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Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Morgan Spurlock, Meet Barbara Ehrenreich
This must be a noteworthy night of television...
I'm currently working on a freelance assignment involving Barbara Ehrenreich's book, Nickel and Dimed. Basically, Ehrenreich attempts to live on minimum wage for a month: she attempts this three times in three different settings (Key West, New England, Minnesota) and three different kinds of jobs (waitressing, maid work, retail). So when I heard that Morgan Spurlock's new reality series, 30 Days, began with him and his girlfriend trying to live on minimum wage for the titular amount of time...
Well, I had to watch. Professional curiosity and all.
None of the harsh realities that Spurlock and his fiancee discovered were different from what Ehrenreich endured. However, they did something Ehrenreich did not: seek health care when they were injured. (Ehrenreich manned up and took painkillers.) They also took on children for a weekend, Spurlock's niece and nephew, which led to an argument over sixty cent buns and a trip to the movies.
My wife and I are comfortable in our life but certainly could live better. Just a year ago, I was living with my parents and working overnights stocking groceries at Wal-Mart. (As a result, re-reading Ehrenreich brought back some unwelcome flashbacks that brought me to tears.) That said, we have friends and family for support during rough patches; we also have skills that make us highly marketable (freelance writing ain't exactly ditch work), so there's lights at the end of our tunnel. This is something neither Spurlock nor Ehrenreich considered enough: most people living on the low end of the economy have extensive support systems which sometimes help when the going gets tough...
But not always. I'm not using this as an excuse to not provide more government help - but when Spurlock and Ehrenreich ask how people can live the way they do, it's because they're not as alone as these upper-middle-class dabblers in poverty. Any economy that generates an underclass will eventually develop a shadow economy for that underclass - one that invovles support systems (the good side), and is usually steeped in crime (the bad side). If people are going to complain about that shadow economy - black markets, bootleg media, prostitution - they've got to change the whole economy and not just blame the symptoms.
Anyway, Spurlock did a great job with this show, and I really can't fault his duplication of Ehrenreich's experiment: after all, not enough is being done about the situation. It'd be nice if more people brought more attention to the problem - maybe it'll shame enough people and lead to change. (Doubtful, but worth considering.) Ehrenreich was spurred on by welfare reform legislation that screwed over the working poor; best as I can tell, the situation has not improved in any way. Spurlock focuses on how the minimum wage has lost its raison d'etre by remaining the same for so long.
And it's smart that both Spurlock and Ehrenreich use humor to cut through the desperation they felt. The facts of minimum wage are bitter pills to swallow and a bit of sugar doesn't hurt. That said, some of the things Spurlock thinks is absurd - such as the admonition at the temp agency to not sleep on the job - made perfect sense to me, based on what I've experienced and seen.
Anyway, for those who haven't read Ehrenreich's book, I highly recommend it. It's both a great work of writing and an insightful look at the American dream gone wrong.
I'm currently working on a freelance assignment involving Barbara Ehrenreich's book, Nickel and Dimed. Basically, Ehrenreich attempts to live on minimum wage for a month: she attempts this three times in three different settings (Key West, New England, Minnesota) and three different kinds of jobs (waitressing, maid work, retail). So when I heard that Morgan Spurlock's new reality series, 30 Days, began with him and his girlfriend trying to live on minimum wage for the titular amount of time...
Well, I had to watch. Professional curiosity and all.
None of the harsh realities that Spurlock and his fiancee discovered were different from what Ehrenreich endured. However, they did something Ehrenreich did not: seek health care when they were injured. (Ehrenreich manned up and took painkillers.) They also took on children for a weekend, Spurlock's niece and nephew, which led to an argument over sixty cent buns and a trip to the movies.
My wife and I are comfortable in our life but certainly could live better. Just a year ago, I was living with my parents and working overnights stocking groceries at Wal-Mart. (As a result, re-reading Ehrenreich brought back some unwelcome flashbacks that brought me to tears.) That said, we have friends and family for support during rough patches; we also have skills that make us highly marketable (freelance writing ain't exactly ditch work), so there's lights at the end of our tunnel. This is something neither Spurlock nor Ehrenreich considered enough: most people living on the low end of the economy have extensive support systems which sometimes help when the going gets tough...
But not always. I'm not using this as an excuse to not provide more government help - but when Spurlock and Ehrenreich ask how people can live the way they do, it's because they're not as alone as these upper-middle-class dabblers in poverty. Any economy that generates an underclass will eventually develop a shadow economy for that underclass - one that invovles support systems (the good side), and is usually steeped in crime (the bad side). If people are going to complain about that shadow economy - black markets, bootleg media, prostitution - they've got to change the whole economy and not just blame the symptoms.
Anyway, Spurlock did a great job with this show, and I really can't fault his duplication of Ehrenreich's experiment: after all, not enough is being done about the situation. It'd be nice if more people brought more attention to the problem - maybe it'll shame enough people and lead to change. (Doubtful, but worth considering.) Ehrenreich was spurred on by welfare reform legislation that screwed over the working poor; best as I can tell, the situation has not improved in any way. Spurlock focuses on how the minimum wage has lost its raison d'etre by remaining the same for so long.
And it's smart that both Spurlock and Ehrenreich use humor to cut through the desperation they felt. The facts of minimum wage are bitter pills to swallow and a bit of sugar doesn't hurt. That said, some of the things Spurlock thinks is absurd - such as the admonition at the temp agency to not sleep on the job - made perfect sense to me, based on what I've experienced and seen.
Anyway, for those who haven't read Ehrenreich's book, I highly recommend it. It's both a great work of writing and an insightful look at the American dream gone wrong.
