A few weekends ago I was searching through Netflix, looking for something to watch. With the recent discussion of poverty I came across a title that peaked my interest: Living on One Dollar. Two economic majors and two photographers, all in college, plan a trip to Guatemala. Their goal was to fully experience living a life severely under the poverty line. When the students arrived they began to create a budget and discussed how they were going to make money. The town that they were staying in was primarily farm land, as are most poor areas, so they chose to plant and harvest crops.
With the plan laid out, the guys head to a bank and take out a loan. This bank is unlike ones in the city, which require large amounts of paper work that most poor people do not have. This was a micro finance bank, where people can take out small loans in order to start a business or pay for education. Banks like these, along with things such as a savings club, helps the individuals save money for emergencies or to begin their road to success.
To stimulate the unpredictable pay of most farmers the students took their $4 a day ($1 for each) and added it up for the total amount of days they were to be staying for, and then divided it into random amounts ranging from $0-$9. These were all written on pieces of paper and each morning they would pick one out of a hat. There were multiple instances when $0 was drawn a couple times in a row, much like when poor families do not receive pay.
I'm not going to give the whole thing away so definitely check it out yourself!! It's only an hour long and is so worth the watch. The personal stories are touching, the results are eye opening, and there is even a website to buy handmade items from some of the villagers' businesses.
The title of your blog interested me immediately! I think that this is extremely interesting, and I commend these people very much for shedding light on this dire situation. However, I do have a few questions. What prompted these people to do this experiment? How long did they do it for? I know you didn't want to spoil the documentary, but I am very curious! I am definitely going to watch this documentary on my own time and I deeply believe that we need to watch this in our Humanities class.!
ReplyDeleteI watched this as well and this experiment really put things into perspective. I praise these students for going through what they went through for an experiment. One of them suffered extreme health problems and because of the budget they set up, he couldn't afford the medication and had to make do with what they had brought with them for emergencies. It takes great strength to leave your comfort zone and throw yourself into a world in which you can not control. These students really connected with the locals of the village and made great friends who helped them adjust and succeed.
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