Reality Check
Important self-disclosure: I don't watch reality TV. That's right - I have never seen Survivor, The Amazing Race or even The Bachelor. And, what's more, I don't think I am missing anything. I have been known, however, to watch the PBS "historical reality" shows. You know, Colonial House and so forth. My hands-down favorite of those is The 1940s House, which was produced by the BBC and featured 1 British family trying to live in a fabricated WW2 London. It was marvelous, and it's available for rent from Netflix. I highly recommend it. The contrast between that show and Frontier House was unbelievable (whiny yuppies complaining, smuggling contraband mascara and refusing to accept the judgement of the experts. GRRR!).
I also watched a couple of Morgan Spurlock's "30 Days" shows, before I gave up cable. I was especially interested by the minimum wage episode, where Morgan and his fiancee, Alex, move to Cleveland (or possibly Columbus, but it was definitely Ohio) and attempt to live on minimum wage salaries for 30 days, with no health insurance or any of the other amenities that we middle class folk take for granted. It was very interesting and a real eye-opener.
That kind of gave me my idea for a reality show. Morgan Spurlock can feel free to steal it if he wants (all others must ask permission!)
Let's face, the government may claim to be representative of the people, but your average politician (on the national level - not the local school board) is not like the rest of us. These people have money. Lots of it. Oodles and oodles of it (say it like Carol Channing). They have no concept of how most of this country lives. My first inkling of this came when, during the 1992 presidential campaign, we saw George Bush Sr. go to a grocery store and be fascinated by the bar code reader, which wasn't very new technology even then, but it tells you how long it had been since he had been in a grocery store. When he was asked how much a loaf of bread cost, he had no idea. I was in college at the time, but I remember thinking, "Wow. If he doesn't know how much a loaf of bread costs, how can he possibly have any concept of the money problems of the average American?" Now, lest you think that this episode caused me to do the unthinkable and (gasp!) vote Democrat, let me reassure you. I never had (voting) relations with Slick Willie. Even then, I recognized a bullpucky artist when I saw one. However, the Bush Bread Incident left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
Now, I should hope that none of scores of readers of this blog are as naive as to think that the Democrats are The Party of the Common Man, whereas the Repulicans are The Party of the Rich and Famous. That may have been the case decades ago, but it is no longer true. As a matter of fact, it wasn't even true THEN. I'm sorry, John F. Kennedy wasn't a dock laborer in Bahston befowah his run for, er, president. FDR wasn't working on the line at GM either. Politics is the domain of the rich and richer. Once in a while, you may get a politician who comes up, but mostly, they have money, and they are used to a lifestyle which you or I will never experience. Which brings me to my idea.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2002 in the USA, the average annual wages were $36,764. Now, this is more than a lot of us make, and of course it takes into account people who live in areas where the cost of living is enormous, like NYC and California. But it's a nice figure. I think US Senators should have to live on that for a couple of months. I think they should be moved out of their nice homes and into a standard home. For a couple of months, they should have to try to budget for groceries and mortgage and an unexpected car and/or home repair, while trying to make sure there's enough money for the heating bill (oops! cold snap!) and fluctuating gas prices. Let little Timmy get sick, and have them realize that their co-pay for the medications is going to take a chunk out of their food budget.
Only when this happens will they actually be able to represent us with any degree of clarity. Otherwise they are just blowing so much smoke up our collective patooties when they tell us that they are fighting for us and they understand our problems.
Of course, none of them would ever agree. But I dare to dream.
I also watched a couple of Morgan Spurlock's "30 Days" shows, before I gave up cable. I was especially interested by the minimum wage episode, where Morgan and his fiancee, Alex, move to Cleveland (or possibly Columbus, but it was definitely Ohio) and attempt to live on minimum wage salaries for 30 days, with no health insurance or any of the other amenities that we middle class folk take for granted. It was very interesting and a real eye-opener.
That kind of gave me my idea for a reality show. Morgan Spurlock can feel free to steal it if he wants (all others must ask permission!)
Let's face, the government may claim to be representative of the people, but your average politician (on the national level - not the local school board) is not like the rest of us. These people have money. Lots of it. Oodles and oodles of it (say it like Carol Channing). They have no concept of how most of this country lives. My first inkling of this came when, during the 1992 presidential campaign, we saw George Bush Sr. go to a grocery store and be fascinated by the bar code reader, which wasn't very new technology even then, but it tells you how long it had been since he had been in a grocery store. When he was asked how much a loaf of bread cost, he had no idea. I was in college at the time, but I remember thinking, "Wow. If he doesn't know how much a loaf of bread costs, how can he possibly have any concept of the money problems of the average American?" Now, lest you think that this episode caused me to do the unthinkable and (gasp!) vote Democrat, let me reassure you. I never had (voting) relations with Slick Willie. Even then, I recognized a bullpucky artist when I saw one. However, the Bush Bread Incident left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
Now, I should hope that none of scores of readers of this blog are as naive as to think that the Democrats are The Party of the Common Man, whereas the Repulicans are The Party of the Rich and Famous. That may have been the case decades ago, but it is no longer true. As a matter of fact, it wasn't even true THEN. I'm sorry, John F. Kennedy wasn't a dock laborer in Bahston befowah his run for, er, president. FDR wasn't working on the line at GM either. Politics is the domain of the rich and richer. Once in a while, you may get a politician who comes up, but mostly, they have money, and they are used to a lifestyle which you or I will never experience. Which brings me to my idea.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2002 in the USA, the average annual wages were $36,764. Now, this is more than a lot of us make, and of course it takes into account people who live in areas where the cost of living is enormous, like NYC and California. But it's a nice figure. I think US Senators should have to live on that for a couple of months. I think they should be moved out of their nice homes and into a standard home. For a couple of months, they should have to try to budget for groceries and mortgage and an unexpected car and/or home repair, while trying to make sure there's enough money for the heating bill (oops! cold snap!) and fluctuating gas prices. Let little Timmy get sick, and have them realize that their co-pay for the medications is going to take a chunk out of their food budget.
Only when this happens will they actually be able to represent us with any degree of clarity. Otherwise they are just blowing so much smoke up our collective patooties when they tell us that they are fighting for us and they understand our problems.
Of course, none of them would ever agree. But I dare to dream.
posted by The Big Seester | 12:10 PM
1 Comments:
Oh, good idea!
I've never seen any of those shows, either. I watched about 15 minutes of "Big Brother" while I was in the UK, but it was so unbearably dull (people suntanning in the backyard?) that I haven't figured out the attraction.
At any rate, I would DEFINITELY watch a show in which anyone from Congress agreed to live on $36,000. I'll go farther than that: if someone put it in the movie theaters, I'd PAY MONEY to watch Bill and Hill have to live with a budget!
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