I am a big fan of ‘The Colbert Report,’ a tongue-in-cheek ‘news’ show aired nightly on The Comedy Channel. Colbert has a way of sharing the ridiculousness of our nation’s news, in a very humorous way.
Last night’s monologue focused on the minimum wage and a recent online educational tool that McDonald’s corporate office created for its part time employees. McD’s objective, it appears, is to educate the poor on their unreasonable request to raise minimum wage. Clearly, under the hypothetical budget discussed in this clip, anyone can survive on minimum wage, right?. I’ll let Colbert do the talking for me; he easily debunks the assumptions in the budget.
As for some of the commentary that proclaims minimum wage workers as “irresponsible with their money,” I say – let’s see you try it, Mr. O’Reilly. I’ll bet we don’t get the opportunity to see O’Reilly try. It’s a whole lot easier to point fingers and assume we would act differently in the same situation. I don’t think I’d fare any better than most.
Documentary director Morgan Spurlock put it to the test. In the introductory episode of his TV series, “30 Days,” Spurlock and his wife spent 30 days living on two minimum wage earnings. [I can’t bring myself to call the earnings ‘salaries’.] The challenge was much more difficult and enlightening than either spouse realized. I encourage you to watch it on Netflix or Amazon Instant Video. The challenges they faced ended in 30 days; for others, they must find ways to end the cycle themselves.
How can we help them? Will we answer as Christ asks us, in Matthew 25:35-40?