Middle Class and Homeless

“I was neither a drug addict or an alcoholic, nor was I a criminal. But I had committed one of the basic American sins. I had failed.”  The Ted talk I chose is called “Middle Class and Homeless,” given at the TedxAmherst event by David Raether. David talks about how he went from being the main provider for his upper middle class family to ending up broke and homeless.

David first explains how he worked as a comedy TV writer, with a large salary of roughly $300,000 a year. He was successful in his work, but the long hours required of him were hurting his family life. So he took a couple years off, restoring balance to his life and family and doing his job of being a father. After about two years, he decided to go back to working in television. But, as David says, “television had other ideas.” The sitcoms like those that David had worked on were disappearing, and David was older than what most were looking to hire. He sent hundreds of emails and resumes to try and find work, but couldn’t. After a while of job searching, things went badly. The family lost their house and fell apart, leaving David alone and without a home. David explains the hardships of being homeless, and how this experience has affected how he lives his life today. He ends his speech by talking about the stigma of being poor in America, and how it shouldn’t be considered shameful to be poor.

This speech was given at a university, so most of the audience probably had no experience with this topic.  However, the speech is still relatable because the students in the audience would have to deal with money issues. Many young adults have experiences with poverty, whether it b

David is a very effective speaker. He speaks clearly and at an understandable speed.  His main points are emphasized well through both inflection and pauses. Its hard to judge his eye contact without being in the room, but he does a nice job of looking at different parts of the audience. The organization of his talk is set up well. He begins by telling where he was 6 years ago, homeless and then explains how it happened to him as well as what it was like to be homeless.

However, David does have some weaknesses.  He is calm and collected but is visibly nervous during some parts of the speech. His hand gestures convey this, as well as the way he stumbles over a few words.

Watch "Middle Class and Homeless"