All "reality" TV is crap, a large proportion of humanity loves voyeurism at some level. whether it's people watching at the local shopping centres or peeping through someones window . Reality TV provides for these type of people.
I always say get out of your house and live your own life.

As for the actual show it's self, not seen it, don't intend to see it. From the adds and other media it's gotten, it's clear there's nothing constructive about it. Unless of course the people on it are taught how to mange their money, and get a job.

BTW lots of jobs picking fruit, no need to wallow in the sewer that is the western subs of Sydney.

I watched all three episodes, there was nothing wrong with the show other than it purported to take people like Ash and Peta seriously, people like that lie about everything all the time, classic Aussie BS artists. The dead giveaway was their explanation for how they ended up in the state they're in, according to them they did 12 months each in prison on a first offence drug posession charge for a few cones worth of Ganja. Yeah right, I know a few people who've been busted for possession and for a first offence at most they copped a good behaviour bond. A year inside probably means they were sentenced to three so it was clear that they were dealing, more than likely in the dreaded Ice and that their dopey daughter had brought an undercover cop to the house and they'd been busted with a commercial quantity.
Their eldest daughter and son were Ice dealers and users, their son Corey was a hopeless addict, Ash and Peta were most likely mid level dealers and yet you get this ridiculous performance near the end with Ash "losing it" and threatening to bash anyone who sell Ice to his kids. Maybe there are people on the North Shore of Sydney or the leafy East of Melbourne who've honestly never met anyone like that but there's a whole block of Drongos like that a street away from me in Reservoir and I grew up living on the edge of a country housing commission estate, Ash and Peta don't fool me.

Struggle Street was certainly a door opener; a door that many in the community would never have seen, or if they had, would not have chosen to open.
The three-part series was a story, told by people suffering severe economic disadvantage. It was told to a small group of production crew who were, in effect, the "authors" of that story.
This brings out the fact that what an author writes or reports is that person's particular impression or outlook on whatever tale is being told. It is a personal recount, not some prior scripted campaign attracting meticulous planning and redrafting until it is in a suitable form for airing.
As Evelyn points out,'participants may willingly let the media into their lives, but remain ignorant of how their stories will be shaped in the editing suite and in the subsequent marketing campaigns.'
That's precisely it - the story was a story, not some kind of marketing campaign. Its appeal will vary depending on the audience which watches it, but the fact remains that a huge number of people did watch it.
Don't worry about why they watched, just accept that they saw something which may have surprised them and set them thinking

I watched all three episodes and was gobsmacked what losers the main family were. Just about everyone seemed to be borderline psychotic or at least sociopaths.

I disagree with Ponder's comment "This brings out the fact that what an author writes or reports is that person's particular impression or outlook on whatever tale is being told. It is a personal recount, not some prior scripted campaign attracting meticulous planning and redrafting until it is in a suitable form for airing."

The people in the series were free to express themselves any way they chose. Their true colours came out... that's the way they are and the way they live, like pigs.

The trailers for the series said it was about everyday Australians just trying to survive. None of those people I would call normal.

Yet it's a story that must be told! How else are we ever going to obligate the genuine among us to care enough to do something about it!?

It's actually unfathomable that we should have post code poverty traps in a land as rich and well resourced as OZ; let alone have over 100,000 homeless?

From my perceptive, all the Ginas and Clives of this world could consume far less of everything!

Eliminating quite massive superannuation subsidies and welfare for the rich like say, negative gearing or health insurance subsidies, would be a useful start?

Which would likely free up a few billion to start making some inroads into this problem?

But not with handouts or sit-down money; but rather, with scholarships and micro venture capital loans!

And there has to be a role for responsible government, to ameliorate the problem by rebuilding our manufacturing base and putting people back to work!

What do they think we pay them for? A tea party or endless talk feast? Or placing endless roadblocks in the path of genuine progress?

Thankfully some are working to fix the problem! Just not do nothing real, Australian Governments? And if the cap fits?

I mean why is it we almost alone in the english speaking world have the highest median house prices and comparatively huge energy bills!?

And make no mistake, bring those two into line with the best benchmark apples for apples comparisons/practice; and you've effectively dealt with 90% of the problem!?

And indeed, doubled and trebled discretionary spending, the real workhorse and wealth creator of the domestic economy!
Rhrosty.

An excellent article by Dr Evelyn Tsitas.

My take on Informed Consent is:

1. The consent seekers need to adjust their approaches to the consent givers.

Those giving consent need to have a level of education, or should ideally be advised by an independent lawyer, as to their rights particularly on what consent means. Knowledge of what defamation means, on average, varies geographically.

For example, if consent seekers are seeking consent from households in Inner North Shore Sydney the seekers might reasonably assume that a community with a high number of educated people, many of them lawyers, will be more informed than those in Mt Druitt.

2. Even outside consent forms geography or group makes a difference. Consent seeking journalists and their editors, practice self-censorship, even if they don't admit it. The chances that they may be politically or personally pressured or actually sued would more likely come from Inner North Shore worthies than people in Mt Druitt.

Wow Rhrosty, I can't agree at all.

I only saw a little of this bit of garbage. It was enough however to disgust me, & convince me that we are wasting the hard earned of decent people keeping garbage like this housed, fed & clothed.

It convinced me even more that we have to have a time limit on all dole payments. The only way to make rubbish like this get off their fat backsides is to make them do so to eat. As long as their basic requirements are supplied by the gullible, they will do absolutely nothing useful for themselves or anyone else.

To say they are a waste of space is far too kind. That we not only keep them, but pay "experts" to minister to them is even greater waste.

Well suckers, you have well and truly been suckered and played.

Audio, visual is the most manipulative form of propaganda that exists. A huge amount depends on what perspective the producers want to show.

There is an absolute classic used Adolf Hitler, Mein Klaup or something like that.

Wolly, in Mein Kampf Hitler goes on at great length about the struggles of the poor, remember he lived in abject poverty, in flophouses and on the street while he was in Vienna so he knew what he was talking about. In one passage he describes exactly the types seen in Struggle Street and he despaired of ever being able to change them, the difference is that the poor of Austria/Hungary in the early 1900's literally had nothing and no-one to help them, compared to the the life and death struggle of the poor Viennese the lifestyles of the people in Mt Druitt would seem like middle class luxury.

Hasbeen; please do me and all the other posters on this thread the common courtesy of pointing out; in which part of my post I've advocated dole payments for anyone?

If you weren't such an economic ignoramus(and so quick on your get Rhrosty trigger) you would understand that permanently improving the discretionary spending powers of the great unwashed mass, is exactly the same as putting a fortune in the pockets of the movers and shakers!

All I've advocated is earned scholarships, (remember them?) And venture capital being rolled out by some government agency, for ordinary folk with really good and or original ideas.

And I congratulate the Government on what they're already doing on that front!

Yes a huge percentage of new starts fail as you did. With your business, and through no fault of yours!

However, those that succeed usually do so fabulously, and as a rule of thumb, for every one job created in the successful start up, at least five others are created in the wider economy.

Besides, we really do need to address middle class welfare/super subsidies, which will soon be larger than what we payout as pensions.

As for the dole, given my druthers, I gladly replace that with a conscripted green army, supervised by visionary Peter Andrews and his selected team, reclaiming and desalinating much of the upland landscape!

All I've advocated is a return to fairness as opposed to maintaining entirely unearned privilege!

The sort of privilege that saw the sons of the well to do, becoming the automatically commissioned officers in WW1 and before, which resulted in a WW1 blood bath, as so called officers played toy soldiers with millions of real men and real lives!

The modern equivalent being dumb-ass clueless kids coming straight out of college and into privileged politics! And then through quite gross mismanagement of finite government funds; I believe, create the very post code poverty traps we saw in the doco?
Rhrosty.

Sorry Jay of Melbourne, the film I really meant to refer to was "Triumph of the Will".

A film that was "Leni" Riefenstahl (German: [ˈʁiːfənʃtaːl]; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, producer, screenwriter, editor, photographer, actress and dancer widely known for directing the Nazi propaganda film.

“Dignity, and even holiness too, sometimes, are more questions of coat and waistcoat than some people imagine.”
― Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

This has been my most abiding lesson in life...are all drug users and dealers confined to Mt Druit?
And, was the intention of SBS (with the their decision to produce this doco), more one of protecting the sensibilities of the Middle class against the realities of scum-bagery and its entrenchment across all sectors of Australian society?

The commentary here is just the same old same old. The poor are poor because it's their own fault. They're lazy and dependent on handouts. The rich are rich because they worked hard and contributed exponentially to the overall economy.

No other factors are allowed to enter the equation. No mention that the rich are rich because they reaped the benefits of wealth inheritance and the benefits of intergenerational wealth regeneration.

No mention that the poor have all the cards stacked against them. Low wages, insecure and casual employment, minimal job security, no family trusts or outrageously generous superannuation entitlements for the wealthy to fall back on.

Luck equates with being high-born and well-off. The unlucky comprise all the rest. But that's OK. We can just call them lazy and the gods of wealth and entitlement are easily appeased.

Hasbeen would like to see the dole 'cut off' from welfare users like people in this documentary.

I am just wondering how these 'dole bludgers' would manage to feed their innocent children if there was no money coming in?
Imagine the increased crime rates as these people steal to survive?

Horror of horrors. Personally I thought the program was as unreal as a so called reality show is. You put people in front of a camera, their 15 minutes of fame looms and they exaggerate posing for what the camera crew expect. The pregnant woman smoking dope and losing her children already. The man refusing to move and let in the eviction people. Geesus... it happens for sure. But look at the overall impression of the street, neat green and tidy. It illuminated one thing, drugs and alcohol are the food for unhealthy and mentally ill people. That's true. No wonder other Mt.Druit residents were annoyed, not a good example of the suburb, but at least the 'actors' in this drama had an exposure, they will in most part thoroughly regret once the programme aired. They do get social services, the charities, to help them. But these were not consulted were they?

PS. I've met people like this, and as one poster remarked, they lie and exaggerate. Anyone who has worked for social services or charities, knows that people abuse the system it is their way of surviving. They are dishonest and parasites. There are genuine ones though, who through no fault of their own, are beset with real disabilities or mental health issues. I once went to St.Vinnies for help with electricity. Never been there before,and while waiting to be seen, the people there were relating on why they didn't pay cheap rent as the house was haunted. I couldn't believe it myself but when I questioned them feigning interest in the occult. The three of them, non of whom lived together, admitted they often saw ghosts. They blame the rich, or the employer who won't employ them. Even the government. Face it there are some very very sick people in our society. And there is bugger all we can do for them, the children God forgot, or has given up on.

So 'Hasbeen' openly admits to having seen only a little of 'this garbage' and then proceeds to offer 'expert' commentary on it and society as a whole. Clearly shows a complete ignorance of what people go through. By the way 'Hasbeen' if you'd watched the whole thing maybe you'd know that many were on the Disability Support Pension and one young bloke with many hurdles to overcome actually got himself a job. Still, keep feasting blindly on those negatives you seem to love so much.