Okay, so it wasn't an 'official' challenge but last night I happened to watch "The Daily Show", the one after Mitt Romney had just won the Florida primary and had declared to CNN that he "is in the race because [he] cares about Americans, but [he's] not concerned about the very poor because they have a safety net..."
As you can imagine, Jon Stewart was all over that interview and highlighted the fact that because there's a safety net does not mean the poor are okay. After praising the CNN correspondent Soledad O'Brien for calling him on the comment and making some jokes, Jon Stewart said that safety net probably amounts to $12 a day. Now, I'm sure it was a simple figure he threw out to make a point but the number stuck with me and I starting wondering what it look like to live on just $12 a day.
See The Daily Show Clip:
After some quick math, I discovered $12 a day is $4,380 a year or $360 a month, depending on the month. I recalled friends of ours that had been living, not quite off-grid, in rural Atlantic Canada in an old farm house they inherited, growing their own food and using a barter or "in-kind" system to acquire life's necessities. While visiting one time, my mate and I were bemoaning taxes, etc. and the "bread-winner" of this family of four said he had never filed taxes. He then said he had never earned more than $3000-4000 in a year! That has always stuck with me.
So, bolstered with this thought (while recognizing I live in an urban centre, not the backwoods) I decided to see if I could indeed live on $12 a day.
Spent: $8.20
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