Listen to this podcast episode here: https://spoti.fi/3dxRLrm
Mirthell: like the grocery stores are there is a shortage in the grocery store there’s a lack of products that you’re having I know like I’m not even talking about like toilet paper like how everyone was running on toilet paper there is a shortage of food there is a shortage of supplies
Shalom: do you think it’s worse than when it was in 2020 at the be at the height of Covid
Mirthell: absolutely
[Music]
Rita: Hello and welcome back to the onyx a family podcast where we talk about issues that families care about today we’re going to be talking about made on Netflix and how that was really triggering for at least me and probably the family because we’ve gone through a lot of those things and we’re going to talk about what’s happening right now with all the supply shortages worker shortages and then we’re going to end off with how do you prepare for what
could be coming okay so guys who watched made me know Shiloh didn’t but who here did?
Shalom: I watch maid
Shasha: I did too wait
Sinead: Did you finish it? I finished it?
Shalom: I did finish it.
Sinead: oh man I still have like three more episodes or four more episodes
Rita: really?
Sinead: yeah
Rita: I need to just binge it, oh I would love if I had three or four more episodes I loved that show I was just we were just hooked
Mirthell: yeah we were hooked yeah definitely binge that
Shasha: I feel like a lot of people were hooked because it was so realistic
Rita: oh yeah absolutely
Shiloh: so since I didn’t watch it can you guys explain to me what mate is
Rita: Sure Maid is a series on Netflix and it follows a girl and her mother but mostly a young lady who has a child who is about two years old?
Sinead: yes about two years old
Rita: and the financial struggles that she goes through once she breaks up with uh the father of the child and so she goes from um homeless well she goes to a domestic violence shelter and then she’s transferred from there to like this temporary housing to a more permanent place but the ups and the downs and especially the red tape with the government and trying to get benefits
Sinead: and how twisted the benefits are like we’re like I remember seeing a part where she had to get something like she had to get a job but she had to have a job to prove she had a job she had to get a job to get a job
Rita: oh yeah
Sinead: it was weird like how do you get a job to get a job
Rita: right the acting was phenomenal
Sinead: I do like her acting and
Rita: I love that mother the mother Andy McDowell she was just like she needs an oscar
Shasha: isn’t she the woman from groundhog day? I looked it up it is her groundhog day
Rita: yeah it is her and on Maid, the mother and daughter are literally mother and daughter in real life
Sinead: Wait, are you serious?
Mirthell: yeah that’s why they had good chemistry
Sinead: oh snap I did not know that
Rita: yeah but it was really good but I want to go back
Mirthell: so, what was it a show about poverty do you think that that was one of the main reasons why they even did the show because you know every show has sort of an agenda
Sinead: an underlying story like moral
Mirthell: right, an online story do you think that showing poverty and the difficulty in America?
Rita: I think in America for me it had a lot of themes one is how do you gain your independence after uh we’re breaking up
Mirthell: and with a female
Rita: you know yeah and I think another one was yeah how do you navigate the system that is very confusing
Shasha: I thought it was going to be all about what was it called again trying to get our child back that’s it I literally when it ended in episode two I was like wait that’s it what’s the rest of the season
Rita: Right
Sinead: well I thought the whole thing just from the title was just about her being a maid she’s hardly cleaning like she’s like like what I mean like they don’t show that between people
Mirthell: but I think that they wanted to show a blue-collar worker from a female perspective and how they hustle to make it works for their family
Shalom: right
Rita: yes I for me I actually really like reading books about these types of topics I remember years ago I read nickel and dimed the author that wrote that barbara I think Heinrich, i have to look at her last name but um she’s written a couple of other books that I’m currently reading right now and it’s always about people who are overlooked in society people who people tend to take for granted and it’s it’s just really stunning because you really think about life a lot of times within your bubble and when you’re exposed to what other people are going through it really helps me and I think everybody who understands it to really say wow okay now how am I going to treat this person or this circumstance if I come upon this so for example after reading nickel and dimed and that was many years ago and this is even before we had you know our life change with what we’re doing right now even as a nurse I would always tip people very very high
Mirthell: right
Rita: after reading that book and I understood
Mirthell: and why?
Rita: because in nickel and dime to talk about how there are people who work as waitresses in the food industry and how basically they really live off of the tips it’s not really based off of the salary it’s the tips
Sinead: right but that’s isn’t that more of an American thing?
Rita: yeah definitely just an American thing
Shalom: yeah I heard that I heard in different countries that if you tip you’re actually insulting them
Mirthell: right when I went to Italy they’re really not into tips yeah I know in fact I gave a pretty large tip and they’re just like oh no no no this is too big
Rita: yeah I feel like that’s what shows well that’s where going back to the Maid that’s the issue is that there are so many things that are great about America but there are so many things that we need to work on we need to fix and one of them is why are people living off of just the tips and those tips are split too
Mirthell: yeah
Rita: and a lot of those places
Shalom: but remember when we talked about a couple of months ago or was it last year how you know how the tipping system ever made
Rita: yeah
Mirthell: yeah how was it well how was it made?
Shalom: well basically it was like I think it was in the 30s that it was established how African Americans because they were paid so poorly that they made the whole tipping system was they able to you know receive money only just by tips
Mirthell: really I didn’t know that that was it started with you know African American workers
Rita: yeah there are so many things that we don’t really realize and
Mirthell: but it’s definitely not um minimum wage and that’s that that is a problem
Rita: well it’s less than minimum wage that’s
Mirthell: yeah it’s a lot less than minimum wage and I and I just think that there should be a minimum wage for waiters and waitresses and for people in the food industry
Rita: but right going back to um like even made now there was a part where she was in the court remember that and remember when the wording
Sinead: yeah legal legal legal yeah illegal
Rita: what do you guys think about that explain that to our audience what was going on
Sinead: so basically she was in court fighting for the custody of her daughter and the thing is that she was not really experienced in court so everything’s going over her head in here one ear out the other
Rita: because she represented herself too, she didn’t even have a lawyer
Mirthell: she couldn’t afford a lawyer
Rita: right
Sinead: right and it was kind of last-minute too they kind of just sprung it on her so she couldn’t even prepare herself so basically the scene went from you know so have you been finding housing for her to have you been legally her legally legal the legal did you legal the legal with her
Rita: right
Sinead: stuff like that
Mirthell: that was hilarious I like that part
Rita: and the other lawyer was going well my client is legally legal fully legally legal and this client over here is not legal at all like it was just like
Shalom: but what I thought about it was that okay they did so well with the beginning in terms of different editings like that but I just wish they had some sort of continuation with that like you know finding different edits along with you know yeah because I was like the first two-three episodes but after that, there was like
Mirthell: it was just a clever way
Sinead: to capture the attention
Mirthell: to capture your attention was funny but it was just a clever way of basically showing the court proceedings and how ridiculous it is you’re not going to understand it even if basically even if they said what was actually going on behind the scenes with the legal jargon, we would not have understood so they just basically said illegal legal legal
Sinead: yeah that’s true
Rita: even when she was going through her paperwork when she got it from the yeah from her um what do you call the person? maybe her
Sinead: child
Rita: what do you call it what do you call it not advocate um this is the person her benefit worker
the person she goes to that helps her with her benefits and she had this stack of papers and they’re like finish it by tomorrow she’s like how am I supposed to go through it and then she was going through it and you can see the titles of the papers change too you’re not gonna ever understand all this you’re so dumb and all sorts of stuff because she that’s how people feel obviously when we see those stacks of paperwork and this let me tell you why that scene was very triggering for me because growing up Mirthell and me, we were you know middle the class you know we both were in our homes we just you know I never really struggled it was after I got married and we got married young that we started to really learn about whoa this is the real world and it’s and it was hard for many years because I was still going to school to get my degree my college degree um and I was having children at the same time he was working you know just started off as a pastor and we didn’t have a lot of money at all and the thing is for a time when he was in the seminary we were really struggling at first in fact we went into a breadline remember?
Mirthell: yeah
Rita: it was like a circle they said okay everybody they got all the pastor’s wives there and they were like okay everybody goes into a circle and we’re gonna hand out there are these rolls and I was like oh this is so cool we’re gonna get bread so okay you know I stood there and everybody got bread and I was like oh man I’m gonna need more than this I got like at the time I don’t think I had no I didn’t even know I was I don’t even know if I knew if I was pregnant with Shasha you were pregnant but you just I didn’t know yeah but I was like I think I had like two pieces and I’m like no I’m gonna need more like I have two kids at home so I went back in the circle and they were they did not like that, you were here already you can’t have you can’t get another one and I was like oh I didn’t know it was like one time
Mirthell: She didn’t know they had rules
Rita: Yeah and they went and they got so mad at me and this was like my first foray into that world
Mirthell: we started looking for different pantries to get more food different places that would help out people
Rita: but no but remember we went to that one and they gave you like a bag and they’re like
whatever can fit in this bag you can take so we had this challenge right because without the reward.
Shasha: that sounds like a Mr. beast challenge
Rita: yeah
Shalom: I didn’t know that we were struggling this much
Rita: well because when we were at the seminary I wasn’t working yet well I think I might have just started to work as a cashier and and daddy wasn’t even having his full um salary paycheck salary it was like a stipend and so we were really struggling plus we were both in school at the time
Mirthell: but that’s when I found out that if you’re a middle-class person um making above a certain amount even if it’s just slightly above a certain amount, there’s no help for you there are no services there are no government services there are no community services it’s almost as though the only people that really have a lot of help are those that are severely below the poverty line or well if you’re wealthy then it doesn’t matter
Rita: right but at that point in time we did get help because we were really down there because we were students
Mirthell: yeah
Rita: and so someone said Rita why don’t you just apply and get food stamps
Sinead: food stamps?
Rita: and I was like oh okay so
Mirthell: that was the first time in our lives
Rita: I don’t remember how we went down to I guess wherever that place oh yeah we went down to the place where the workers benefits are just like how unmade and I went over there they gave me the paperwork I filled it out and it seemed pretty easy and by this time I found out
I was pregnant with Shasha actually that makes it a whole lot easier because you start getting like a snap I think um
Mirthell: WIC
Rita: you got WIC and some other stuff so basically wick makes allows you to get discounts is it discounts or do they pay for it I don’t remember now basically like formula diapers are it even diapers I don’t know it’s basically stuff for child care
Shiloh: is it a sponsor?
Rita: no it’s the government it’s government
Shiloh: yeah but like you guys like you’re promoting it
Rita: no because people should know that’s what I’m saying that’s what these podcasts are for now so that families understand like what’s available to them
Sinead: right because you said you didn’t think about getting food stamps
Rita: people should, exactly I didn’t know about that
Mirthell: we had never we have never qualified for anything and then
Rita: exactly because I think actually what happened was like I applied for WIC and applying for WIC somehow they also were able to now direct me now to get like the food stamps and so I got and I think what was it was it 400 or 600 a month?
Mirthell: it was good like if it was like it was 400 we were just super happy and this was like the 400 or 600 and I mean yeah I went I remember going to the grocery store I was just overwhelmed that I could actually buy food
Rita: oh yeah
Mirthell: and it was just
Rita: and not really be stressed about it because at that time
Mirthell: I was buying for our neighbors
Rita: right
Mirthell: I was buying for other people because I was just like well I have to share with you
Rita: we’re not supposed to do that
Mirthell: we’re not supposed to do it but I was like
Rita: we had to because we had money left over and there were a lot of people who didn’t qualify who were struggling right they didn’t have any food and I remember we did that a few times and every time the person would be crying in thankfulness because they didn’t have the money so there were a lot of people struggling but okay so now I’m you know I have Shasha a year is done and now I’m like okay they’re like okay you want to re-up it and I was like oh what I wonder what other benefits there are and so I went for just like what do you call it just the benefits when you’re not working unemployment because you have to be employed and then I don’t even know so basically though I went to do what that woman on maid does
Sinead: right right
Rita: and then that was when I got a rude awakening because I went to I guess the social worker who was working there and she was like you didn’t fill this outright and I was like well I don’t know what I’m supposed to do and she goes okay well you know you have to report here tomorrow at eight and I was like a report for what she goes well you have to be here to look for a job and you have to like go on the computer there and you have to document not the resumes that job applications proving that you have spent all day looking for a job and it has to be like eight hours a day for you to be able to go and get these benefits
Shalom: but you can’t do that as a young mother I mean
Rita: I was in school
Shalom: and in school
Sinead: that is that’s literally it was impossible
Mirthell: it was messed up we weren’t on it for long
Rita: no no
Mirthell: after that, we were just like
Rita: a year to be honest I don’t remember
Mirthell: I think you went and got a job at like
Rita: yeah I started I went and I went and got it it was a cashier who started as a cashier then I started as an aide
Mirthell: Nurses aide
Rita: yeah
Sinead: And you’re saying that you actually did go at 8 a.m and everything though
Rita: no no no no no no we just
Sinead: okay because you said that we weren’t we’re on it long so I was assuming that that’s
Mirthell: no we weren’t on the food stamps or EBT card we weren’t right we just decided to go a different route but um but it’s really difficult it was really difficult we were in our 20s
Shalom: yeah because she was 25 when I went and made it I was wondering how old are you guys
Rita: um I was about 20 a little bit younger because I hadn’t had Shasha
Mirthell: 22
Rita: 22.
Mirthell: so we were young we were definitely young when we were struggling I remember I remember getting gas and literally pumping like two dollars gas because that’s literally all I had so when I so in maid it would show like the money and the show the money going down and it just was this I remember those days where it was just yo
Sinead: I saw him when I saw her here’s two dollars I saw her pump two dollars I was like that is that really gonna do anything
Shalom: no but when she went over the gas like pump I started panicking for it I was like oh no no
Rita: and that’s happened with that oh yeah that has definitely happened it’s been very frightening
Shiloh: when does the maid series take place?
Rita: now, this month
Mirthell: no it’s modern it was a water take but I remember those days these are tough times if I found five dollars in my pocket I would celebrate it would be just like a party like
Shalom: I remember that
Mirthell: oh my goodness five dollars, yeah you know it was really rough
Shasha: what was that thing she did when she was going in each house and they slammed the door at her what was she asking for?
Sinead: oh the TBRA or something like that that the t-bird oh let’s see
Rita: I am not familiar with that but I guess it’s some sort of like government assistance so that people can afford rent so then the paperwork the landlord would have to fill out that a lot of people don’t necessarily like to do all these extra steps and they don’t feel like they get they don’t get, I would say the money from the government on time and on top of that they don’t feel like they’re going to get the right tenants
Shalom: okay so you guys think that the system has changed 20 years ago from now you know?
Mirthell: I think 20 years ago it was a lot harder
Rita: what? I still think it’s hard
Mirthell: I think it’s hard but for instance for an instance when they got dollar stores like I’m talking about the real dollar store I’m talking about dollar tree you know what I mean when you could get everything for one dollar that was huge walking in and being able to get like spaghetti
Rita: yeah but I think the government all the paperwork the red tape I think is even worse now
Mirthell: That’s even worse now
Rita: I think that’s even worse
Mirthell: but like dollar stores, dollar stores now are like that really helps people we never had dollar stores way back
Shasha: speaking of dollar store you saw on the news right?
Rita: what?
Shasha: they’re raising their price they already rolled their prices it’s not going to be just a dollar now
Rita and Shalom: wow
Mirthell: well a lot of them were like that like
Rita: not dollars, wasn’t it dollar tree?
Shasha: dollar trees raising the prices
Rita: wow
Shiloh: what about family dollar family?
Sinead: Family dollar has always been always having different
Mirthell: they’ve always had different prices
Sinead: yeah
Rita: so the dollar tree buyout or is it dollar general it’s one of them bought out family dollars
Mirthell: dollar general always was, it was never a dollar store.
Sinead: yeah, only dollar tree was literally everything is one dollar.
Rita: first of all, do you guys remember dollar tree Christmas?
Everyone: yes yes
Rita: someone tells the audience
Sinead: dollar tree barbies for Christmas dollar tree decorations dollar tree food or dollar tree Christmas cookies
Shiloh: so I’m confused was everything in there a dollar or was did everything that you have with a dollar like
Sinead: no no no everything in the store cost one dollar no matter what it was it was only one dollar
Shiloh: okay if you had two things would be two dollars
Sinead: yes yes oh oh you you’re saying that you grab whatever you want and get it for one dollar?
Rita: oh my goodness
Shiloh: that’s what I thought when I was younger
Sinead: no no
Rita: dollar store Christmas or dollar tree Christmas was great
Mirthell: they were fun
Rita: it was fun it was just like going there the only thing is that for example, we bought you guys like a barbie house
Shalom: was it the one with the antenna on?
Sinead: no that’s not on dollar tree.
Rita: we basically had to shape it and nail it
Mirthell: right
Rita: we put it together ourselves it wasn’t like and it wasn’t easy like IKEA either it was a lot
Shalom: I’m gonna be honest I don’t remember dollar tree Christmas I remember nook Christmas and I remember Hannah Montana house Christmas
Sinead: oh that’s those are good guys we must have been balling at that point or something
Mirthell: yeah dollar tree Christmases was those are those
Sinead: I remember dollar tree Christmas okay
Shiloh: Was I even born?
Rita: yes you were a baby.
Mirthell: yeah you were born but you would not have remembered
Sinead: you know why I know dollar tree Christmas because those would be the dolls where you can’t even put shoes on them they had beach feet okay they had wide beach feet
Rita: like fat
Sinead: yes you could put no shoes on them
Rita: oh that’s so funny
Shalom: I don’t know why I remember every Christmas I remember going to grandma and grandpa’s house I remember that Christmas I remember pancake Christmas where we got I think IHOP or some sort of like cake or something like that that was the first time we didn’t like
Sinead: I think that you probably pushed out of your mind dollar tree Christmas
Mirthell: yeah yeah yeah but probably years
Rita: but that’s the thing like right now that was poverty back then but right now like I’m sure there’s a lot of people here listening or watching where they shop at dollar tree and that and that’s fine it’s just you know yeah that was it was I’m grateful for stores like dollar tree and dollars oh yeah our general and family doll I am grateful because you can go in there like you said to get good deals to find anything you need and be affordable and I think that we really went there for many many many years
Shalom: I remember shopping at dollar tree even more so than shopping at Walmart or target like
Rita: we were always in dollar tree, always
Sinead: Dollar tree was our supermarket
Mirthell: I would always go to the dollar tree that was my go-to place to make sure that I’m making meals for you guys making sure that we’re all eating yeah you know I mean oh my goodness I loved dollar tree, yeah you know what really over there what really got me was when I was watching maid and she got this job and when she got the job she had to pay for all the supplies she had to pay for
Sinead: yeah that got me too! I was like what?
Mirthell: for her uniform and everything and it’s just like why are there so many opportunities that are not opportunities like they make you feel like it’s an opportunity but it’s not
Sinead: yeah where you’re giving more than you can get
Mirthell: right by the time you make it back up you could be fired you could be laid off
Sinead: right
Shalom: look it was a cut this is kind of a spoiler but it was cutthroat when the permanent boss fired her because she took the other job I mean like I felt really sad for her
Rita: yeah but then I also think about it from the boss’s perspective because she’s probably barely making ends meet and so she can’t have workers that could be undercutting her so in this kind of position you do feel for both for example right now I don’t even know if it’s expired or not yet but we’ve had um rent or is it a mortgage moratorium that’s right or eviction moratorium i
should say um we’ve had just we’ve had things on both ends where it was
Mirthell: policies that are trying to help
Rita: help right help everybody make sure that they stay housed but on the back end the people who own the homes are left going like and it’s not even corporations I’m talking about people who decided to invest in real estate
Sinead: right
Rita: and become you know entrepreneurs and now they can’t afford the mortgage to the bank
Sinead: the bank is not giving letting up the bank is still knocking on their doors
Rita: exactly so I see I see both ends because we were
Mirthell: that’s a good segue to this to this topic about the situation that we the country is in right now right it’s in a very precarious situation
Rita: right so so we had a handyman that came today to fix a couple of things and he told what did he tell you today
Mirthell: right so like in the industry right now you know people are not making phone calls to get things fixed.
Rita: right
Sinead: really?
Mirthell: so a lot of people are not and part of that is because you know some people just don’t want to get things fixed because they’re scared of having someone in their home so they’re utilizing the services less but not only that but a lot of their workers either are not showing up or they are getting fired for not showing up or now a turnaround of being laid off so this is happening in every single industry
Shalom: so in his field that he’s in right now there are people not showing up for work?
Mirthell: there are some times that people are just not showing up for work and part of that is that there are policies that are in place that is giving people a check and this is happening not just
Rita: in stimulus check right?
Mirthell: it’s a stimulus check and so this is happening we had to hire some people in the medical field, aides to take care of some family members that we have and we found the same thing with them they were complaining that people are not showing up we noticed that a lot of people were not showing up
Rita: right we would have liked a different nurse almost every week and it was like what’s going
on and the people the supervisors and bosses were like we are not being able to keep staff right
Shalom: same with our shame with our young people we know that we have people to take our garbage and our in our boxes and stuff and they’re not even him wasn’t he just telling you how
Mirthell: yeah he this is the owner is
picking up some of the traffic
Rita: so he said that his son moved back to work it um actually he graduated from college right and he worked and he came back to now work the garbage business with his dad this is the junk business, not the garbage like on the curb, this is like if you have like a ton of extra boxes and things like that and so he comes they come we call them pretty regularly to come and get like a bunch of our packages and things like that.
Mirthell: extra garbage that cannot fit
Rita: and they used to be they were supervising like I remember sometimes they would come there’d be like five guys six guys seven guys
Mirthell: even up to eight
Rita: yeah and now it’s just several trucks it’s just the owner and his son
Mirthell: that’s it right
Rita: and then our handyman today said that he was the and this is what I was waiting for you to say yeah he was the only handyman that was working for the company for quite a few months now because so many people are either not showing up so things are
Shasha: and also and also we um not to sound bougie but we were trying to hire a personal driver for us to drive us to uh to California because for our filming stuff but when we called they’re saying there’s a shortage of drivers too so
Mirthell: every single industry went to go get some donuts one day and at the drive-through Christmas they all remembered yeah we went through the drive-through and all the people were there were new and they had to apologize and say these are all new staff because you know we didn’t have we had a shortage of staff nobody knew how to make the donuts nobody knew how to do anything
Shalom: you guys, what is going on in this country?
Rita: you went to burger king yesterday was it yesterday or the day before and first of all there are new hours that are posted and they were like stay here at the first window and we’ll tell you when you can move up to the next one we were waiting there for a good while
Mirthell: and we’re wondering like what’s going on
Rita: what’s going on I remember we had been there like a few times over the last several months and it’s they were always talking about their shortage and I don’t think it’s gotten any better
Shalom: guys what is going on in this country why is there a shortage of everything
Mirthell: right yeah we’re doing some renovation on our home shortage of materials so our home is not renovated we went to check out uh some property to look at some property in the state that we live in and the people that we’re gonna like to sell the property
Rita: oh yeah yeah yeah
Mirthell: they have a company where they would buy and sell luxury cars and they used to do very well
Rita: parts right or the whole car?
Mirthell: well the whole thing
Rita: yeah the whole car right
Mirthell: and they were saying that the inventory is down more than a hundred percent
Rita: where he was saying but he would do about three a hundred cars per month and now they were just dropped down to twenty-something
Mirthell: twenty-something cars that are just available like the cars are not even available to
buy and people are not buying the cars so it’s like literally every single industry is just crumbling
Shiloh: do you think it’s because people becoming more uh entrepreneurs these days are
Rita: no no this goes far beyond that because for many years we’ve had more and more and more entrepreneurs every year this is a combination of Covid people getting sick
Mirthell: some of it is due to just government policies where individuals are receiving incentives or they’re receiving paychecks because they’re unable to get their paychecks and then it turns around and now people don’t have the incentive to go to work
Rita: well because a lot of people were making minimum wage and it’s really not minimum wage in this country really does not meet the needs of what people need to really survive on so yeah when they get the stimulus checks or the unemployment checks things like that and it’s larger than they were making
Mirthell: why would they go to work
Rita: exactly because they’re struggling
Mirthell: they’re now gonna start traveling they’re now gonna turn around and probably try to start their own business that they’ve been longing to so a lot of the individuals when they get these stimulus checks it’s not that they’re lazy I think some people want to paint it out that
everybody’s lazy but they’re not even making as much as some of these stimulus checks that are coming in and so they take this money and they think okay this is my opportunity to now start my own business or start to like you know make t-shirts or do something that I can work
for myself because let’s be truthful they’re not treated well in these in these workplaces you’re working at some of these restaurants or you’re working at some of these places and you’re treated like garbage and so you’re like okay this is my opportunity to change my life
Rita: especially now that society seems to have gotten a lot more aggressive so now you’re really being treated poorly
Sinead: right right
Rita: by the sometimes by your boss sometimes by the customers but
Mirthell: you’re a bus driver and you know that it’s more than likely that you’re gonna get covered because you’re driving a bus you’re gonna say I’m gonna take this stimulus check and protect myself right yeah because I don’t want to be constantly exposed
Rita: exactly but like you had mentioned earlier how in maid now the how the woman the characters remember how she had to buy her own products and things like that and so every month she has to now figure out you know whatever how much he should take that out of her check like the cost of supplies and it’s not even like she’s working for herself she’s limited for her hours as well in the movie they talked about she could only work 30 hours no more but also there’s in the book nickel and dime that I had mentioned earlier they had a section on people who do cleaning and what they didn’t touch on in the series which they could have is the constant exposure to the chemicals
Sinead: that is true
Rita: actually causes health problems which then causes more er visits more doctors visits more prescription medication which then now takes is money out of their pocket so it’s well vicious fishes cycle well I did
Shalom: well remember the part where she threw up after cleaning that one bathroom inside that yeah but that was like she saw a dead rat we’re talking about like the chemical
Sinead: yeah exposure to bleach constantly smelling it you know you know that kind of stuff
Rita: respiratory issues and things like that
Sinead: not just the cleaning supplies but going into places like that that have mold or dust and everything
Mirthell: so when you see people saying I’m not going to go back into work, this is no small decision that they’re making some of them are making life and death decisions or sick or well decisions and they’re saying I worked there because I felt I had to but now that I don’t have to I’m gonna try and find a better way for my family
Rita: so I hate to say it but I think everything’s gonna get worse before it gets better yeah and what do we do already see the shortages in grocery stores
Mirthell: we haven’t even talked about that yet like the grocery stores are there is a shortage in grocery stores there’s a lack of products that you’re having I know like I’m not even talking about toilet paper like how everyone was running on toilet paper there is a shortage of food there is a shortage of supplies
Shalom: do you think it’s worse than when it was in 2020 at the height of covid
Mirthell: absolutely because now we’re having a short on gas we’re having a short on car parts like literally everything is like blocked up at the ports and some of them they’re not even being produced
Rita: Because it’s a global supply chain crisis so there if something is short in Taiwan it’ll affect us like for their time off for the microchips for the cars it just goes all over
Mirthell: so so where is this going to be are we going to have food insecurities well
Rita: I definitely think we will you know there are companies right now for people who don’t know where you can buy like MRE’s but you know how it used to be just for people in the army it’s um like dehydrated meals that you add water to and then boom there’s your meal and basically there are people or if it’s a cold thing milk or something but basically meal their meal replacements and you can buy it by the buckets and they stay good for like 30 40 years you know or 20 years and so I remember we bought some um because we didn’t know where this pandemic was going I bought some a long time ago and so we have some so there are some companies right now though they are booming those people who are selling that they are making so much money right now because people are afraid that not only will they be shortages but that they won’t be able to afford food that’s another thing because of inflation and that’s another thing we haven’t talked about things are smaller but they’re more expensive
Mirthell: right right right right
Rita: you know and that’s happening a lot
Mirthell: everything milk oil everything and then of course gas a lot of people are really trying to get electric cars because they’re really sick you can charge yourself how much gas is going to be ridiculous and when the price is there’s a place in California I don’t know what town but there was a particular town in California
Rita: right it’s in Monterey county and it’s like right now it’s like eight dollars a gallon
Mirthell: that’s that is incredible wow right so if things get so bad you know um people are probably not going to be able to travel they’re not going to be able to use their cars oh that’s just going to be a luxury car well I would say
Rita: we had a funeral recently in our family and even prices for airline tickets are super high they’re sky-high right now and so there were a lot of people who couldn’t make it and so it affects everything so again we have to wonder and before I even get to that how does that make you guys feel you know because like right now like we’re talking like family to families right yeah and you know daddy and I have done a lot of talking you know as adults
Sinead: the thing is those from in my generation and younger like maybe those of you who are watching who are younger or like around the same age as me I know that you guys are probably scared and worried because it’s something that none of us have ever experienced before I think we’ve been through a lot of I’m thinking like in the past 10 years things have never been this bad like people always be joking online like oh you know things are so bad right now but you know what it’s okay there’ll be people who make a lot, of jokes and dark jokes or whatever and now I feel like that we’re in actual serious time and I don’t know how like mentally everybody’s gonna handle it you know what I mean
Shalom: uh yeah I definitely agree with that but I also um think that a lot of people are going through this even prior to the pandemic so I just feel like that it’s just true you know it’s just different people different stages you know maybe some people are just new at experiencing this more than those are being like oh yeah I’m just used to this like you know maybe you know
Sinead: because people have been going through this
Mirthell: yeah that’s a good point who do you think is going to fare better I mean because individuals that have been going through struggles I remember when we were going through struggles we just learned about a thousand ways to make potatoes or you know we found those shops where you can get spaghetti for a dollar and making dollar meals that literally can feed the entire family for less than five dollars and so we just learned how I remember when we were going through the worst of our times we learned that maybe it’s not the best idea is to go and get some fast food for five dollars but maybe feed the family for five dollars right it’s just you know these are the kind of decisions that we just had to make
Rita: right so basically if you’re already in the mindset of hustling or making you know a dollar stretch you’ll be left better off right now what do you think Shasha
Shasha: man, just oh man this is just a lot and you must be feeling really overwhelmed
Sinead: do you feel overwhelmed I mean
Shasha: sort of like you hear all the stuff in the industry, it’s more like what can you do you know what I’m saying
Rita: right how about you Shiloh
Shiloh: I’m not really overwhelmed at all because I mean I feel like I’m too young to really worry about that stuff I mean sure I enter high school and everything but like I’m talking like 12 to like 16 maybe you shouldn’t really worry about this stuff that much about the you know the industry and everything because
Shalom: well here’s the thing a lot of people your age are you know trying to help the family out now trying to help support exactly like take care of their younger siblings you know work and stuff
Sinead: yeah the thing is that you’re in a very different spot than 99 of people in the country you know
Shiloh: 98 point
Sinead: 90 whatever over 90 of people your age you’re in a very different spot so I understand that you’re not really feeling overwhelmed but there’s a lot of people out there who feel like that they have to do their part to support their family and stuff
Mirthell: I’m seeing a lot of job openings I remember like one of the first jobs that I had to help out my family when we were going because I didn’t grow up privileged I grew up you know having to work and I remember one of my first jobs was working at a burger joint and just making enough money not necessarily to help my parents provide but my needs I was able to make a little additional money so that I can meet my needs and prepare for you know things that I had to get done so I just think that at this point in time I’m hearing a lot of people being pretty judgmental they’re saying oh this generation is lazy or this generation doesn’t know how to work or this generation you know is entitled I don’t think that that’s fair I think I think generations just keep on doing that they just always
Rita: well I think those the people who say that in my opinion are people who don’t understand the work that this generation is doing now
Shasha: right
Rita: because being on social media or starting an online business is no walk in the park it’s hard yeah and it takes a lot of work and so if people aren’t going and get let’s say getting a fast-food job or doing the other stuff that people are used to seeing they automatically think oh what are you doing just making a video or taking a picture and it’s like it’s a whole lot more behind it
Sinead: yeah they do not know the behind the scenes
Shalom: right yeah it takes work
Mirthell: I mean you guys are hard workers like I don’t I wouldn’t say that you guys are I think that you have the privilege but your privilege was not given to you guys actually worked really hard and consistent for it and there are so many kids in this generation I believe that are doing their part they’re working hard they’re doing their part they’re figuring out how they’re gonna make moves next and you know I actually don’t feel that pessimistic about this
generation I actually feel optimistic about this generation
[Music]
Rita: well you know again what can we do to prepare for it possibly getting worse before it gets better
Mirthell: well I agree with what the kids said first, you got to get your mentality right you got to be prepared mentally to know that things are going to change right now and it’s not going to be forever but it is going to be for a time and so you got to get your mind right to say okay I am going to make sure that I understand it’s not going to be the same so step number one mentality
Sinead: yeah Mentality right
Mirthell: what would you say step number two is though?
Shalom: step number two
Sinead: make a plan
Rita: okay make a plan so what would that plan look like?
Sinead: what would the plan looks like
Shasha: stock up
Rita: wait now when you say that people say oh don’t tell people to make a run and go and then now we’re gonna have toilet paper shortages
Shasha: well how are you gonna get stuff and you don’t stock up?
Mirthell: that’s a good point it’s true right I do think that each individual and each family needs to make an individual plan and part of that plan is going to be how are we going to make sure that we have some additional resources right and it’s not just-food
Sinead: buying out food and stuff at the market but it’s like
Shalom: it’s like rationing and stuff
Sinead: it’s planning out rationing but it’s also buying like the is it called MRE’s or
Rita: yeah
Sinead: also buying things like that like that’s not necessarily going to sell out, right?
Rita: right
Mirthell: right absolutely and I just think that um just making sure that you probably um are like for instance one of the things that we got is we got these planters where you can actually plant vegetables and fruit and different things like that and so that was one of our plans that we were going to have started to ensure that we are eating fresh food still because if we get can have a lot of sodium and you don’t want to always be depending on canned foods um you want to make sure that you’re getting fresh food and things like that so yeah
Rita: right I would say another thing too is like Shasha said I was just teasing her with the stock up she’s absolutely right you do need to stock up you do need to be prepared and if you do it more gradually then there won’t be like a shortage like if you wait to the last minute and then buy like 10 packs of toilet paper that’s a problem but you know
Shalom: I also think you should do your study like you should study what other people have done in the past to see how they, you know how they stock up how they, you know we how to buy certain things because you know like you know how to like yes and you know just study the ways of how people are doing it even in 2008 because I feel like that we always forget about that year or not forget but like it’s always something that it’s just like exactly right
Rita: and that’s a good point though that you made earlier about people who already were feeling this way but prior to the pandemic because in 2008 even though there was a recession I didn’t feel any different for me really
Sinead: right
Rita: but it was I was already struggling
Shasha: wait how come it didn’t affect you?
Mirthell: we were already struggling for 2008
Sinead: we’re already struggling, it’s not gonna get much worse like they’re already used to it, they know what to do they have their plan they have their system
Rita: yeah
Shalom: but I definitely do think that this year is probably worse than 2008 I just feel like that’s just slightly different
Rita: I would say also just probably another step I think would start trying to get used to like a simpler life
Shalom: oh yes
Rita: like we are so used to eating what we want when we want especially here in the u.s
Shalom: and shopping all you want
Rita: when shopping and all that stuff and I think we need to get used to a simpler life meaning you might have rice and beans every night for a while or you might have more spaghetti or you might have to wear the same clothes it’s fine
Shalom: I have to admit I actually was struggling with that not ordering amazon packages and not you know doing whatever you want in terms of like you know going out and writing and just like I feel like for someone who’s privileged as me I feel like that was my struggle
Mirthell: I think another great idea and we have done this before and we’ve alluded to it is helping others
Shalom: right
Mirthell: you have some share it with somebody else just likes how we were saying like when we got our card we made sure that our neighbors were eating too sharing with others is what’s going to get us all through this so yeah sharing with others becomes really important and I’m a big believer in communities coming together because you know somebody may have one thing with which was food another person may be a mechanic and they can you know help someone have to like bring back the barter system to sort of you know help one another in our communities
Rita: right and I think what you were saying about helping others with your knowledge like for example if you are someone that knows how to garden helping your neighbor
Mirthell: right
Rita: if you are someone who knows how to fix cars helping you know someone else because I think there’s a lot of knowledge that could help you save money if we kind of pulled our knowledge together not just our resources right and so that we don’t have to be dependent on spending money every time now that being said there are people who are going to need work so there are people like for example our handyman that we use he has been a friend of the family now for years and so I’m not saying like I’m going to go like take his job or anything like that but you know he has a lot of knowledge so he might be able to if he wanted to like help us pass on the information and help others so it’s a really it’s a balancing act you know you want people to still be able to work but then also there are just times where you just don’t have the money and you need something done you know fixed or food or something like that
Mirthell: and at the end of the day I think that it’s important to have your faith it’s important to believe that better is yet to come you know this is not a doomsday situation where we’ll never come back we’ll never be able to spring back from this we truly believe that things are going to get better soon one day it’s going to get better and what you want to do is you want to be the right type of person make sure that you have the right type of heart where you’re helping others loving others being kind being considerate because you know we’re going to get through this but we’re going to get through this being good people
Sinead: yeah
Shalom: amen
Rita: right
[Music]
Mirthell: so I’d like to share a story uh with our audience um sort of like a closing thought
Rita: okay
Mirthell: and um it’s all about your attitude it’s about your attitude because we have to have the right attitude as we’re going into these times so when I and Rita first met and after we had decided that we were gonna get married and we were preparing for our the wedding we went to our a person that would make us a cake it was actually in the south where we got married and this particular lady um invited us over to the home and she had like a whole bunch of cakes like sample cakes spread out for us and we tasted each one of these sample cakes and we were like okay we want this one and I think we decided to go with a rum cake right?
Rita: yes
Mirthell: but it wasn’t the rum cake that I am accustomed to
Rita: yeah it was better
Mirthell: ah that’s what she thinks
Rita: it was good it was good
Mirthell: there’s a Jamaican rum cake that is called black cake where it’s thick saturated it’s like
Rita: no, it’s not good
Mirthell: it’s delicious
Rita: it’s not good at all
Mirthell: and then it has this is like white icing with like these little
Rita: it tastes like a fruit cake with alcohol in it
Shalom: ew
Mirthell: it’s just divine so I thought when she said rum cake I thought I was gonna get that cake
Rita: no we got the good rum cake the one that’s
Mirthell: the fluffy white cake
Rita: I don’t even know how to describe it it’s like a regular cake okay with the rum flavor and it’s so good it was so moist and it was so good
Mirthell: anyhow
Shiloh: Was it really rum?
Rita: it was rum flavored
Mirthell: rum-flavored it
Shiloh: Was it actually rum?
Mirthell: it’s rum-flavored it’s not it doesn’t have the alcohol content
Shiloh: Was it actual rum when you guys were together before I was born?
Mirthell: yes it was rum that had a flavor
Rita: What does that even mean?
Sinead: He wants to know, was it a rum?
Mirthell: Were we drinking? No, we’re not drinkers
Sinead: Did you get drunk off your wedding cake?
Mirthell: we didn’t get drunk off of it bakes out
Shasha: you can’t get drunk it’s a rum cake
Rita: you know what it was like it’s like the rum cake we get on we used to get when we cruised because
Shiloh: that’s what I was saying because I didn’t want you guys to think that I was talking about the rum cake we had like did you actually have
Rita: no no we had that same sort of rum cake what’s the rum cake we usually get on the cruise
Mirthell: it’s like
Sinead: Tortuga
Rita: yes oh my god it’s so good
Mirthell: Guys it’s like that kind of rum cake.
Shalom: y’all if I was there I would just reject both your cakes I do not like rum
Mirthell: oh well yeah you wouldn’t, you would reject that
Rita: You like the rum cake we get from on cruises don’t you?
Mirthell: you don’t like that rum cake? How about the Jamaican black rum cake?
Shalom: no I don’t
Mirthell: yes?
Rita: nobody likes that
Mirthell: oh common
Shalom: never like that every time the church would
Rita: and I know I probably offended every single Jamaican out there I’m just kidding
Shalom: she’s Jamaican
Rita: right my grandmother my grandmother’s father is Jamaican so
Shalom: guess what she only found this out this year so, she grew up peeking Jamaican
Shiloh: That’s like calling dad Irish.
Rita: he is his grandfather’s Irish
Mirthell: but i really want to tell myself so anyhow when we were eating the cake she was giving us a story and she was telling us the story about how she gathered all of these things together all of these ingredients together to make the cake the day before and she’s talking about how she was so stressed out because she knew that she had to have all the materials to bake for us and all sorts of stuff so she was really stressed out and so she was telling the story of why she’s so tired now so what happened was the day before she was at the grocery store she drove there she went in got all the materials bought them and came out and found out that her car was stolen right so so she’s sitting there panicking and she’s looking in the parking lot and she’s just looking everywhere looking everywhere it’s like where is my car oh my goodness i don’t know where my car is oh i already i am behind on making all these cakes i got people coming i can’t believe this and then she calls the cops and she’s like listen someone stole my
The car they took a report and when they took the report she said oh you know it was a honda civic and they were just like a van
Rita: it was a van
Mirthell: no it was a car, it was a car that was
Rita: oh yeah that’s right yeah
Mirthell: yeah it’s like a honda civic or something like that yeah yeah and so she was just like this honda civic and they were like oh yeah that that car goes missing a lot like there’s a lot of people that are breaking those cars so I understand why people want honda’s it was back in it was back in the 90s and hondas were like really good
Rita: that was it
Mirthell: like our first cars
Shalom: yeah all we would have was hondas
Rita: right we love honda
Mirthell: so so they took the report and she was sitting on the curb and then the cops after they took her report and everything the cops are like would you like us to drop you home and she said no it’s okay I’ll just have my daughter come and pick me up so she calls her daughter and she’s just like um you know honey could you come and pick me up you know because you know someone stole our car and she’s like the mom you didn’t drive the car you drove the van and right beside her where she was sitting was her van she literally was beside her van the entire time writing a report about a car that was stolen that was not stolen it was sitting at home
Shalom: I remember you telling this story
Mirthell: and I was just like it just goes to show you that your mentality your mind can play tricks on you if you wake up and you’re like this is the worst thing or I’m going through the worst time you know you’re already setting yourself up for failure you can be having a tough time but it’s your perspective your mind how you choose to look at it can begin to shape your day so because she thought she had a bad day her day went from bad to worse but if she had the right mentality about the challenges that she had to face she might have had the clarity of thought to remember oh you know what I got my van she wouldn’t have had to go through all that stuff with a police officer so I just want to share that with you guys because we just want to encourage you to have the right mentality no matter what you’re facing you know um have that optimistic faithful perspective that you know what things are not the best or things may not be the best but it’s going to work out.
Rita: right
Mirthell: it’s going to work out for us and we’re going to make a plan we are going to have a great attitude about this right we are going to survive this thing
Rita: together and we’re going to do it together and we’re going to do it as a community and we’re going to help others and when you come with the right mentality and the right attitude your day won’t go from bad to worse your day will go from pretty challenging time to brighter days
Shalom: because remember your car is always right next to you on the curb
Mirthell: exactly so um that’s that’s my story thanks everyone for joining us we really enjoyed our time we hope you did too here on the onyx family we love to tell the story feed the soul make you laugh heal the heart join us once again on Spotify
Rita: apple podcast um youtube anywhere where you listen to podcasts or you can watch us here on our channel all right guys
Everyone: bye
