Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

[RDS]

Bitcoins could supplement food stamps.

Jesse Angle is homeless, living on the streets of Pensacola, Florida. Sometimes he spends the night at a local church. Other nights, he sleeps behind a building in the heart of the city, underneath a carport that protects him from the rain.
Each morning, he wakes up, grabs some food, and makes his way to Martin Luther King Plaza, a downtown park built where the trolley tracks used to run. He likes this park because his friends hang out there too, and it’s a good place to pick up some spending money. But he doesn’t panhandle. He uses the internet.
The park offers free wireless access, and with his laptop, Angle watches YouTube videos in exchange for bitcoins, the world’s most popular digital currency

Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

 

[specklebang]

Bitcoins could supplement food stamps. Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

This is a lifestyle, not a solution. I'm happy to see anything be good for anything but homelessness is more often a choice, not a circumstance. I'm pretty specifically referring to single males (although there are some females), not to families (because I have no clue). It sounds awful but being homeless gives you a community the rest of us don't have. Homeless people congregate and support each other (they also rob each other but hey...) they know where free stuff is, where the best drugs are and you can always find a shoulder to cry on while you plan your attendance at a concert next week.

So, this is just a high-tech add on. These guys could find jobs if they wanted to.

Oh, despite my thoughts, I could never refuse another human being a buck or two if they asked. I don't care what it gets spent on. I like to be nice, I get more out of it than the recipient does.

 

[RDS]

This is a lifestyle, not a solution. I'm happy to see anything be good for anything but homelessness is more often a choice, not a circumstance. I'm pretty specifically referring to single males (although there are some females), not to families (because I have no clue). It sounds awful but being homeless gives you a community the rest of us don't have. Homeless people congregate and support each other (they also rob each other but hey...) they know where free stuff is, where the best drugs are and you can always find a shoulder to cry on while you plan your attendance at a concert next week.

So, this is just a high-tech add on. These guys could find jobs if they wanted to.

Oh, despite my thoughts, I could never refuse another human being a buck or two if they asked. I don't care what it gets spent on. I like to be nice, I get more out of it than the recipient does.

If you don't want to work there are ways and means to make money on the internet by hook or crook.

 

[specklebang]

If you don't want to work there are ways and means to make money on the internet by hook or crook.

Well, of course. I could be a webcam model for...well, OK, maybe not. But you don't have to be homeless to hack out a living on the internet.

 

[RDS]

Well, of course. I could be a webcam model for...well, OK, maybe not. But you don't have to be homeless to hack out a living on the internet.

They are just starting off and you got to read some rags to riches stories.

 

[specklebang]

They are just starting off and you got to read some rags to riches stories.

I wish them the best.

 

[gavinfielder]

homelessness is more often a choice, not a circumstance.

Are you kidding me right now? Very rarely does anyone make that ****ty of a choice when there are better options, and these days there really aren't other options in a lot of cities. Having recently been through it, I call a hundred kinds of bull**** right now. I know you're not unemployed, homeless, or have been at least for a very long time, so with all due respect, you have no idea what it's like not knowing where you'll be sleeping in a week and whether or not the police will harass you or druggies steal your ****.

 

[SBu]

Are you kidding me right now? Very rarely does anyone make that ****ty of a choice when there are better options, and these days there really aren't other options in a lot of cities. Having recently been through it, I call a hundred kinds of bull**** right now. I know you're not unemployed, homeless, or have been at least for a very long time, so with all due respect, you have no idea what it's like not knowing where you'll be sleeping in a week and whether or not the police will harass you or druggies steal your ****.

Of course there's no way to respond intelligently to this post unless you give some background information. Your appeal to "trust you, you've been there before" is not convincing enough to refute what speckleban said. He said that it's "more often a choice", not that it's "always a choice."

 

[specklebang]

Are you kidding me right now? Very rarely does anyone make that ****ty of a choice when there are better options, and these days there really aren't other options in a lot of cities. Having recently been through it, I call a hundred kinds of bull**** right now. I know you're not unemployed, homeless, or have been at least for a very long time, so with all due respect, you have no idea what it's like not knowing where you'll be sleeping in a week and whether or not the police will harass you or druggies steal your ****.

All we have here is a difference of opinion based on our own experiences. I've played at being homeless when I was very young. I'm a trained crisis counselor and have worked with homeless projects. I've associated with a surprising number of homeless. I did not say that all single homeless people were there by choice but there are many who are. And I even understand the reasons behind it. Sure, to you (and me) it sounds like the last thing on earth one might seek. Obviously it was a nightmare for you.

With that in mind, can we agree to disagree?