#the fact that rosa is dating people and leaving maria home alone is a spoiler

[batbeato]

How rich do you think the Ushiromiya Family is (at least, as a front)? From what I can tell by the power of the internet, one of the wealthiest men to exist in the 1980's (to '87) was Yoshiaki Tsutsumi with a net worth around $20 billion.

Considering Kinzo was renowned for both wealth and business acumen, it could be somewhere around there - not including the ten tons of gold, since that's a mere rumor for the public. I think at some point Eva mentioned several ten billion yen (so 20 billion or upwards) in assets, even if said money wasn't actually liquidized and just on hand to draw out of a bank (a.k.a Krauss probably hadn't gotten the chance to spend it all away yet). Not sure exactly how that converts to dollars, but Kinzo would be at the very least a millionaire?

I read somewhere that he made a lot of his money via investments in post-war industry and ferrying supplies to...someone(pretty sure it was the US, since Japan was still under occupation?) in preparation for the Korean War.

On wikipedia, this time period (1940's to the early 1990's when Japan's economic bubble popped) is known as the Japanese economic miracle. Wikipedia isn't the best source to look at, but it's a start on researching it and pondering the growth of Kinzo's wealth.

Likewise, how wealthy do you think the branches of the family (Eva, Rudolf, and Rosa) are, even in the face of their financial struggles?

Since, I don't think we ever get numbers on the money Rudolf needs for the lawsuit, or the amount Rosa needs to pay the loan and possible interest - I'm not sure about the other aspects of her business, since she did have the money to have vacations with various boyfriends, so it may have been doing well? Just not well enought to handle the loan?

And Eva + Hideyoshi really only need to worry about buying stocks back, not their finances. Similarly to Krauss and the embezzlement of Kinzo's money but not all the assets, they don't have the liquid cash / assets on hand to pay off the various issues they're dealing with.

Hm... To be honest, I've just never really thought about it much. Trying to fathom the level of wealth they have is tough. I feel like Kinzo's kids come off as millionaires, where they're very wealthy but not about to commission private jets for what would be 3 hour drives - that sort of super excessive expenditure you get when you're so wealthy money no longer has meaning. They're wealthy, but not so much that they can do whatever they want (as evidenced by all of them Needing Money Right Now).

Rosa in particular feels like someone who... doesn't have that much money on hand. Her business also isn't doing that well. She does spend a lot on Maria sometimes, and also spends for her getaways with boyfriends, but she's in debt. Also, she... doesn't hire someone to just, look after Maria? It could be a pride or secrecy thing more than a financial thing, though... But considering that Jessica probably had private tutoring, George had tons of tutoring and special programs, and Ange is also mentioned to be in cram school (she knows division. she is SIX.) and Maria seems to have none of that... It could reflect on Rosa trying to raise Maria as a "normal child" with less of the pressures that her siblings put on their children, but could, again, be financial hardship preventing her from doing that.

I guess when you add a bunch of millionaires together, plus the incredible amount of money and assets that Kinzo has put together over the years, you end up with billions. At the very least, post-1986 Eva comes off like a billionaire, especially with how she recklessly does the same stuff Kinzo did to put together vast amounts of money and wastes it on pretty much whatever she thinks will make her feel better (it's mentioned that she got into sketchy new religions/cults/whatever). I wouldn't know nearly enough about the Japanese economy to be able to put together any sort of ballpark estimate, though.

[salmonthestoryteller]

Maria & Being a Caretaker

I actually already made a post about Maria regarding Mimi's illness back during season 1. But I feel like, even though I commented on it briefly in that post, I should have expanded on the full effect this has on Maria's life. On how this story isn’t just told when she is in scenes with Mimi, but throughout the whole series. Spoilers for season 2 ahead.

We aren't sure yet when Mimi's illness started, but we know it's been going on for years. We know from her conversation with Liz that she has taken her mother to multiple doctors, and nobody has given her a diagnosis. Clearly, at some point Mimi recognized how bad things were getting and let Maria take over running the Wild Pony. However, Maria also admits to Liz that her finances are pretty much in shambles despite owning the bar. That's why she also works as a bartender for tips and does her psychic readings. Because she's struggling financially under the weight of the medical bills.  It has nothing to do with the bar itself - Maria owns a local’s bar that dates pre-1947 in a town full of cowboys and military men.  The bar itself isn’t having financial issues - Maria is because the medical bills have stacked up over the years as she tried to find out what was happening with her mother.

Unsurprising. Even if Mimi had insurance, the constant testing would rack up thousands of dollars of bills, and Mimi didn't go through testing once - Maria took her to multiple doctors. Over the years, they've probably easily gotten tens of thousands of dollars in medical debt from that alone. And if Maria took her to a doctor out of her insurance network because she was hoping to get a better result - something quite likely - they would have taken on the full brunt of that bill out of pocket.

Combined with the financial situation is the fact that her mother has a habit of wandering off and returning to The Wild Pony.  And that's the thing, Maria isn't a Caretaker just when she's with Mimi. She is a Caretaker 24/7. She has to worry about her - is she remembering to eat, did she wander off again, does she remember what year it is and will be able to tell someone who finds her to take her to Maria? Or does she think Maria is a child because she thinks it's 1997?

There is no time in this scenario for her to be going out partying, or hanging out with friends, or going on dates.

Maria is the sole provider for her mother. We are introduced to no other family members who can look after her for a bit so Maria can have a break. She has shouldered this burden alone - and that can be extremely isolating. After a while, if you always say you can't go? People stop asking. Let alone trying to explain the situation on a date. Sorry, I have to go - my Mom just wandered into my bar and I have to go pick her up. We can try again next Friday? Yeah, probably wasn't happening. I wouldn’t be surprised if this very thing was what led to her break up with the one previous relationship she mentioned to Liz - the Chad.

When Liz convinces her to go out hunting for Rosa's old hiding places - that's probably the first time Maria has been able to spend with a friend doing something fun in a very long time.  Notice that it’s only after Maria decided to place Mimi in a home - no matter how shattered doing so leaves her - when you finally see her daring to go somewhere.  That’s realistic.  She could never leave town before - not with Mimi randomly wandering off.  So her going to Texas, hoping for a cure, is probably the first time she's left Roswell in years. And then you see her do something else she’s never done earlier in the season - just attend an event without working.  Even at the reunion, she had a psychic booth set up, but when she attends the Gala, she’s actually just there to have fun.

That makes it particularly painful to me that she wasn’t even told she’d been drugged by the group.  (Something that could have been pinned on an unknown human culprit)  This was her first time out to just enjoy herself in forever, and she thinks she humiliated herself.   Then, on top of that, her reprieve is short-lived.  Mimi has taken to wandering from the nursing home as well. On a regular basis.

So a home that Maria is probably spending somewhere between 7-9k for a month out of pocket to take care of her mother, has done little to ease her mind.  She's back to square one - only with an extra 7-9k bill.

And, honestly, nothing about this is unrealistic to me. Homes here in America are notoriously understaffed. Mimi has no physical ailments and no medical diagnosis. The home knows her daughter lives in town and that Mimi usually goes to her - they probably wouldn't be overly worried about her in this situation.

I've known two kinds of staff at these homes - ones that I will treasure forever for the care they gave someone I loved. And ones I've wanted to punch in the nose. I find the scene with Maria on the phone with the home frustrating on a very personal level, but I also find it realistic. They probably don't have the staff or resources to send someone out to fetch Mimi constantly and so have ended up relying on Maria to bring her back instead.

Then her mother disappears for over a month and that is her worst fears come to life. She now has to come up with the money for a private investigator because nobody seems to be taking her mother's situation seriously. Something that also is realistic. Mimi is an adult, and has no official medical record that says anything is wrong with her. There are probably many people in Maria's own community who believe exactly what some of the doctors suggested to Maria before - that Mimi is faking the whole thing.

Maria's story is tangled with Mimi's because she is her Caretaker, but that doesn't make the story less about Maria. We have been shown her frustration, her hope, her despair; her fear. She has talked about the struggle of her financial situation, and we’ve been shown how she has little in her life outside of work and the person whose care she is responsible for. She has talked about the frustration of dealing with people who will not take her mother's undiagnosed illness seriously, and we have been shown that with how she personally had to take on looking for her mother even when she did disappear.

These things are a reality for many people.  And seeing that story, their story, told is important. Though Mimi's illness is obviously being weaved into the sci-fi aspects of the story, I am very grateful for every second they've spent telling Maria's Caretaker arc properly. It's a story worth telling, and I look forward to seeing where it goes.