30 Days - Living on Minimum Wage

In GT we just finished watching an episode of 30 Days. In this episode Morgan Spurlock and his fiance Alex lived off of minimum wage for 30 days. They experience the life of people who live off of minimum wage. They did this in June 2005 in Columbus, Ohio. It was very sad to watch them struggle. It made me think about the poor people who have to do it every day because that is their life. That is what they live off of and this made me realize how fortunate I am. I have so much, and I never realized this, but now I do and I am much more thankful for everything that I have.

A lot of things surprised me while watching this episode. Alex had an infection and had to go to the emergency room. Morgan's wrist was hurting and he also had to go the emergency room. Alex's bill came out to be about $400. Morgan's bill came out to be around $500. All Morgan did was go in and then they wrapped a cast on his arm which cost another $40! This got me angry because there is no need to charge that much money for just going into an emergency room and getting a cast. That's outrageous. Alex got issued pills to take which cost about $20. Just for that they charged her $400. That is not fair at all. Another thing that surprised me was that there was a church-run charity. The place had a lot of clothes, furniture, toys, and many other items. They gave fresh baked cookies and other food for free to Morgan and Alex. Morgan and Alex got furniture from there and some clothes and it didn't cost a single penny. This made me happy to see that there are people out there who take their own time to help the lives of others. The people were volunteering to help others. I was surprised to see how little money they were earning. They only earned about $40-$50 a day after working for about 12-16 hours a day. Morgan did two jobs and only earned about $50 a day. Alex was cleaning dirty dishes and Morgan tried things like landscaping, folding boxes, and making pizza. It was terrible to see how little money they made after doing labor work for more than half of the day.

I honestly think that this was a 100% realistic portrayal of living life off of minimum wage. I learned so much about the lives of the people who live their entire life like how Morgan and Alex did for just 30 days. They were broken down within the first 5 days and at the end of the month they were in debt of about $800 and in terrible condition. They were tired, weren't feeling well, stressed out, and weren't having any fun or time to relax. I think the lives of people who live off of minimum wage is very hard. Especially if they have to support a family. They would never have any fun in their life just like how Alex and Morgan were. They can't afford to go out for dinner or go to the movies. People on minimum wage can't even get proper treatment because of financial issues. They could get severely sick and their family member can't do anything except watch. That is so sad, to think about how bad a mother would feel if her son was sick, but she couldn't help him even though she works two jobs 16 hours a day to help him get a good education. She can't afford treatment.

I learned a lot from viewing this episode. I saw how difficult it is to live off of minimum wage. I learned how hard it is for just two people two live who are both working for more than half of the day and getting paid minimum wage. I learned that it's very hard to live how Alex and Morgan did. They did it for just 30 days, there are an abundance of people who do it everyday, because that's there life. I learned to appreciate what I have. I never thought of how great my life is. After watching this episode I changed. I saw that I'm very fortunate for all of the things I have. I also learned that there are nice people out their who dedicate their lives to help others, like the church in Ohio that gave away and immense amount of items for free to anybody. That is very generous. I now will appreciate the things I have a lot more.