This week’s episode ofThe Real Housewives of Salt Lake Cityaddressed an issue often not seen in aReal Housewivesfranchise. Monica Garcia’s discomfort at Lisa Barlow’s behavior when she lost her ring in episode 2 of Season 4 was pretty obvious. To be fair, everyone was pretty uncomfortable with the whole situation, but Monica came at it from a different perspective. Monica, who is still doing better than most people, is still struggling with the fallout from her divorce. A single mother of four, Monica depends on the help of her mother to look after her four daughters, while she works and participates in theReal Housewivesseries. She is admittedly struggling to maintain a certain lifestyle for her family she became accustomed to while married, and having to listen to Lisa whine about losing her ring had to be annoying. Especially since Lisa hopped on the shuttle and immediately called her jeweler to have the ring replaced. Monica brought this to Lisa’s attention which led to a tone-deaf confessional response from Lisa about the issue. She called Lisa out on something she’s likely never been called out on. Lisa’s response shows her lack of understanding of the reality of the majority of people in the United States. Lisa Barlow really is the personification of privilege, and here’s why.
Lisa Barlow Has Clearly Never Struggled
Struggling and working hard are two very different things. There are people who work hard and don’t have to struggle, and there are people who struggle while also working hard. Lisa Barlow, is the former. She is a person who obviously came from money in her life. She has a demanding job, co-owning a business while also running events like Sundance. That is hard work! No one is taking that from her, which is the point Monica was trying to make during this most recent episode. People who struggle to make ends meet feel a different kind of stress in their lives. Many studies have shown thatthe effects of poverty on working adults have a correlationwith health issues like heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer. Additionally, there are other issues that come to rise when someone struggles with money. According to another study,
“There are also big differences in reports of chronic suffering across income groups. Those with incomes below the poverty line were twice as likely to report chronic pain and mental distress as those earning $75,000 or more, and three to five times more likely to have extreme pain or extreme distress.”
While Monica may not be living below the poverty line, these studies do mostly disprove the idea of more money, more problems. Lisa’s ring issue was not a problem for her as she can afford to buy a new ring. Does she want to spend $60,000 again? No, but she can and it’s clear that she does. That’s why Monica was upset by her behavior. Lisa was acting like a spoiled brat.
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Lisa Barlow’s Response To Monica Garcia Shows the Mindset of the American Rich
Lisa felt attacked by Monica’s critiques because she felt like Monica was diminishing her pain and accusing her of not being a hard worker. Monica simply wanted to make Lisa aware that not everyone lives on the kind of money she makes, something Lisa likely doesn’t understand because she is and has been surrounded by people within the same tax bracket all of her life. People who have had money their whole lives cannot empathize with people who haven’t. Atone-deaf blog post by a real estate agencypersonifies many rich people’s feelings on poverty. It says,
“A rich mindset will tell you to be self-sufficient & build multiple streams of income. It will tell you to build a team of smarter people than you to leverage the efforts of talented people. The mindset of the rich is the most decisive reason why ‘the rich keep getting richer, while the poor get poorer.’”
The statement can be viewed as uninformed and biased. It is also debunked by the facts of poverty in the United States. Being poor is expensive in comparison to being rich. Things like late fees and compounding charges make it more difficult to pay the bills the person could not afford to pay in the first place. According toMercy Housing, being poor is more expensive than being richin a variety of ways, for example,
“In order to buy groceries, commute to work, go to school, visit the doctor’s office, or pick up any medication you or your family might need, you need a way to get there. But if you make $15,080 a year (the annual income of someone working for $7.25 an hour, the federal minimum wage), odds are you won’t be able to afford either a car or public transportation. It costs, on average, $8,558 per year to own a car in the U.S., once you pay for gas, insurance, tires, registration, and maintenance. If you make minimum wage, that’s more than half of your annual income. Public transportation isn’t cheap either: even if you live near a bus or light rail station, you’re able to expect to pay a steep price for a monthly pass. In Charlotte, North Carolina, where the minimum wage is $7.25, a transit pass costs $88-$176 per month, or $1,056-$2,112 per year.”
Rich people love to blame poverty on the people struggling with it, rather than the system that created it. They say get a job, but in 2023 there are things required to have a job. You need a cell phone for communication, you need an email address and access to the internet to apply for most jobs, and, as mentioned by Mercy Housing, you need to have transportation to said job. There are countless people who don’t have the money to afford the phone they’d need to be hirable. They don’t have a computer or access to the internet, and they certainly don’t have cars. The idea that people are entirely responsible for their poverty is shameful and ignorant.
So, yes, Lisa. Everyone knows you work hard. That’s not what Monica was trying to say. She was trying to open her eyes to the idea of what it’s like to struggle. Unfortunately for Monica, the idea of struggle makes no sense to Lisa Barlow.
