Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

03grandam said:
But when you multiply that by the number of other homeless people like him that are living off others then it turns into a much bigger number. Food stamps are not "free" money, tax payers pay for that too. Let alone the cost of internet and electricity he uses from the library and other various places. Shit isn't free for those businesses and others.

Fucks like him should just get a job and support themselves for a change, who knows they may like it.
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Dude, relax. What the "troll" is telling you is that while poor/lazy/whatever people are sucking other people's money, they take and require really small amounts. Politicians and big business, though, now those take the majority of your money. It's the truth. And don't tell me the US is any different. It is not. It's the same here.
 
dgz said:
Dude, relax. What the "troll" is telling you is that while poor/lazy/whatever people are sucking other people's money, they take and require really small amounts. Politicians and big business, though, now those take the majority of your money. It's the truth. And don't tell me the US is any different. It is not. It's the same here.
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Your absolutely right it's not any different here in the U.S., but the article wasn't about politicians and big business. ;)

My point still stands about the guy in the article.
 
Thing I don't understand is how some people are actually eligible for a lot of the "benefits". My wife and I lost our decent jobs at the same time about 4 years ago (worked at the same place). We have 4 kids between us, and we couldn't qualify for anything but our unemployment. Mind boggling.
 
This article puts me in mind of a friend of mine. I've tried to help him get a job a couple times and quickly learned he just wasn't interested in working. He's perfectly happy living out of a car as long as he has two things, his laptop and wifi. He's so intent on living like this he actually made a blog about it...

http://pavement-sailor.blogspot.com/

He lives out of his car and wanders from one town to the next. He uses the free WIFI from places like McDonalds and local libraries to get his internet fix and plays games on his laptop. He occasionally gets a job long enough to build up his money supplies again and then moves on. I personally don't get it, but he seems to do just fine.
 
Ski said:
This statement alone reflects what is wrong with this country. Your ignorance and ignorant attitude to the problems facing the welfare of this country shows how little empathy you have for your fellow human being, and I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't even read the article either... well maybe with the exception at briefly reading the first paragraph and looking at some of the pictures.

But I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt here and assume you did, and expand on on your critical thought process...

Your initial reaction to reading the article about the homeless is to merely look at the pictures of them with Monster energy drinks and playing video games, and this upsets you? So by your rationale the poor should have less, and be poorer? Damn dude!

You seem to be under the impression that homeless people are all mentally stable and highly intelligent.

Not everyone understands those concepts you put forth and life is not as simple as 'don't buy stuff'. You can be upset with their choices but that doesn't mean they deserve to be homeless.

You assume that they have equal access to the jobs market as you do. And you don't exactly care for the facts of the matter either, these people are ideologically offensive to your world view. You complain about the meager sustenance supplied to them in the form of food stamps, while you ignore the sociological implications of creating an underclass that has no means to move up, but don't take my word for it, look at Detroit, West Virgina, Pine Ridge Nebraska, and Camden New Jersey, and honestly ask yourself if it's the middle classes fault for these cities which I call disaster zones.

You see someone who less well off than you are, No shelter, no shower, no transport, no income. And then you start to begrudge the minor few luxuries they do have? I don't even.....what sort of Calvinist nightmare have we entered where the ideological purity of work is so great that someone who is obviously poor, doesn't have work, yet has a few small meaningless items to help them get through is to be despised for their misfortune?

No wonder the present we live in is so fucked. The future is bleak while this virus of a psychology is allowed to exist. The fact a homeless person figured out way to save his own dignity by figuring out a way to make money through BitCoin without having to pan handle is a testament to the human spirit and their will to live in a society that has forsaken them. We should should be praising guys like this, not chastising .
and marginalizing them in society.
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To answer your question directly. The poor by their very definition... "have less". Less money, cars, houses, food. No, they should not "Be poorer", however as shown by this individual in the article, his own choices are keeping him in the poor house. Rome wasn't built in a day, and lifting a man like this out of poverty takes consistently smart choices on HIS part. The social support system is already in place, it's not the best in the world but it's better than nothing. Do you really think his life would magically turn around (and stay that way) if we gave him $1000 dollars a day for 6 months?


I did read the entire article -- and using the logic you present, at my current income and asset level, I should be given a free pass to have the luxuries I currently don't have, and we should use some of your tax money to help subsidize my poor choice.... sounds REAL fair doesn't it?. I should sell my house and everything I have to go buy a Ferrari -- because, why the hell not?

For all the love, compassion, and sympathy you claim to have, would you buy me a meal every day or help me gas up my Ferrari so I could make it to the welfare office to pick up some free government cash (graciously paid for by you)

I actually think his method of using bitcoins and ad revenue is quite creative, and I applaud him for that. I don't think anyone here is miffed at his method of acquiring money, it's how he spends it knowing that our tax dollars go to a person like this.

I like having a bed, a shower, and clean clothes, I like having those basic things so much that I wake up at 3:30am every day and go to work (yeah, that is my actual wake up time since I have to be there at 5am) Let's apply some hobo logic to that..... it sucks and it's hard, so I should just stop doing it. Let uncle sam pay me off and sit around playing video games in a park.

When I see someone who has no shelter, no shower, but has a laptop, pack of smokes, and a cell phone... you bet your ass I'm going to question their priority system in life. It's the same issue as when you see a welfare mom with 5 kids by 4 dads rolling in an Escalade and talking on the latest iphone. (and yes I've seen that more than a few times when I'm in the ghetto part of town, Arlington, TX)

There are always going to be groups and classes of people that no matter how much money you give them, how many opportunities, and how much overall help you give them, they will always end up back at the bottom of the barrel. Why? Many reasons... stupidity, laziness, illness, mental issues. And in a general social contact it's acceptable and reasonable to just consider them burdens of the state/society pay for their basic crap and move along to bigger more important things. There is a level though where too much of this will just destroy the entire system. If 70% of the population realizes they can sit around and party and have their basic needs met without having to work... how long do you think the other 30% is going to carry all that weight?
 
lol wow so now days homeless people have replaced their shopping carts and bags with laptops and headphones?
 
collegeboy69us said:
It's the same issue as when you see a welfare mom with 5 kids by 4 dads rolling in an Escalade and talking on the latest iphone. (and yes I've seen that more than a few times when I'm in the ghetto part of town, Arlington, TX)
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Welfare fraud is rampant because the system often encourages it. At least, that's been my observation as a former Saskatchewan welfare recipient for 18 years. Many of the people I knew had to be creative with the system or the rent didn't get paid. I was somewhat lucky to have recognized mental and physical health issues that actually took my benefits up a notch to the disability level, but even so it was a depressing, demoralizing, miserable existence. It's changed for the better since I went on, meeting the rent isn't as big a problem as it was in the nineties, but it's still a terrible way to live.

It's been over for me for almost two years now. Took myself off the system after determining that my three jobs were barely making enough income to do it. I'm still trying to repair the psychological damage 18 years of "you're a lazy burden on us taxpayers" caused me. You hear it often enough that you assume everyone's thinking it, no matter how hard you're trying to get off the system. There's nothing quite like walking into a job interview terrified that the interviewer is going to find out you're on welfare. It's absolutely brutal. I spent half of my 18 years in the system actually working two jobs and only receiving partial benefits, and yet I still thought of myself as a burden.

Man, am I ever glad I'm away from that life, even if I am still broke.

But yeah... there are indeed people out there blatantly gaming the system and giving us honest folks a bad name. I mightily dislike those people. Fortunately, they seem to be relatively rare up here.
 
Ski said:
This statement alone reflects what is wrong with this country. Your ignorance and ignorant attitude to the problems facing the welfare of this country shows how little empathy you have for your fellow human being, and I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't even read the article either... well maybe with the exception at briefly reading the first paragraph and looking at some of the pictures.

But I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt here and assume you did, and expand on on your critical thought process...

Your initial reaction to reading the article about the homeless is to merely look at the pictures of them with Monster energy drinks and playing video games, and this upsets you? So by your rationale the poor should have less, and be poorer? Damn dude!

You seem to be under the impression that homeless people are all mentally stable and highly intelligent.

Not everyone understands those concepts you put forth and life is not as simple as 'don't buy stuff'. You can be upset with their choices but that doesn't mean they deserve to be homeless.

You assume that they have equal access to the jobs market as you do. And you don't exactly care for the facts of the matter either, these people are ideologically offensive to your world view. You complain about the meager sustenance supplied to them in the form of food stamps, while you ignore the sociological implications of creating an underclass that has no means to move up, but don't take my word for it, look at Detroit, West Virgina, Pine Ridge Nebraska, and Camden New Jersey, and honestly ask yourself if it's the middle classes fault for these cities which I call disaster zones.

You see someone who less well off than you are, No shelter, no shower, no transport, no income. And then you start to begrudge the minor few luxuries they do have? I don't even.....what sort of Calvinist nightmare have we entered where the ideological purity of work is so great that someone who is obviously poor, doesn't have work, yet has a few small meaningless items to help them get through is to be despised for their misfortune?

No wonder the present we live in is so fucked. The future is bleak while this virus of a psychology is allowed to exist. The fact a homeless person figured out way to save his own dignity by figuring out a way to make money through BitCoin without having to pan handle is a testament to the human spirit and their will to live in a society that has forsaken them. We should should be praising guys like this, not chastising .
and marginalizing them in society.
Click to expand...

Well said. It disgusts me when I see people look at a homeless man and think "Wow get a job!! Its so easy!" and the moment one figures a way to use the system to their advantage its "WTF , how does he have a laptop and afford cigs?".

The new conservative attitude this country has taken towards ANY kind of social welfare is perplexing. You'll bitch and moan about programs that help the homeless find a way to exist with society as a whole but only if they are trucked into other cities or outside city limits at least yet your all find with spending $700+ Billion on defense for things like $1 Billion dollar F-35A's because clearly our superior air force is lacking against the rest of the world...

Its whiny fools that complain about this kind of article that remind me we are not "on our way" but in fact siting in the near middle of a shit sandwich thanks to ignorance.
 
darkangel74 said:
Or better yet to those that think low wage jobs are easy to come by quit you over paid office job and try to get one of those jobs. Its not easy. I was unemployed 3 years before I found one only to be laid off. It wasn't for veterans benefits I would be homeless because all those jobs people are ignoring because they are lazy doesn't exists to the extent you think,
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I see you're on the "budget punctuation plan".
 
Ski said:
Your initial reaction to reading the article about the homeless is to merely look at the pictures of them with Monster energy drinks and playing video games, and this upsets you? So by your rationale the poor should have less, and be poorer? Damn dude!
Click to expand...

No. By our rational, the poor should spend what little money they have more sensibly, and not live as if they have more money than they do. They should not exceed their budget, should put money towards staying healthy and increasing their employable skills, and potentially even save money towards opportunities that can give them better lifestyles.

I know, I know...I sound like some old grandmother from the depression.

Well, guess what? It is the depression. You need a serious slap to wake you up from the fantasy that anyone has a right to a certain kind of lifestyle.
 
Stiletto said:
No. By our rational, the poor should spend what little money they have more sensibly, and not live as if they have more money than they do. They should not exceed their budget, should put money towards staying healthy and increasing their employable skills, and potentially even save money towards opportunities that can give them better lifestyles.

I know, I know...I sound like some old grandmother from the depression.

Well, guess what? It is the depression. You need a serious slap to wake you up from the fantasy that anyone has a right to a certain kind of lifestyle.
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Didn't you get the memo? Everything is considered a right these days.
 
Smashing Young Man said:
Didn't you get the memo? Everything is considered a right these days.
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Yep. Food, health care, internet service, college...but since all these things cost money, I continue to wonder how anyone has a "right" to have these things given to them.
 
I gave a homeless guy 2 bucks today, even though he was smoking.
Only 'cause he asked nicely though, and I was in a good mood.
 
Ski said:
look at Detroit, West Virgina, Pine Ridge Nebraska, and Camden New Jersey, and honestly ask yourself if it's the middle classes fault for these cities which I call disaster zones.
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Do you even know what you are talking about? It's Pine Ridge SOUTH DAKOTA. It's not a city, it's a Native American Reservation, and it's poverty has nothing to do with anything other than alcoholism and the exploitation of the people by beer vendors.
 
If it weren't for the sheer amount of crap I've accumulated over the years, my love for hot showers, and a warm bed I'd seriously try to consider to be homeless myself. It'd be nice to not have to pay taxes, and not worry about your mortgage being too high for unemployment to cover in the event of a lay off (and of course, watching your savings shrink because of it, been there, done that.)

I do have to wonder about this guy, what happens when his notebook battery no longer holds a charge? What happens when his hard drive fails? I doubt his Bitcoin donations will be enough to replace them or get a new system entirely. Is there some type of providing the homeless a notebook program in the US I'm unaware of? ;)
 
The math doesn't add up?

8 cents a day x 90 days = 720 cents

"For every video he watches, Angle gets 0.00004 bitcoins, or about half a cent, thanks to a service, called BitcoinGet, that shamelessly drives artificial traffic to certain online clips. He can watch up to 12 videos a day, which gets him to about six cents.* And he can beef up this daily take with Bitcoin Tapper, a mobile app that doles out about 0.000133 bitcoins a day — a couple of pennies"

"Since setting up a bitcoin wallet about three or four months ago, he has earned somewhere between four or five bitcoins — about $500 to $630 today... "
 
if these dudes are able bodied and they appear to be then 6 months of govt assistance should be the limit. they also should have mandatory job/skill training and drug testing. if they cant find some sort of paying job after that then they should be exported to canada. hows that hope and change working for everyone?
 
I am just so upset that these homeless people have food to eat. Outraged. Completely furious. How am I supposed to live my life knowing that they don't have to beg so that they do not starve?

lol
 
steal said:
I am just so upset that these homeless people have food to eat. Outraged. Completely furious. How am I supposed to live my life knowing that they don't have to beg so that they do not starve?

lol
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I love how some dishonest people like to keep claiming that outrage is over these people having food to eat, rather than being over the fact that they have luxury items, the money for which could be spent on better food, clothes, health care, transportation costs to find jobs, etc.
 
Stiletto said:
I love how some dishonest people like to keep claiming that outrage is over these people having food to eat, rather than being over the fact that they have luxury items, the money for which could be spent on better food, clothes, health care, transportation costs to find jobs, etc.
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I am pretty sure the point is that when the system pays for the 'necessities' (food, water, some medicine) they can spend their 'disposable income' on wtf they want (energy drinks, cigs, drugs, etc)
Free Will and Choice are a bitch huh?

Here's one to wrap your brain around, what if the politicians WANTED the poor to spend their money on energy drinks (corporate profits go up), cigs (corporate profits go up), drugs (CIA profits go up).
In order for a few to be immortal, many must die.

Get it?
 
FiveFig said:
I am pretty sure the point is that when the system pays for the 'necessities' (food, water, some medicine) they can spend their 'disposable income' on wtf they want (energy drinks, cigs, drugs, etc)
Free Will and Choice are a bitch huh?

Here's one to wrap your brain around, what if the politicians WANTED the poor to spend their money on energy drinks (corporate profits go up), cigs (corporate profits go up), drugs (CIA profits go up).
In order for a few to be immortal, many must die.

Get it?
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So, in one scenario (the self destructive one), people have free will. But, in the other scenario, people are just puppets for corporate interests...
 
I remember when I was poor...but I don't remember having something called "disposable income".
 
LeninGHOLA said:
So, in one scenario (the self destructive one), people have free will. But, in the other scenario, people are just puppets for corporate interests...
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Nope, in all scenarios people have free will.
I am just describing the system by design created by our lawmakers.
No matter what social level you belong to they have marketing and laws in place (welfare, medicare, IRS, etc.) to keep siphoning money off of you for free while you strugle to make ends meet.
We live in a society where it's 100 times easier to let 'them' decide everything for you, where and what to eat, how to spend your money, etc...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV_YAeXOSiw[/youtube]

That being said, it's still possible to make it, it just takes a little self control, eat ramen every now and then, etc. But that's too tough of a life for the majority out there. They deserve a golden life with zero struggle from birth. If they can't get that, they'll take the bronze life with zero struggle from the government.
 
steal said:
I am just so upset that these homeless people have food to eat. Outraged. Completely furious. How am I supposed to live my life knowing that they don't have to beg so that they do not starve?

lol
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It's clear you don't put much into the upkeep of society if that is how you view this situation.

I do not support my tax dollars going toward programs which subsidize this kind of behavior.

Foodstamps should be going to people who can't afford anything, mainly food.

Foodstamps should not be going to people who could otherwise afford to buy food, but don't, because they have substance abuse issues.
 
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