Here’s a show summary:
Morgan Spurlock and his fiancée Alex leave their fabulous New York lifestyles behind for the heart of the Midwest, Columbus, Ohio. Morgan and Alex work at multiple minimum wage jobs for 30 days earning $5.15 per hour. They get to experience first hand the struggles minimum wage earning families face as Morgan’s niece and nephew come to live with them.
There was some problems I had with this show, and the message I got from the show was I’m sure a lot different than the average viewer.
When watching it they want to make you sympathize with adults who make minimum wage, and you get the implied feeling that someone should do something about it. At the end of the episode they go over hospital bills and other cost that they can’t pay off on minimum wage, and refer to how we are the wealthiest nation in the world.
Yet, they don’t explain why someone is on minimum wage, or how or what should be done to help them. They don’t explain how/why minimum wage actually hurts the worker. They mention inflation going up, but not the minimum wage (this show was from 2005).
Why is someone who’s 30 working minimum wage jobs? Why would you have kids in that situation? To be more contemporary why do people have kids in their early 20’s or right out of high school? I’m sure while watching it people are thinking “we need to help them”, but I’m thinking “I’m not getting married or having kids til I could afford it, and not before 30”.
Sometimes I see people in their 30’s or 40’s working minimum wage jobs, and I think “what were you doing the whole time?”. I’m sure it’s not the most sympathetic thoughts, but instead of trying to “fix” the problem I’d like to know the root. Instead of the message at the end of the show being something that would imply learning a trade and planning your life for your future, it just leaves it in the open for some State intervention to help the “less fortunate”.
I’d suggest watching the show off of Netflix or Hulu to get what I’m talking about.