Master of the pop-culture universe, Oprah, had my attention.On her show was Ted Rodrigue, a homeless man who was given $100,000 by documentary film makers in a little social experiment.
Ted was selected after undergoing thorough medical evaluations, psych-exams, and drug tests to make sure he wouldn't just blow the money away on a year's supply of booze or dope. Ted was also given several counselors throughout the experiment, some for homeless advocacy and some for financial planning purposes.
How did Ted spend the money?
Basically, he blew it at the rate of about $10,000 a week. He bought friends cars, he gave money away to relatives, he bought gifts for several new "girlfriends," and even bought himself a new $35,000 Dodge Ram.
When meeting with the financial planner Ted stated firmly that he has no intentions of working and wishes to not plan ahead as he is only concerned with today.
How is Ted doing today?
Sadly Ted is now $5,000 in debt and says he is more miserable after having had the money than before. He says his inability to "change his life around" by getting steady employment and such was due to his intense dislike for authority. He doesn't like people telling him what to do.
What did Ted learn from this?
When asked this by Oprah, Ted replied that this just confirms what he always felt about society: that they are blood-sucking users. After he gave away all his money to friends, relatives, and girlfriends, not a single one stuck around when the well ran dry, so to speak.
Oprah then turned on the heat: What do you mean that it was "society's" fault? Society gave you $100,000!
Oprah recounts her own story of homeless helping.
Once she passed by a homeless man and told him to meet here at that street corner again the next day. When they met again, Oprah gave him a new suit and told him that she had arranged for him to have a job. The man took the suit and never showed up for the job.
What did the documentary makers learn from this?
You can't solve homelessness by throwing money at the homeless. More often than not people are homeless because of inner demons (drugs, booze, gambling, authority-hating, etc.) that need to be dealt with first.
Find out more on wikipedia.
2 comments:
Christina, I totally missed this show! I find the topic so interesting... On the flip side, there is the success story as told in Will Smith's "The Pursuit of Happyness" (to be released on Friday).
Yeah, but that man was homeless only temporarily while he earned his broker's license (or whatever you call it). I think people who are more or less "permanently" homeless have deeper issues than mere money can solve.
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