Living On One Dollar

Living on One Dollar was a very interesting movie that can really help change the perspectives of those living in more privileged communities. I had always known that a large portion of the world lived on poverty and many lived on as low as one dollar a day. I always just believed it was not as bad as it seemed due to the fact that the standard of living and the cost of living was lower in these places, such as Guatemala where the movie takes place. However, what was so interesting was that while common items such as food were a lot cheaper, they were not nearly enough to feed a family of six or seven or even the group of four friends. But even more surprising than that was the fact that while the food was comparably inexpensive, other necessities such as medication or even education was still so expensive for the individuals living there. For example, when Sean had parasites in his stomach and had to buy medicine to treat it, he discovered that the medicine would cost him $25. There was no way that people living on one dollar a day would be able to afford that expensive of a prize for medicine and Sean was forced to survive on the medicine

While inexpensive, it was still clearly not enough for the natives to survive upon. The children did not have enough of a calorie intake and thus were too tired to even go outside and play. For me, that is just hard to believe due to the fact that I was a very energetic child and having enough food and energy to even go outside and play was an afterthought. However, the biggest problem that the natives of Guatemala and even the world face was the high cost of education. To send their children to school, the natives would have to pay $25, not including the price of books and other supplies. Families, like Chino’s family, could simply not afford to send their children to school and were forced to work on the farms or in other situations to help out the family’s lack of