Thursday, February 24, 2011

How Would You Do?

http://playspent.org/

This is an interesting game to see how you would live on limited funds.
The premise is you have to take a job to support your family.
The only option for work you are given is a low paying job without benefits of any kind.
This game follows you through the month tracking your spending.
You get your weekly paycheck and the real game begins.

The game has a number of mishaps and misadventures it presents to you.
It tracks food shopping for one.
Would you pay your electric or, water bill if you could only afford to pay one of them?
What would you give up.... watching your child in a school play or, another day of work when your funds are rock bottom and there's no food in the house?
What choices would you make?
Would you risk losing your dead end low paying job for stopping to talk to a union rep?
You have $100 in the bank.... no insurance.... you ding someone's car in a parking lot. Do you leave your name and number or, do you just leave?

Play the game.... see where you stand or, don't stand on your ethics and morals when cash is tight and it's either feed the family (or, not) and work or, go without. Or, maybe even lose your job.

There are an estimated 12.5 million unemployed right now in the US.
In Canada... it's 7.8% of the job force out of work.
These are staggering numbers.
Go play the game and see is my suggestion.

3 comments:

Cartoon Characters said...

my sister was only making minimum wage working in stocking at a store for a while before she got back into the drafting work she was trained for - if she was full time that would still only mean $320 per wk before taxes-but they would only give her 20 hrs a wk which is $160 per wk, lucky for her, she qualified for the 100% medical at no cost to her...but still tough. it's the working poor that need the breaks. It's tough.

Re: the game. I ran out at day 20....but that was with paying medical expenses that I normally wouldn't have to pay in that predicament living here. I don't know how people do it.

Phiddy said...

CC,

I ran out on day 17 with the game.

At one time I did live like this. I had to let an abscessed tooth go because a root canal was more than I could afford. That remains a raw memory and a time I would rather forget. I earned just a tad more than was allowed so, didn't qualify for any help. I feel for anyone in this position.

Lynda Halliger Otvos (Lynda M O) said...

We do it because we have no other choice. My family of three spent many years struggling along with no health insurance, a crappy $500 car that wouldn’t be safe on the freeways anywhere and using help like food banks, free kid immunizations and well-baby check-ups. At one point we brought another Mom and son onto our land and they lived in a small motor home and ate with us every night. Two weeks after they came aboard, my husband was diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer and quit work to take care of that. Now we had five people living on $250/week. And on and on the story goes....

We survive because funerals to bury a dead family member are too expensive !~!

Little old me...

My photo
Canada
An american yankee up past the 49th parellel.

Followers

Blog Archive