posted
Did anyone see this last night ? Now I didn’t mind ‘Super-size Me’ and I’m all for experimenting with other lifestyles and altering your point of view but last nights episode of Morgan Spurlock's 30 Days just annoyed the hell out of me.
It was 30 days on US minimum wage.
Firstly, it seems Morgan had roped in his stick thin, moany, vegan girlfriend to help him this series. She moaned about being hungry and cold a lot but mainly because she was a stick thin vegan. A half a dozen Maccy D burgers (both cheap and available) would have sated her hunger and added a few pounds of fat protection to her emaciated frame. I’m sorry, but folks on minimum wage simply can’t be vegans. Secondly, moany, over thing vegan got some form of urinary infection whilst on this minimum wage experiment, probably again because she’s s fussy, pointless, unhealthy, skeletal vegan in need of some meat. For this she ‘HAS’ to go to hospital rather than just suffer it through dosed up on generic painkillers like any normal person living on minimum wage would. Then Morgan who for the first time in his life was actually doing hard physical work (landscape gardening) started complaining that his wrist hurt. (No shit he was digging holes !) And he too HAD to go to hospital where they did exactly what you’d expect and gave him a bandage which he could have done himself.
OK, the pair of them worked these low paid minimum wage jobs, but they both acted like middle class wankers whist doing so.
By the end of the month, they’d paid the rent, they’d furnished the house thanks to a charity ‘free store’ and had a cash roll of some 400+ dollars UNTIL the hospital bills arrived which put them firmly back into the minus again.
Spurlock then gets all on his high horse about the cost of health care which in fairness neither of them needed so desperately in the first place, had they acted like anyone ‘normal’ on minimum wage and not insisted on going to hospital for a sore wrist and a tummy ache they would have been at least 300 bucks in the black.
The he gives a speech about how hard it is to get out of this situation and how hard he’s finding it because ‘He’s educated and white’ which must mean it’s harder for ‘stupid black people ??’
The whole show was a set up.
If Spurlock had actually been in the position of being on minimum wage and having to survive on it till he dug himself out of it he would have been more sensible about it, he would have tried to better himself rather than just pootle along happily trailing his moaning vegan girlfriend behind him.
I feel sorry for people who are on minimum wage sure enough, but this show didn’t highlight for me how hard that lifecycle is to break out of but rather it showed me something I already knew, middle class people are way too fucking smug.
-------------------- my own brother a god dam shit sucking vampire!!! you wait till mum finds out buddy!
posted
AMEN! I managed about 3 mins of whiney pointless woman going on about only having bean-stew-and-no-chocolate-for-Easter-for-the-kids.
on the other hand, I have worked in A&E and have spent time just putting a tubigrip on a a wrist that was obviously nothing more than a sprain and put an elastoplast on a cut, so I dont think they acted differently than other people. Also people who attend A&E for minor things as they "dont have to pay for antibiotics like I would at the GP" tend to be the ones that complain about the wait the most.
I guess if you had to pay for healthcare, I wonder if these people would just get on with it? Or would they turn up to Medicentres?
[ 04.04.2006, 05:36: Message edited by: Good Fairy ]
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posted
Sounds like it showed up what a bunch of whingey fucking ***** working class people must be, as well, if it's that easy to survive and the only way to suggest that there's a predicament to a minimum wage existence is to saddle yourself with a retarded hypochondriac, and pay someone to put a bandage on. Fuck 'em. Fuck Spurlock and his chums and fuck the working class.
posted
I lived on "the minimum wage" for quite a long time when I left home (except there wasn't such a thing as a minimum wage then, it was just "not much money"). I'm still convinced that was one of the healthiest times of my life. I got plenty of sleep, I walked absolutely everywhere, I used to eat sparingly but imaginitively - like strange rice concoctions with whatever veggies were to hand and loads of cheap spices. What you'd pay full wack for in a top vegetarian gaff nowadays. I also had a standard sandwich for lunch which should be analysed by experts as it kept me fit and healthy for months on end - slice of bread, peanut butter + Lea & Perrins, another slice of bread, marmite + salad cream, final slice of bread.
Only thing I would say is that I wouldn't fancy living like that for years on end, but then I've never felt like living in any particular style for years on end. You just go out and change it, unless you've got some awful disability or something.
Way I see it is, if people put up with a vile way of life then that is what they're willing to put up with. A lot of people simply aren't willing to put up with it and they make a move and get the fuck out. That all sounds very right wing and all, but I'm not into politics at either end of the spectrum, just saying it's the way I see it. I'm not advocating some sort of clamp down on dole scroungers either, because I see it as an option I might well need to take myself one day if it comes to it. It would be out of choice though, and I'd always know I could get back out if I wanted.
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quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: Also fuck this lot too.
quote:he finds life outside prison difficult - simple things like signing on too complicated to bother with.
lol. Retard.
Same guy:
quote:In all, he has spent about 35 years in jail, consisting of "mainly short sentences for driving offences".
That's a fuck lot of 'mainly short' sentences - maybe rather than being put back in prison this guy should receive a bus pass of some kind?
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quote:Originally posted by dang65: I also had a standard sandwich for lunch which should be analysed by experts as it kept me fit and healthy for months on end - slice of bread, peanut butter + Lea & Perrins, another slice of bread, marmite + salad cream, final slice of bread.
MARMITE? You sick f...! I lived on £123 a month as a student nurse in 1989 but I lived on Beer and toast
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posted
the programme was made for the yank audience wasnt it? so there is logic in the hospital thing. i mean, yeah, they could have just soldiered on, and they might have done or might not have done in their priv white middle- class incarnations, because with health insurance they can afford to be hypochondriacs to a certain extent. i think the point of them going to the hossie was that if you have insurance then your bills are covered, and most people on minimum wage wouldnt be. so therefore have to pick between massive and crippling bills or ignoring health issues and hoping for the best. if anything annoyed me about the programme it was that it didnt explain either the vagaries of the american insurance system, or why the vagaries of the american healthcare system are hugely relevant to a british audience.
also, i dont think she even was being a hypochondriac because it can be pretty dodgy to keep masking the symptoms of a serious UTI with antibiotics, because serious UTIs can turn into full- on kidney infucktions, and they are a hella hella world of fucking pain boyee. (for that matter even just a uti is one hella's worth of misery, there is a reason why i compare the pain of serious cystitis to listening to bob dylan records, you know?) she kinda needed to see a doctor, and without insurance in the states it doesnt matter what time of day you see one, thats gonna cost you maxi- dollar. i felt very grateful for our poor sad hobbling warty nhs by the end of it, so maybe that was the point.
They were hella annoying though. Fortunately it's my understanding that the rest of the series isn't just them, but involves making a Nazi live with Jews for 30 Days and stuff like that.
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posted
That's a fair point DD, but she did look the sort of person who'd have something 'medically' wrong with her (especially down there) on a daily basis simply because she was a pasty, no meat on her bones, semi anorexic, fussy vegan bitch.
"It's a lifestyle choice" - Well, lucky you that you can choose to be such a fussy fucking eater and wank about with your poxy lifestyle choice.
DON'T come on my TV and use any part of that 'lifestyle choice' to prove any other point than Vegans look ill and need a fucking slap
Tonight, age reversing creams !
Then they stop doing it all together and they do get other people in, so the rest of the series should be better.
I didn't even mind him so much but she was awful.
The problem with Spurlock is that he really doesn't care. This week it's all 'Poor people and minimum wage bad - Health costs to expensive' and next week it'll be 'Health workers overworked and underpaid'.
It's like he's looking for reasons to complain, and frankly he doesn’t need to look far, just down and to his right at his pointless, moany, pasty, thin, ill, haggard vegan fucking girlfriend.
He can complain about her all he wants, she simply is just wrong.
posted
Ok, its just I thought they might shun it until the world ceases to use methods of hydroelectricity which turns thousands upon thousands of fish into chowder.
Before you say it I am well aware that you can 'choose' the source of your energy supplier, but that's just bullshit that we tell ourselves isn't it? "No we use the good energy from ethical sources, not that bad evil energy"
[ 04.04.2006, 13:41: Message edited by: New Way Of Decay ]
posted
I see. No, they mostly use gas powered generators to create the electricity they use. Or really big hampsters running on a wheel. But the hampsters are well cared for.
posted
Someones gotta bust your chops ralph. God, I just watched the old school safety video complete with Jiiiimmmmeeeeeee!! ending that we use to mock even as kids. I'll never eat another child again.
[ 04.04.2006, 13:48: Message edited by: New Way Of Decay ]
quote:Originally posted by Darryn.R: Do you have any chubby vegan mates Ralph ?
Spurlocks woman though should be held down and force fed pork rinds till she bursts.
Sure, I know a few chubby vegans. All round and healthy and yummy.
I didn't see her in the film of which you speak, but I wanted to slap her often during Super Size Me and that was before I knew she was vegan.
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The fact that she's a vegan is neither here nor there really, just she seemed to be using it as an excuse to whine and appear worse off very much like she did in SSM.
She's probably just a reugnant, spoilt, middle class white girl though, I'll have to research this and find out.
The whole show just annoyed the hell out of me, probably because of the whole 'doom and gloom' minimum wage hell THERE IS NO ESCAPE feel Spurlock gave it.
OK, maybe things are different in the states, but I was a homeless in my early teens, I worked minimum wage, I worked less than minimum wage at times on second jobs just to have enough money to be able to put a little by each month, I went back into education and worked minimum wage to pay for it and I worked my way out of it.
It was hard work yes, but it made me appreciate what I have now so much more.
That said:
I ate what I HAD to eat to survive, to have the strength to go to work and try and escape from where I was. What I didn't do was whine like a bitch and stay vegan (Or vegetarian as I was), if she really had to live that minimum wage life do you think she'd stay vegan ? Would she fuck, she be going through the midnight bins at the back of Burger King like the rest of us.
Mind, if you can afford to be vegan then that's OK, just don't bang on about it being hard - It's your choice, deal with it.
Are you an omnivore Ralph ?
I stopped with the whole vegetarian thing, people eat meat and aways will, and animals will always die to feed us, to not eat meat means it lived and died in vain and it's life was worth nothing, at least by eating a damn good steak I can give the animals death some small justification, if it simply went in the bin I'd feel bad.
posted
you can get mung beans in the shop round the corner, and I sometimes pick up the packet, but I'm yet to buy any. I did buy some argentinian white beans, but I haven't opened them yet because you have to soak them. Tonight I ate some low fat greek yoghurt + honey and a weetabix. wicked.
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