Extreme Makeover Home Edition

[erpowers]

Does anyone here think that the ABC show "Extreme Makeover Home Edition" is starting to build homes for people who do not need them. For this weeks episode they are building a home for a family who had their home destroyed by a small plane. Even though the family did not have insurance it seems to me that they could have sued the insurance company of the small plane in order to get that insurance company to pay for the rebuilding of the home. In addition, the husband owns his own pizza business. Finally, not to be mean to the son, but he is in the Marines so he could have taken a home loan out from the Veterans Affairs department. For an episode about a week or two ago the team built a home for a family of thirteen that lived in a 700 sq ft home. The mother's brother had had kidney surgey so he could not work and it seems that kept him from having a home of his own. The home was bad and falling apart, but at least three of the members of the family, besides the mother and brother, were over the age of 18. In my opinion that meant they could work to make money in order to either repair the current, buy another home, or build a whole new home. In addition, a number of the other people in the family were at least 15. I think those people could have worked part-time. From my calculation the three brothers over 18 could have worked earning $5.25 and made 30,240. I understand it can be hard getting a job at the age of 18, but I still think the people over 18 should have gotten jobs and put up money to get a better home.

I just think the team should help people who have very little means to build or rebuild their home. When I first starting watching this episode I thought they should do something like that in New Orleans. They may have done something in New Orleans in that I have not always watched the show. This is my third or fourth time watching the show. So, what do others think?

[VLC]

1. I don't want to judge that...

but it does seem that some of their families are far worse off than others.

A couple things that bother me about the show are:

1. Destroying perfectly good stuff that someone would surely be happy to have

2. Constructing humongous houses that don't SEEM to be energy efficient and giving the people humongous gas guzzlers to boot.

Some of those families have had it so hard it's nice to see them get something way nicer than they ever would have had otherwise, but still... would be nice if they gave away Priuses and installed solar panels, etc. Even if they get the houses paid off, I don't know how some of them are going to afford the taxes and utility bills!

[SeattleGirl]

2. I have seen several episodes where they have saved things from the

houses like windows/window frames, doors, etc., and they gave the stuff to charitable organizations that can use it in other homes.

[VLC]

3. Sometimes they do that

Other times they bulldoze everything. I hate to see that kind of waste.

[Bombero1956]

4. I avoid the show

From Wikipedia

The show has been criticized for glorifying excessive suburban lifestyles, such as in a Mother Jones article that questioned giving a 6-bedroom, 7-bath, 7-television house to a family of 4.

In an e-mail sent March 10, 2006, from an ABC employee to network affiliates, the program's casting agent details the exact kind of tragedies and rare illnesses being sought.

There was a house built for a man who had lost his arm in a fishing accident several years ago in a town in Maine. It was later revealed during post-production by the townsfolk that the man was once convicted of 2 drunk driving convictions, and a count of armed robbery of a nearby Burger King. The people of Extreme Makeover went ahead anyway agreeing that he had changed his ways. This angered many townsfolk who believed there were more deserving families who had written requests for a new home, one including a house with 11 adopted children all of whom have mental disabilities.

[VLC]

5. Yeah

We have to remember it's a show. They do more good than most cable shows, so it's hard to find fault when they pick a family when others are more deserving. There's always someone more deserving.

But yeah, I agree they could do better.