California Republican gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari said Thursday he spent a week pretending to be homeless and he made a video to prove it.
The video featured Kashkari traveling to Fresno, Calif., on July 21 with what he described in the video as “$40 in my pocket, a change of clothes in my backpack, a sleeping bag and I’m going to Fresno to find a job.”
Throughout the week, Kashkari was filmed sleeping on the street, being turned away from jobs and dining at a local homeless shelter.
“This has been one of the hardest weeks of my life,” Kashkari said in the video. “I came to Fresno expecting to be able to find a job, and take care of myself. But it’s been a week and I’ve found nothing.”
In an op-ed on Thursday in The Wall Street Journal, Kashkari said he made the video to experience firsthand whether the “California comeback” being boasted about by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) actually exists for everyday Californians.
“While the politicians who run California pat themselves on the back and claim a ‘California Comeback,’ they willfully ignore millions of our neighbors who are living in poverty,” Kashkari wrote. “California’s most vulnerable citizens deserve leaders who will fight for them. It’s a fight that Republicans should lead.”
Watch the video:
Well, when “normal” people can’t find a job, it’s because they’re not “trying hard enough” and they’re “slackers who don’t really want a job” and just want to “stay on the dole”…according to Republicans.
So, Neel…how’s it feel to be a slacker that just wants to stay on the dole?
I wonder if he wants to expand the safety net to help with the problem? Or will his solution be…tax cuts to the oppressed wealthy!!!
Kashkari? Is this the guy who invented the high-fibre breakfast cereal, which, upon consuming, bloats you with gas and makes you go to the bathroom three of four times a day?
It’s easy to criticize not being able to find a job after looking for a week. (Though in Fresno, apparently, he didn’t find his way into the ample illegal labor force in the fields…plenty of that to be found.) What’s your PLAN?
Very spontaneous, I’m sure, being followed around by a guy with a camera.
In looking for a job he reports he just went cold calling. Even the homeless use the public libraries’ computers and various job resource centers to get work. I don’t think any job short of a day labor job from the Home Depot parking lot is secured on the spot. Sounds like he needs to work on that credibility thing. But nice of him to give up his own bed for a few nights.