Documentary: Waging a Living

Waging a Living (2005)

This documentary chronicles how a security guard, a CNA, a Social Worker, and a Waitress all struggle to survive making twice the minimum wage. Roger Weisberg really captures the severity of today's financial crisis as the income gap grows faster and wider.

I got very angry watching this film, since these are folks who are certainly getting up everyday to go to work. It's not like they are welfare whores. As a matter of fact, they are at an economic point where as they continue to make minimal advances, the services are pulled from them. This exposes a severe flaw in the system.

For example; The social worker get's a $1 raise at work. This "increase" disqualifies her for medicaid, which means she has to pay full price for her son's allergy medicine, which is around $200. The system then cuts her housing aid by $140. As she put it, she's "hustling backwards." Not only is she working, she's also earning on her associates degree on the side, AND raising 4 kids.

The other stories are just as compelling. By the end, most of the workers are in the same position as when the movie started. The security guard actually making less, the waitress having to count on a significant other for financial help, the CNA still working 60 hours a week, and the social worker having to go part time in order to complete her Bachelors degree in a timely matter.

On the more positive side, there is an additional half hour documentary in the Extras section of the DVD. This short film follows Rosevelt Henderson, a Liberian refugee with an Associates in Civil Engineering, as he struggles to make ends meet while raising his 3 sons and working to get his wife and daughter to America. It's sad to see such an educated person have to work as a custodian and van driver to make ends meet, but on the happier note, the family finally reunites, and Rosevelt truly appreciates the real freedom he has in America.

this was good