Thursday, April 30, 2009
Ways of Welfare
Living in poverty and raising children, whether a parent relies on the welfare system in whole or in part for their income, can place parents under tremendous strain. Many parents must not only cope with limited funds, but are confronted with other constraints on their parenting due to living in conditions of poverty. Many, for cost reasons, are housed in dangerous neighborhoods and worry about protecting their children from harm. This week we watched Morgan and his wife live 30 days in poverty, and along the way they suffered from injuries with enormous hospital bills. The craziest part about this experience has to be the medical bills, my jaw literally dropped when the ace bandage appeared on the bill for $40!!!! Are you kidding!?!?!?!? I'm personally pissed about that!! I really felt for Morgan and Alex because they were on pins and needles the entire time, pressed for money. This is no way to live. I understand that Americans undoubtable make social classes watching this episode.
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But think about it this way.., if most of our class went to the hospital and got that bill, we would be annoyed, but to many families- its not that much money. Think about it like this. If you spend 5 dollars a day on lunch, added up at the end of 2 weeks is more than 40 dollars! bring a lunch from home, and people at our school (not saying you specifically) could save around 50-100 dollars a month!
ReplyDeleteits true to us like if we were to go to the hospital and need something like an ace bandage we would be willing to pay the price and not harm us but the minimum wage earners $40 effects their lives extremely. We go out to lunch on occasion and slurge to like a $50 lunch when thats maybe 3 weeks worth of pay. it makes me feel guilty to live this life when others are working so hard
ReplyDeleteim soo mad about the hospital bill too!! are you kidding me?? 40 bucks for a bandage?!! i dont know what the people out there do whose health is at risk but know that they cant afford the help..what do they do?? its heartbreaking that after seeing that movie, people actually have to go throught that for their whole life instead of just 30 days.
ReplyDeleteIt totally gives you a new perspective on life living in the burbs'. I think it would be a fair assumption that most of the kids that go to our school never see their medical bills. I think it would be interesting to take a look. Well as far as it goes living in the SHS district, thank god for insurance.
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