30 Days-1st Episode- Trying to live on Minimum Wage

I don't know how many of you saw "Supersize Me", but I'm sure those that did found it interesting.  I like Spurlock (the director)---he's much more content to let the facts speak for themselves rather than trying to have an answer for everything, the way Michael Moore sometimes does.

But in the premier episode of "30 Days" on FX, Spurlock takes on a much bigger topic than fast food: trying to live on minimum wage.    

In actuality, he wound up working for about $7-8 an hour, while his fiance worked as a busgirl for about the same.  Some stuff I learned

• finding an apartment for less than $400 is near impossible---and then when you do, you have to pre-pay the electric company $110 to have them turn your electricity on (as Spurlock points out, they've probably had people skip out on the bill before)

• you're more likely to hurt yourself doing low-wage jobs, since they often involve more physical labor---and then you'll have to question whether or not its worth it to go to the hospital, because that will eat up 2 weeks pay.

• it is in fact possible to get into a real argument over whether to spend $1.40 on rolls (as Alex his fiance points out, she's walking to work every day to save the $1.35 each way for the bus, and then he's buying nice rolls).

They wound up well in debt, thanks to health problems (an infection for her, and a swollen wrist for him) that required hospital visits.  

A lot more stuff too.  He highlighted Sen. Kennedy's efforts to raise the minimum wage, and noted how it hadn't been done since 1997.  And while he never specifically talked about national health care, he called it "bullshit" that he had to pay over $500 just to walk in to a hospital to get his wrist looked at.  

Upcoming shows: a Christian experiences life as as a Muslim, a straight guy goes gay.  Next week, a guy goes on HGH to try to lose weight (I'm guessing it turns out to be not good for him).