I’d love to hear y’alls opinion on “sending money home”.
Manuel had expectations of sending $250-$300 home per month while living in the US, which is a little wild when he can’t even work yet and seemingly hasn’t discussed it with Ashley at all.
On the other hand, he has multiple kids to support, something they don’t seem to show them talking about at all. And $300 in the US is significantly easier to come by than $300 in Ecuador, where the “average living wage” is around $500USD/month.
It tends to come up every season or so, obviously there’s some outrageous people looking to take advantage of others, but on the other hand a couple hundred bucks goes a lot further in some countries than others, and is typically a lot easier to make in some countries than others.
I’m reminded of David and Annie when they met with the builder after TLC killed her mom - the builder clearly saw David as easy pickings and gave them a wildly inflated quote, but also that’s around 5-10% of what that quote would have been in any American city.
What are your opinions on this? I think some people are out there to take advantage of others, but on the other hand if I could pay for my entire spouses family to live reasonably well for a small slice of my monthly take home pay it seems like a no-brainer to do it?
It really depends. Was this something they discussed beforehand? Since his family believes he’s working in the US, I imagine they’re expecting some financial contribution from him. Other than brujería, what does Ashley do for work? Does she have an additional $300 per month to contribute? I don’t think she should give up her dog expenses or coffee expenses. (She should cut back on coffee for other reasons, however). The assumption that he’ll someday be able to pay her back brings me pause. Let’s say he can’t find work for a year. How exactly does he intend to pay her $3600? What skills does he have to find a job? He also does not appear to speak much English. Also, everything in his life is privado. I’m sure this will apply to his pay check as well
He’s saying to pay her back because it’s becoming a his money/her money type of situation. He doesn’t want to be seen as using her money because culturally speaking he should be the provider. He’s saying as soon as he can work he will pay her back because he’s not expecting her to provide for him or his responsibilities. He’s saying right now he can’t work, they both knew this before coming to the US. They should’ve talked about it.