nose to spite my face kind of tactics.

[durablend]

72. Most "minimum wage" jobs aren't 40 hours a week

Certainly not retail, where you're often lucky to get 25-30 hours a week (as they're definitely NOT going to give out enough hours to have to provide benefits)

[bleedingheart]

76. true and most minimum wage jobs are designed for turnover

for instance they do not give employees fixed schedules so that they can adapt their lives to them. They mix it up a lot and what happens is that employees who have scheduling conflicts find it hard to remain with those employers for very long or they are constantly in a cycle of quitting and being rehired which ruins any chance of "tenure" and wage increases.

For instance, a cashier might get a position for 9am-3pm, but six months later it may end up being 3pm-8pm and the individual ends up with less hours and perhaps can't make it work due in part to child care or some other issues....

This also messes with those individuals who hold more than one job, they end up having hours change ad job #1 and then they can't keep job #2 because of the overlap...and meanwhile they don't have any life to speak of.....

I always laugh when republicans talk about being "family oriented"...how family oriented is it if you can't even spend time with your family?

[rniel]

37. Yes live in a car

and eat saltine crackers and rice for a year and wash yourself in a burger king bathroom.

[pitohui]

38. not if i ever got sick or got old

you can live for day to day by couch surfing or sharing a rental etc. and, yeah, occasionally sleeping in places you're not really supposed to sleep, hell, i knew a dude who used to live in mccarran airport, but once you get ill, it's game over

[Dulcinea]

41. I've done it.

Of course, I was 24, single, in good health, had 2 roommates in an old house, & only cared about the bills, gas for the car & beer!

[KansDem]

43. "It seems the answer is "yes" as long as you live in your car."

And near a dumpster of a grocery store that doesn't pour bleach on its garbage each night.

[Dora]

47. Geez. Some of the responses in this thread make me shake my head.

1) Of what relevance is it that Oprah is phenomenally wealthy? Does wealth disqualify her from asking what is, in this very day, a HIGHLY RELEVANT QUESTION? Keep in mind that she was not born rich and she did not become rich until she had been working for quite a while. She's worked for every penny she's earned, and now she has enough money to make it work for her. This is one of my goals - is this wrong?

2) People who hate wealth indiscriminately are apparently incapable of critical thought. It's far wiser to hate what people choose to do or not to do with their wealth. Like steal elections. Or pay a paltry fine for poisoning the environment. Or withhold aid to hurricane-ravaged regions. Or fund "black ops" research programs. Etc.

3) SO WHAT if this question has already been asked and answered? The point is that this question needs to be asked and answered again and again and again until the issue is finally addressed. Yay, Barbara Ehrenreich. Yay, Morgan Spurlock. Yay, Oprah.

4) THE AUDIENCE THAT OPRAH REACHES IS THE EXACT AUDIENCE THAT NEEDS TO BE PONDERING THIS QUESTION AND REALIZING THAT NO, FIVE BUCKS AN HOUR IS NOT ENOUGH TO LIVE ON. THESE ARE (mostly) WOMEN, THESE ARE PEOPLE OF MEANS, THESE ARE VOTERS, AND THESE ARE CONSUMERS. THIS IS THE TRUE POWER BASE IN THIS COUNTRY.

All you naysayers are whining without reason.

[pitohui]

50. you go, dora, good post EOM

.

[BR_Parkway]

73. Thank you for saying all that - I can't believe that some so called

progressives are dumping on this woman - she wasn't born with a silver spoon in her mouth (but the Kennedy's certainly were - it wasn't their checkbook balance that made us love them, it's what they did with their position and visibility)

The woman has a huge influence on public opinion. The fact that she's not a "lefty" or a "righty" gives her even more credibility with half of her audience when she talks about something that goes against what they know (or think they know)

The current M$M spin is that the economy is great, jobs are everywhere and if you don't have a good paying one or just lost yours, then it's simply a matter of re-training for some unspecified good paying job somewhere. Where else is someone making a comfortable living going to hear anything like this? Sure, they probably are a little too self centered to think about how the waitress at their favorite restaurant can pay her bills - but imagine if just one person's eyes got opened to the problem. If one church member somewhere said, hey Jesus said take care of the poor and we aren't. If one county commissioner or city mayor said, maybe it's time we did something about this. It could really have a ripple effect.

I'm guessing George Soros, Michael Moore and some of the other rich progressives we have should also be thrown out of the party too under some of the postings logic. The response was just as vicious in some places as if she had a show on How Tax Cuts for the Rich eventually Trickle Down to the Poor.

[Skidmore]

48. Can she?

That's a stupid question to ask to begin with.

[chat_noir]

55. Oprah 2001 show: Exposing the Truth about Minimum Wage

http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/tows_past_20010521.jhtml


Barbara Ehrenreich ("Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America"):

Rent for a half trailer was $625 per month — no utilities included.
Many people she worked with at a restaurant either shared rooms or were homeless.
She didn't have kids to support, and she still couldn't make ends meet.


Katherine Newman ("No Shame in My Game"):

It is impossible for a family to survive on a minimum wage salary.
People have lost sight of the fact that most poor people are working, not people who choose not to work.
The working poor have the jobs that middle class America takes for granted — they're the invisible poor. Because low-income workers can't make ends meet, they often have to take on another job and sacrifice any time with their family.

http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/tows_past_20010521_c.jhtml


One year after this episode aired:

RE: living wage sit-in at Harvard

"Oprah" was kind of a disaster. She was doing a follow-up on a show she'd done a year earlier on making it on the minimum wage. It was moving to see, insofar as you rarely see the daily struggle of low-paid workers on mainstream television. That said, it was politically irresponsible.

The whole show built toward finding out what happened to these two workers, a year later. We kept hearing that something had improved, and that we'd be hearing shortly what that was after the next commercial. When we finally got to that moment, we learned that when these workers were on the show last year, there happened to be a multimillionaire Wall Street financier in the audience, and he decided to give them a small stipend. So apparently the policy solution for the 30 million working poor in America is to find Wall Street financier sponsors. There was a tearful thank you to the millionaire, who was smiling in the audience. Nice.

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2002/06/03/razsa/print.html

[AZBlue]

57. Actually the show's been postponed - today she talks to James Frey

And says she's sorry for what she said on Larry King and she didn't mean that truth was not important. I'm planning on watching b/c I read that book and there's way too much in there that's obviously not true.

I was planning to watch the $5/hour show to see what was said so I hope they will re-schedule it soon.

[appolonios of tyana]

63. Here's a link...

:wow:

Some states are under $5.15 an hour!!?? Some states list minimum wage at $2.50. I do think however that the law prescibes that if a state has a minimum wage that is less than the federal wage, The employer must pay the higher of the two. I know as a waiter in my younger years I only made $2.10 an hour plus tips. I always make it a practice to tip well having been there myself.

Link:
http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/america.htm#Florida

[Beaverhausen]

66. Why don't people actually watch the show before criticizing it?

What a concept.

I'm sure Oprah is going to uncover a lot of the sad truths about the poor working people in this country and how they are struggling.

I'm actually glad it is postponed. Now I can set my DVR to record it.

[redqueen]

67. I agree with you... give it a chance already.

It's on today? I'll call and try to get someone to set it to record.

[Beaverhausen]

71. No it is postponed

can't tell from her website when it will be on.

Tomorrow will will the cast of Brokeback Mountain.

[tjwash]

68. How about...

...can you live on five dollars an hour, after the neo-con Judicial, Legislative, and Executive branches do away with what little public health care we have, destroys what remains of prescription drug coverage, steals what's left of social security, makes it A-OK-hunky-dory for every company to move our remaining jobs over to China, Mexico and India, completely does away with welfare, food stamps, SSI, disability, job training, and all the rest of those pesky social programs.

You can't? No worries, if you are under the age of forty, the military has a spot for you, and I am sure that there will be no lack of warm cannon fodder to fill the military ranks, since that will be the last refuge for many, as we gotta keep fighting those permanent wars we have happening all over the globe.

Doesn't want to ask THOSE questions does she?

[SoCalDem]

74. The $5.00 an hour part is misleading..for many reasons.

and Oprah should know better.. The national minimum wage is $5.15 for starters..and MOST placed in the US start people out at closer to $6..even for undocumented workers..

Here in CA, lots of marginally skilled workers start at $7 an hour..

The $5 part will only make people who are earning $8.50 start to feel better about their own status...for a minute.. and then they will wonder.."what's wrong with me..I make way more than $5 and I can't make ends meet"..

the $5hr argument is disingenuous at best..


The only way to show the real effect of low income is to spend some quality time with random families of similar size and circumstance ..in at least 4 or 5 different parts of the country.

[SmokingJacket]

77. Sure, if it was just me in a tent.

Until I got sick.

[ticapnews]

79. In which country?

There are some places where $5/hr would be considered wealthy. I'm sure the guy in India doing my old job would love to make $5/hr.