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competition in the viewers. If they can't afford to spend what the "real" person on TV did on a wedding dress or engagement ring, they are supposed to be not good enough. To me reality TV is simply another capitalistic marketing tool to get the public discouraged and to get them to spend more money, because TV showed them how "real" people do it.

If viewers wanted reality, they should show a homeless person's struggle to get housing or a job. They should spend some money to document what it's like for a minority to live in a majority neighborhood. The media should film how everyday people in low-paying jobs get treated.

It should be documented how people daily make decisions if they can afford to see a doctor, if they should call in sick, or just go to work and hope they will be fine the next day. Cameras should show the abuse that occurs in "nice" neighborhoods - often spawned by the dissatisfaction of lives not measuring up to "reality TV". They would follow people and document how they over-extend themselves trying to buy the lives they see on television.

If that's too "boring", send members of the school boards of inner city schools to the schools they deny funds for - just for a week would be enough. They would have to ride the noisy, stinky, outdated school bus with screaming children, while being bullied for their lunch money or just because they are different.

They would have to use toilets in stalls that have no locks, with plumbing that does not work, and walk dreary halls in buildings that have not seen any type of maintenance since the 50s. They would have to be sent outside on recess where harassment occurs daily without any type of supervision. Now that would be reality TV.

Learn more about this author, Alexandra Heep.
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