Close But No Banana, Gwinny...Well, Not Even Close, Really.

The other day, just like everybody else I rolled my eyes at Gwyneth Paltrow taking on the $29 SNAP challenge. Turns out she lasted 4 days (even with all those limes!), and this is a pretty great analysis:

I’ve had an awful lot of conversations with people who think they’re being insightful when they declare that it turns out it’s really hard to get a job or to stretch a dollar. That it just can’t be done. Actually, guys, it’s hard for you to be poor. Lots of us are great at it. Lots of us do it every goddamn day.

It’s insulting when rich people assume that because they’re rich, that makes them smart or competent. It’s insulting when they pull the “If I can’t do this, who possibly can?” card. Hey, you know what, bite me. Having a juicer and a cocotte doesn’t mean you know how to prepare food better than the rest of us or that you have something to teach us about it. Just because you — blonde and wealthy — can’t do something that millions of Americans pull off every day doesn’t make it “impossible.” And to throw in the towel on a challenge that’s about raising awareness of hunger, after four days, because you frankly blew it with the preparation, is not just a failure of the United States economic system. It’s a failure of your own imagination, Gwyneth Paltrow.

FULL DISCLOSURE: In Mrs. Paltrow's defense, she has seen me naked, so. There's that.