Watching "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

[Brigid]

I'd never watched it before. Today they built a 5,400 sf house for a family with 9 kids. The couple had 4 kids of their own, and had taken in the wife's sister's 5 kids because she was abusing them. The wife's father was also living with them to help care for all those kids. All 12 of them were sharing a 912 sf home. They were in danger of losing the sister's kids to foster care because of the extremely crowded conditions. Besides the incredible house, a local college donated full scolarships for all 9 kids; and Ford donated a huge van, a pickup truck, and a Mustang.

I don't know how much all this was worth in total, but I do know this: To the super-rich, it would be just a drop in the bucket. And of course it is nothing compared to what we waste on tax breaks for corporate jets and other breaks this family never even thought of. Now this family has a fresh start. Money well spent if you ask me. I think I have found a new favorite show.

[FreakinDJ]

1. Making the Poor Believe there is a Corporate God

about to bestow some sense of justice on them

How sad this is played out infinitum across America and this 1 family gets the help they so desperately need. Sure its a "Warm Fuzzy" but in reality 99.9999% of the people in this situation get the shaft rather then the help they need

[bhikkhu]

3. Yes - who needs government programs, who needs reform?

we have "Extreme Makeover Home Edition" providing a free-market solution to our problems. Now if we just took down all the regulations and bureaucracy that discourage and punish the growth of these innovative solutions...

[FreakinDJ]

5. Exactly - "The Free Markets Solution"

TV is like Heroine for the Brain

[eilen]

2. The recipients of these makeover shows frequently

have trouble paying the tax bill for it.

[Dappleganger]

10. Taxes, utility bills, repair costs.

They build these houses way too big for a normal family to sustain.

[rustydog]

4. The show producers may have had good intentions at the start

but too many people who only needed a modest upgrade were given hundreds more square-footage, upgrades that placed their homes in higher assessed value brackets and they lost homes to foreclosure for failing to pay the taxes,sad.

[spedtr90]

6. the money from one make-over could help so many more families.

A nice house big enough the family, affordable to maintain, would be just as wonderful and heartwarming. They could actually help many more people. But then without the glitz and over-kill the entertainment value declines I guess. Priorities.

[Brigid]

7. Sheesh.

Now it's wrong to enjoy watching a struggling family catch a break for once? I'll bet you guys are just loads of fun at a party. :eyes:

[ellenfl]

9. the (corporate) producers elicited just the response from you

that they hope to get from everyone. it's a nice feel-good story but it's not real life. as mentioned above, i wonder how many of these recipients lose their home to unpaid taxes or other creditors? i won't watch these shows (same with 'undercover boss' . . . pure propaganda, imo) because i don't believe anyone should do good deeds for ratings/profit.

i don't mean to pile on you but the reality is that the show only exists to make a profit. as long as you watch, you help the bottom line. these shows help 13 families per year. imagine how many more families might be helped if the profits from these shows were donated to charity, but they're not, are they?

if you want to feel warm and fuzzy about families in need getting help, donate time or money to habitat for humanity, which has no multi-million dollar profit making tv show.


ellen fl

[Capitalocracy]

11. DU - where your good mood goes to die.

I feel for you. All the things people are saying here are true, but it doesn't change the fact that the people who made this show just gave a family in need a nice house. It's not their job to fix our broken country, it's their job to make a TV show. Enjoy.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

8. The makeovers for 'special needs' (physical disabilities, etc) families are the best ones.

Check out the epilogue for Wild Hogs for a funny sendup of the show (a lot funnier than the rest of the movie).