5 ms·

Homeless: Can you build a life from $25?

59 points by alaskamiller 19y ago

run4yourlives 19y ago
>He had a gym bag, $25, and little else. >A former college athlete with a bachelor's degree, Mr. Shepard had left a comfortable life with supportive parents in Raleigh, N.C. Sounds like he had quite a bit to me. Most homeless aren't lazy, as this would seem to suggest. Most have developmental or addition problems. The fact that a bright kid can make it doesn't prove anything, really.
- chaostheory 19y ago
  He didn't mention his college degree or use stuff like his credit rating... and his background story was that he "was running away from his from druggie mom to live with his alcoholic father" whatever happend to the spirit of self reliance?
  - deleted 19y ago
    [deleted]
- curi 19y ago
  all he had was knowledge of how to live. he didn't do stupid stuff. that doesn't take an advanced degree, but it is more prevalent among affluent people. This is exactly in accordance with the theory that the chronically poor are poor because of ignorance of basic life skills (and/or because of genuinely bad approaches to life)
  - NSX2 19y ago
    This "experience" seems like a bunch of bs - he had $25, got menial physical jobs despite a small army of illegal immigrants flooding this country daily willing to work half the min/wage rate for cash, and ... secured an apartment with no credit history (but first/last/security deposit?) ... and, oh yeah ... just by coincidence decided to write a book about it. Here's how this really happened. This guy read Prozac nation or one of the many "Reality Books" that are populuar these days and decided, "I know, I'll go talk to publishers and see if they'll pay for a book like this based on my experiences." He found a publisher, then went to get some "experience" to write about. End of story. Yet another pretentious pseudo experiment which teaches nothing about life other than if you come up with a good enough concept, some publisher somewhere will pay you to write about it.
    - dkokelley 19y ago
      The book is beyond the point. Maybe he planned to write the book beforehand, maybe not. I don't think that has any influence on the experience that he did ultimately write about. If the article is true, this man turned $25 into an apartment, a truck, and $5,000 in savings in under a year. It shows that it can be done, at least for a single random sample. I hope that the fact that he wrote a book about his experience doesn't prevent people from seeing the result of the experiment.
      - dmoney 19y ago
        He also had nothing to lose. He knew he wasn't going to starve, so he had no reason to fear failure.
        curi 19y ago
        so what? are you saying the reason poor people stay poor is their fear of starving?
        Retric 19y ago
        At no point would he have felt trapped or hopeless because had no debt and he knew he could leave at any time. IMO, most poor people are not mentally stable and living on the edge tends to unbalance them even more. Take an educated person with zero mental of physical issues who is willing to do without TV, Drugs, etc and they can climb out of poverty quickly. However, for whatever reason many don't so saying they can leave does not let us understand why the bottom third of our nation is so marginalized.
        dmoney 19y ago
        > so what? are you saying the reason poor people stay poor is their fear of starving? I'm saying it probably doesn't help, and I can think of a couple situations where it would hurt. 1. You interview two relatively equally qualified candidates for a job. One is desperate for a job; he is broke and has a few days of food left. The other knows there are other opportunities out there for him, and has an emergency credit card in his pocket. As a result, the second is more relaxed and confident, and can talk to you as an equal. Maybe the first is a pressure player and would rise to the challenge, but assume he's not--you can tell he's desperate for the job. Who do you hire? 2. The same people now have similar minimum wage jobs. They make ends meet, but just barely. The situation sucks and they want to look for a better one, but taking time off for job hunting is likely to get them fired. In other words, it could land them back in situation 1. This is a greater risk for the first person than the second. I don't know whether this is a major or minor factor. It's probably a complex issue. Still, I don't see that the guy in the article overcame poverty. He just won in a poverty simulator.
- edw519 19y ago
  "The fact that a bright kid can make it doesn't prove anything, really." I agree. He had the single most overlooked aspect of a college degree: he had achieved something. He KNEW he could succeed; that's often half the battle. Many down and out people can't imagine succeeding, so they don't. This story reminds me of Robert Allen's old claim, "Put me anywhere in the United States with no money, and by the end of the day I will own some real estate." He did it every time. And to this day, with my limited real estate knowledge, I don't know if I could do the same thing even once. Nice story, but run4yourlives is right; it doesn't really prove anything except that it's mostly in your head. Then again, maybe that was the whole point.
  - nradov 19y ago
    I hope you realize that Robert Allen was a fraud. http://www.johntreed.com/Reedgururating.html#anchor496881 http://www.johntreed.com/Reedgururating.html#anchor496881
    - edw519 19y ago
      OK, then let me try another example. The whole time I read the OP, I felt like I was watching a trapeez act with a safety net. The young man KNEW he couldn't fail (just like the trapeez artist can try something extra difficult because he KNEW he wouldn't die.) Kinda took the wind out of what was otherwise a good story.
DanielBMarkham 19y ago
I lost everything I owned except a car and 3 pairs of clothes when I was 23. Didn't end up homeless though. Just stayed with friends, worked double menial full-time jobs, and put it all back together. Anybody can _get_ homeless. Staying homeless is an emotion-related disease. My opinion only.
- whacked_new 19y ago
  Wow, this is very interesting and informative and inspirational at the same time. Much respect. Is there an elaboration somewhere?
  - DanielBMarkham 19y ago
    It's not something I share a lot, to be honest. It always sounds like one of those "Heck with the homeless! I was poor and pulled myself up by my bootstraps!" kind of things. I feel for the homeless and the poor. But I don't think giving them cash every month (as San Francisco does) or giving them other handouts is helping much of anything at all. Simply because something troubles you morally does not mean that there is a moral solution. Since you asked, my first wife and I split up, I moved into a boarding house that agreed to take all of my stuff. Now this just wasn't everything I owned -- it's worse than that. My mother had decided to remarry and gave me all of the things from my childhood home. So I had all of that with me as well. Being pretty messed up over the bad marriage, I wasn't working, so I got behind on the rent (a month or two as I remember) The family told me they were moving so I had to move out. I told them I was going to stay with friends for a couple of days to see if I could stay with them. When I came back, the entire house was empty. Nil. Nada. SOBs even took a 1979 Pontiac I had out front. So I had 2-3 changes of clothes and the car I was in. That's it. I believe that's what they call "starting from nothing" I never did find my stuff. I checked the VIN on the car several times with the police but nothing showed up. I guess the worst part is the pictures -- you just can't replace those pictures. I'd give half of what I have now just to get those pictures back. The rest of it? Just stuff. If anything, it was a great lesson in how life can be more about your stuff than yourself. In a lot of ways, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I know that sounds cliche, but it's true. Even now, I wouldn't mind living on Ramen noodles for a few months while kicking out some code in a startup -- it'd be a blast. Whereas I think if I never had that experience I would somehow feel that I was "better" than doing that. I consider myself very lucky.
deleted 19y ago
[deleted]
- alaskamiller 19y ago
 redditors hate white people
 - chaostheory 19y ago
 to me it's more like a lot of (but not all) redditors want the government to grow large enough to take care of them; then they get shocked once government is big enough to take away their rights...
 - alaskamiller 19y ago
 there's an equal mix of ron paul libertarians versus obama democrats on reddit
 - fiftyone 19y ago
 I <3 Ron Paul
 - rw 19y ago
 ...or obama independents
fiaz 19y ago
I think this story is testament to the fact that resourcefulness outweighs whatever resources you have. How you use what you have matters more than what you have to work with. Definitely a lesson in this story for those of us in the process of bootstrapping. Absolutely amazing!
boredguy8 19y ago
And we're supposed to be shocked that a good looking, college-educated white kid succeeded in South Carolina? If you don't see how this proves nothing, you've never lived in the south. And to use this as proof that people who are poor are poor because they -choose- to be is to defy reason.
- ardit33 19y ago
  People that are poor, are poor b/c they 1.Don't know better. 2. Health illness (major cripling one, or mental reason). 3. You come in this country at a late age (i.e. 55+) There are really no other reasons. I have two families, one of my uncle, and one of my first cousin, that came to the US (with green cards), and had to restart their lives all from the beginning. All they had was 5k. For a family of 4, that is very little, and goes by very fast, yet, 10 years later, they are both doing great. My uncle had to work as pizza deliver person, then truck driver, until found a good job in a car dealership. His wife, had to be a waitress for a while (it sucked, as she was not good for it), but eventually ended up becoming a "accountant helper" for a hospital. 8 years later, she is primary person, managing their money, both of their kids ended up in good private schools, and now one goes to Dartmouth, the other to a good college. They own a house, (bought at reasonable rates, before this buble), cars and all that, living the true american dream. My other's cousin family, is having a little bit harder time, as they have to get menial jobs, but my cousin became a teacher assistent, (teaching french), and eventually she would move up to something better, while their kids are doing great in school. As I said, poverty is b/c ignorance. If these two families, can move from a different continent, and re-build everything from scratch, and provide great education to their kids, then everybody else can. In this country hard work, and perseverance will pay off. B!tching about your conditions, and doing nothing about it, wont. Sure, you can blame racism, but from experience, it is not that. It is the huge amount of hard work and ethical mentality, and the strong family values that drives all these immigrant families, who while starting dirt poor, they do well, and much better than the american born poor.
  - wallflower 19y ago
    In the city where I live, some of the homeless are mentally ill. A friend who works for one of the city hospitals says a lot of homeless hang out near the hospital, they scare her when she goes to work there early but they are desparate to be admitted and taken off the streets.
rw 19y ago
So he gave up his health insurance too? Did he talk using a simpler vocabulary than that which he learned at college?
daniel-cussen 19y ago
This experiment suggests interesting questions about the cycle of poverty.
bokonist 19y ago
In college I helped run the office of a non-profit that attempted to find jobs and homes for the homeless. The people we dealt with tended to have a massive number of problems. Sometimes it was outright drug use or mental illness. Other times it was simply never having any pattern of success in life. They wouldn't know how to make appointments, present themselves decently, be consistent, or talk intelligently. I came to several conclusions: 1) You can try to infect them with a can-do attitude all you want, but the concept of working hard to build the good life is so alien they never buy into the program. Yes, the guy in the story is right, success does come down to attitude. But changing someone's attitude is much, much harder than just giving out money. 2) The existence of the minimum wage hurts the homeless. The people I worked with were incapable of producing $6 an hour of value for an employer. If there was no minimum wage, they could work $2 an hour of value and then gradually work their way up. I don't know how many would actually do this, but at least they should have the choice. Because they are legally prevented from getting a job, they usually end up doing black market work like selling flowers or collecting cans which has no path of upward mobility. 3) I tend to think supportive housing is the best you can do. Give them stable place to live and gradually push them towards being more productive. It often ends up being cheaper than the cost of shelters + emergency room care + police monitoring of the streets. Of course, few cities want to build this kind of housing for fear of becoming a draw for the homeless. Keep in mind, I'm talking about the hardest cases. There were people who managed to have a good attitude and rebound very quickly. One great example was a woman who just got out of prison from drug use and was looking for a job. We helped coach her on how to answer interview questions about her past, and she ended up getting a job at Sears.
wallflower 19y ago
African-American woman. Born to teenage unwed mother in rural Mississippi. Later raised in Milwaukee ghetto. Molested by relatives at age nine. Runaway, living on streets as teenager. Pregnant and gives birth to son (who died in infancy) at 14. Drug user in her 20s. Extraordinary stage presence and social and Oratorical skills since early childhood. Oprah
- Eliezer 18y ago
 Great for her. Not everyone wins the genetic lottery on brainpower and emotional resilience. I know that my own emotional resilience has increased over the years - demarcated by reading the right fiction, oddly enough - but I'm not under the illusion that this means anyone can just grit their teeth and get it. Yes, taking responsibility is also part of it, but... if it's anyone besides yourself that you're judging, try to have some compassion.
- drubio 19y ago
 Take it to wikipedia for a buttered-up 'rags to riches' story, these are all half-truths, and what is missing in this short paragraph is all the STRUCTURE Oprah had at a young age and later in life, just like this college educated story. Here is another bio on Oprah read between the lines : http://gale.cengage.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/winfrey_o.htm http://gale.cengage.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/winfrey_o.htm Her unmarried parents, Vernon Winfrey and Vernita Lee, separated soon after she was born, leaving her to be raised by her maternal grandmother. "She certainly wasn't an educated woman, but she taught me the shape of letters, and she taught me my Bible stories," Winfrey recalled in Life magazine. By the time she was six, Winfrey had moved to Milwaukee to live with her mother. Winfrey said her father saved her life. He was very strict and provided her with guidance, structure, rules, and books. He required his daughter to complete weekly book reports, and she went without dinner until she learned five new vocabulary words each day. She joined her school's drama club and became a prize-winning orator, winning a $1,000 college scholarship after delivering a short speech entitled "The Negro, the Constitution, and the United States" to 10,000 Elks Club members in Philadelphia.
redorb 19y ago
Honestly, to write a book about it is a little self serving. - Better Option: Blog about it.
- h34t 19y ago
  Earning money by writing a book is wrong because ...?
rw 19y ago
The article seems to say: Theorem: If someone has been educated on how to operate (and succeed) in the current microeconomic environment, then that person can succeed in the current microeconomic environment. Proof: The author knows how to succeed, and he does. QED. Only problem? It needs a larger sample size. (Also, there are skills and habits you learn in college that cannot be put on a resumé.) The article is not saying that the American Dream is either "real" or "possible" for most people; on the contrary, this seems to be a contrived situation in which unjustified conclusions are drawn from the experiences of one example.
rokhayakebe 19y ago
Broke Coder: Can you build a startup from ruby, coffee and noodles.
- kingnothing 19y ago
  Do I get a computer, internet access, a desk, and a quiet place to work? I'd have a hard time building a startup by writing ruby in a spiral bound notebook and hoping to successfully pitch a VC with it. ;-)
  - asdflkj 19y ago
    That gives me an idea: an APP for mobile phones that lets you take a picture of handwritten text, and then REPLs it.
    - icky 19y ago
      No, too many of my notebook doodles are valid Perl...
ntoshev 19y ago
Here is the ending of the movie Factotum (about the life of Charles Bukowski), a favorite scene of mine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlXJIawiPE0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlXJIawiPE0
mqt 19y ago
This is a contrived example of the "American Dream." You're not truly suffering unless you feel the emotional pains of poverty. The depression from the uncertainties of tomorrow is the real killer. I'm not surprised that he achieved mediocrity with the confidence of education and safety-net of a credit line and a weathy family. You could do similar by working at McDonalds. This sort of thing is possible in many Western countries. Infact, you are probably better off in a welfare state than in America if great wealth does not interest you.
fiftyone 19y ago
I had a really great job in the music biz when I was 20-21 but after 9/11 I converted to Islam and decided it was a good idea to quit my life and move to the Middle East to study Arabic. I had an Airline ticket, $250 bucks and enough high hopes and faith to fill the Staples Center. I had decided to go to Egypt, ( it was Syria or Egypt at the time because they were the cheapest places to go) my idea was to learn Arabic and return to the states to work as a translator ( that never happened haha ) Anyhow, my $250 bucks got me an apartment with a couple other American guys ( who were believe it or not on the same spiritual journey I was on ) for $35 bucks a month. I ended up taking some money from mom a couple times but I did it mostly on my own. Anyhow, now 2008, I married an Egyptian girl, I have a 6 Month old baby boy and a new carrier as a teacher. Not bad for leaving with 200 bucks and a couple T-shirts :)
- wallflower 19y ago
  +1 Arabic is said to be one of the difficult languages to start learning
huherto 19y ago
Looking at the factors of poverty in http://www.cpa.ie/povertyinireland/whatispoverty.htm http://www.cpa.ie/povertyinireland/whatispoverty.htm Work - He started out with out a job but soon he was able to get one. Age - He had a perfect age to work. Health - He was in good health. Education - He was well educated. Family - He only had to support himself. Location - He lived in the U.S. So he really had no factors for being poor.

59 points by alaskamiller 19y ago

>He had a gym bag, $25, and little else. >A former college athlete with a bachelor's degree, Mr. Shepard had left a comfortable life with supportive parents in Raleigh, N.C. Sounds like he had quite a bit to me. Most homeless aren't lazy, as this would seem to suggest. Most have developmental or addition problems. The fact that a bright kid can make it doesn't prove anything, really.

chaostheory 19y ago
He didn't mention his college degree or use stuff like his credit rating... and his background story was that he "was running away from his from druggie mom to live with his alcoholic father" whatever happend to the spirit of self reliance?
- deleted 19y ago
  [deleted]
curi 19y ago
all he had was knowledge of how to live. he didn't do stupid stuff. that doesn't take an advanced degree, but it is more prevalent among affluent people. This is exactly in accordance with the theory that the chronically poor are poor because of ignorance of basic life skills (and/or because of genuinely bad approaches to life)
- NSX2 19y ago
  This "experience" seems like a bunch of bs - he had $25, got menial physical jobs despite a small army of illegal immigrants flooding this country daily willing to work half the min/wage rate for cash, and ... secured an apartment with no credit history (but first/last/security deposit?) ... and, oh yeah ... just by coincidence decided to write a book about it. Here's how this really happened. This guy read Prozac nation or one of the many "Reality Books" that are populuar these days and decided, "I know, I'll go talk to publishers and see if they'll pay for a book like this based on my experiences." He found a publisher, then went to get some "experience" to write about. End of story. Yet another pretentious pseudo experiment which teaches nothing about life other than if you come up with a good enough concept, some publisher somewhere will pay you to write about it.
  - dkokelley 19y ago
    The book is beyond the point. Maybe he planned to write the book beforehand, maybe not. I don't think that has any influence on the experience that he did ultimately write about. If the article is true, this man turned $25 into an apartment, a truck, and $5,000 in savings in under a year. It shows that it can be done, at least for a single random sample. I hope that the fact that he wrote a book about his experience doesn't prevent people from seeing the result of the experiment.
    - dmoney 19y ago
      He also had nothing to lose. He knew he wasn't going to starve, so he had no reason to fear failure.
      - curi 19y ago
        so what? are you saying the reason poor people stay poor is their fear of starving?
        Retric 19y ago
        At no point would he have felt trapped or hopeless because had no debt and he knew he could leave at any time. IMO, most poor people are not mentally stable and living on the edge tends to unbalance them even more. Take an educated person with zero mental of physical issues who is willing to do without TV, Drugs, etc and they can climb out of poverty quickly. However, for whatever reason many don't so saying they can leave does not let us understand why the bottom third of our nation is so marginalized.
        dmoney 19y ago
        > so what? are you saying the reason poor people stay poor is their fear of starving? I'm saying it probably doesn't help, and I can think of a couple situations where it would hurt. 1. You interview two relatively equally qualified candidates for a job. One is desperate for a job; he is broke and has a few days of food left. The other knows there are other opportunities out there for him, and has an emergency credit card in his pocket. As a result, the second is more relaxed and confident, and can talk to you as an equal. Maybe the first is a pressure player and would rise to the challenge, but assume he's not--you can tell he's desperate for the job. Who do you hire? 2. The same people now have similar minimum wage jobs. They make ends meet, but just barely. The situation sucks and they want to look for a better one, but taking time off for job hunting is likely to get them fired. In other words, it could land them back in situation 1. This is a greater risk for the first person than the second. I don't know whether this is a major or minor factor. It's probably a complex issue. Still, I don't see that the guy in the article overcame poverty. He just won in a poverty simulator.
edw519 19y ago
"The fact that a bright kid can make it doesn't prove anything, really." I agree. He had the single most overlooked aspect of a college degree: he had achieved something. He KNEW he could succeed; that's often half the battle. Many down and out people can't imagine succeeding, so they don't. This story reminds me of Robert Allen's old claim, "Put me anywhere in the United States with no money, and by the end of the day I will own some real estate." He did it every time. And to this day, with my limited real estate knowledge, I don't know if I could do the same thing even once. Nice story, but run4yourlives is right; it doesn't really prove anything except that it's mostly in your head. Then again, maybe that was the whole point.
- nradov 19y ago
  I hope you realize that Robert Allen was a fraud. http://www.johntreed.com/Reedgururating.html#anchor496881 http://www.johntreed.com/Reedgururating.html#anchor496881
  - edw519 19y ago
    OK, then let me try another example. The whole time I read the OP, I felt like I was watching a trapeez act with a safety net. The young man KNEW he couldn't fail (just like the trapeez artist can try something extra difficult because he KNEW he wouldn't die.) Kinda took the wind out of what was otherwise a good story.

DanielBMarkham 19y ago

I lost everything I owned except a car and 3 pairs of clothes when I was 23. Didn't end up homeless though. Just stayed with friends, worked double menial full-time jobs, and put it all back together. Anybody can _get_ homeless. Staying homeless is an emotion-related disease. My opinion only.

whacked_new 19y ago
Wow, this is very interesting and informative and inspirational at the same time. Much respect. Is there an elaboration somewhere?
- DanielBMarkham 19y ago
  It's not something I share a lot, to be honest. It always sounds like one of those "Heck with the homeless! I was poor and pulled myself up by my bootstraps!" kind of things. I feel for the homeless and the poor. But I don't think giving them cash every month (as San Francisco does) or giving them other handouts is helping much of anything at all. Simply because something troubles you morally does not mean that there is a moral solution. Since you asked, my first wife and I split up, I moved into a boarding house that agreed to take all of my stuff. Now this just wasn't everything I owned -- it's worse than that. My mother had decided to remarry and gave me all of the things from my childhood home. So I had all of that with me as well. Being pretty messed up over the bad marriage, I wasn't working, so I got behind on the rent (a month or two as I remember) The family told me they were moving so I had to move out. I told them I was going to stay with friends for a couple of days to see if I could stay with them. When I came back, the entire house was empty. Nil. Nada. SOBs even took a 1979 Pontiac I had out front. So I had 2-3 changes of clothes and the car I was in. That's it. I believe that's what they call "starting from nothing" I never did find my stuff. I checked the VIN on the car several times with the police but nothing showed up. I guess the worst part is the pictures -- you just can't replace those pictures. I'd give half of what I have now just to get those pictures back. The rest of it? Just stuff. If anything, it was a great lesson in how life can be more about your stuff than yourself. In a lot of ways, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I know that sounds cliche, but it's true. Even now, I wouldn't mind living on Ramen noodles for a few months while kicking out some code in a startup -- it'd be a blast. Whereas I think if I never had that experience I would somehow feel that I was "better" than doing that. I consider myself very lucky.

deleted 19y ago

[deleted]

alaskamiller 19y ago
redditors hate white people
- chaostheory 19y ago
 to me it's more like a lot of (but not all) redditors want the government to grow large enough to take care of them; then they get shocked once government is big enough to take away their rights...
 - alaskamiller 19y ago
 there's an equal mix of ron paul libertarians versus obama democrats on reddit
 - fiftyone 19y ago
 I <3 Ron Paul
 - rw 19y ago
 ...or obama independents

fiaz 19y ago

I think this story is testament to the fact that resourcefulness outweighs whatever resources you have. How you use what you have matters more than what you have to work with. Definitely a lesson in this story for those of us in the process of bootstrapping. Absolutely amazing!

boredguy8 19y ago

And we're supposed to be shocked that a good looking, college-educated white kid succeeded in South Carolina? If you don't see how this proves nothing, you've never lived in the south. And to use this as proof that people who are poor are poor because they -choose- to be is to defy reason.

ardit33 19y ago
People that are poor, are poor b/c they 1.Don't know better. 2. Health illness (major cripling one, or mental reason). 3. You come in this country at a late age (i.e. 55+) There are really no other reasons. I have two families, one of my uncle, and one of my first cousin, that came to the US (with green cards), and had to restart their lives all from the beginning. All they had was 5k. For a family of 4, that is very little, and goes by very fast, yet, 10 years later, they are both doing great. My uncle had to work as pizza deliver person, then truck driver, until found a good job in a car dealership. His wife, had to be a waitress for a while (it sucked, as she was not good for it), but eventually ended up becoming a "accountant helper" for a hospital. 8 years later, she is primary person, managing their money, both of their kids ended up in good private schools, and now one goes to Dartmouth, the other to a good college. They own a house, (bought at reasonable rates, before this buble), cars and all that, living the true american dream. My other's cousin family, is having a little bit harder time, as they have to get menial jobs, but my cousin became a teacher assistent, (teaching french), and eventually she would move up to something better, while their kids are doing great in school. As I said, poverty is b/c ignorance. If these two families, can move from a different continent, and re-build everything from scratch, and provide great education to their kids, then everybody else can. In this country hard work, and perseverance will pay off. B!tching about your conditions, and doing nothing about it, wont. Sure, you can blame racism, but from experience, it is not that. It is the huge amount of hard work and ethical mentality, and the strong family values that drives all these immigrant families, who while starting dirt poor, they do well, and much better than the american born poor.
- wallflower 19y ago
  In the city where I live, some of the homeless are mentally ill. A friend who works for one of the city hospitals says a lot of homeless hang out near the hospital, they scare her when she goes to work there early but they are desparate to be admitted and taken off the streets.

rw 19y ago

So he gave up his health insurance too? Did he talk using a simpler vocabulary than that which he learned at college?

daniel-cussen 19y ago

This experiment suggests interesting questions about the cycle of poverty.

bokonist 19y ago

In college I helped run the office of a non-profit that attempted to find jobs and homes for the homeless. The people we dealt with tended to have a massive number of problems. Sometimes it was outright drug use or mental illness. Other times it was simply never having any pattern of success in life. They wouldn't know how to make appointments, present themselves decently, be consistent, or talk intelligently. I came to several conclusions: 1) You can try to infect them with a can-do attitude all you want, but the concept of working hard to build the good life is so alien they never buy into the program. Yes, the guy in the story is right, success does come down to attitude. But changing someone's attitude is much, much harder than just giving out money. 2) The existence of the minimum wage hurts the homeless. The people I worked with were incapable of producing $6 an hour of value for an employer. If there was no minimum wage, they could work $2 an hour of value and then gradually work their way up. I don't know how many would actually do this, but at least they should have the choice. Because they are legally prevented from getting a job, they usually end up doing black market work like selling flowers or collecting cans which has no path of upward mobility. 3) I tend to think supportive housing is the best you can do. Give them stable place to live and gradually push them towards being more productive. It often ends up being cheaper than the cost of shelters + emergency room care + police monitoring of the streets. Of course, few cities want to build this kind of housing for fear of becoming a draw for the homeless. Keep in mind, I'm talking about the hardest cases. There were people who managed to have a good attitude and rebound very quickly. One great example was a woman who just got out of prison from drug use and was looking for a job. We helped coach her on how to answer interview questions about her past, and she ended up getting a job at Sears.

wallflower 19y ago

African-American woman. Born to teenage unwed mother in rural Mississippi. Later raised in Milwaukee ghetto. Molested by relatives at age nine. Runaway, living on streets as teenager. Pregnant and gives birth to son (who died in infancy) at 14. Drug user in her 20s. Extraordinary stage presence and social and Oratorical skills since early childhood. Oprah

Eliezer 18y ago
Great for her. Not everyone wins the genetic lottery on brainpower and emotional resilience. I know that my own emotional resilience has increased over the years - demarcated by reading the right fiction, oddly enough - but I'm not under the illusion that this means anyone can just grit their teeth and get it. Yes, taking responsibility is also part of it, but... if it's anyone besides yourself that you're judging, try to have some compassion.
drubio 19y ago
Take it to wikipedia for a buttered-up 'rags to riches' story, these are all half-truths, and what is missing in this short paragraph is all the STRUCTURE Oprah had at a young age and later in life, just like this college educated story. Here is another bio on Oprah read between the lines : http://gale.cengage.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/winfrey_o.htm http://gale.cengage.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/winfrey_o.htm Her unmarried parents, Vernon Winfrey and Vernita Lee, separated soon after she was born, leaving her to be raised by her maternal grandmother. "She certainly wasn't an educated woman, but she taught me the shape of letters, and she taught me my Bible stories," Winfrey recalled in Life magazine. By the time she was six, Winfrey had moved to Milwaukee to live with her mother. Winfrey said her father saved her life. He was very strict and provided her with guidance, structure, rules, and books. He required his daughter to complete weekly book reports, and she went without dinner until she learned five new vocabulary words each day. She joined her school's drama club and became a prize-winning orator, winning a $1,000 college scholarship after delivering a short speech entitled "The Negro, the Constitution, and the United States" to 10,000 Elks Club members in Philadelphia.

redorb 19y ago

Honestly, to write a book about it is a little self serving. - Better Option: Blog about it.

h34t 19y ago
Earning money by writing a book is wrong because ...?

rw 19y ago

The article seems to say: Theorem: If someone has been educated on how to operate (and succeed) in the current microeconomic environment, then that person can succeed in the current microeconomic environment. Proof: The author knows how to succeed, and he does. QED. Only problem? It needs a larger sample size. (Also, there are skills and habits you learn in college that cannot be put on a resumé.) The article is not saying that the American Dream is either "real" or "possible" for most people; on the contrary, this seems to be a contrived situation in which unjustified conclusions are drawn from the experiences of one example.

rokhayakebe 19y ago

Broke Coder: Can you build a startup from ruby, coffee and noodles.

kingnothing 19y ago
Do I get a computer, internet access, a desk, and a quiet place to work? I'd have a hard time building a startup by writing ruby in a spiral bound notebook and hoping to successfully pitch a VC with it. ;-)
- asdflkj 19y ago
  That gives me an idea: an APP for mobile phones that lets you take a picture of handwritten text, and then REPLs it.
  - icky 19y ago
    No, too many of my notebook doodles are valid Perl...

ntoshev 19y ago

Here is the ending of the movie Factotum (about the life of Charles Bukowski), a favorite scene of mine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlXJIawiPE0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlXJIawiPE0

mqt 19y ago

This is a contrived example of the "American Dream." You're not truly suffering unless you feel the emotional pains of poverty. The depression from the uncertainties of tomorrow is the real killer. I'm not surprised that he achieved mediocrity with the confidence of education and safety-net of a credit line and a weathy family. You could do similar by working at McDonalds. This sort of thing is possible in many Western countries. Infact, you are probably better off in a welfare state than in America if great wealth does not interest you.

fiftyone 19y ago

I had a really great job in the music biz when I was 20-21 but after 9/11 I converted to Islam and decided it was a good idea to quit my life and move to the Middle East to study Arabic. I had an Airline ticket, $250 bucks and enough high hopes and faith to fill the Staples Center. I had decided to go to Egypt, ( it was Syria or Egypt at the time because they were the cheapest places to go) my idea was to learn Arabic and return to the states to work as a translator ( that never happened haha ) Anyhow, my $250 bucks got me an apartment with a couple other American guys ( who were believe it or not on the same spiritual journey I was on ) for $35 bucks a month. I ended up taking some money from mom a couple times but I did it mostly on my own. Anyhow, now 2008, I married an Egyptian girl, I have a 6 Month old baby boy and a new carrier as a teacher. Not bad for leaving with 200 bucks and a couple T-shirts :)

wallflower 19y ago
+1 Arabic is said to be one of the difficult languages to start learning

huherto 19y ago

Looking at the factors of poverty in http://www.cpa.ie/povertyinireland/whatispoverty.htm http://www.cpa.ie/povertyinireland/whatispoverty.htm Work - He started out with out a job but soon he was able to get one. Age - He had a perfect age to work. Health - He was in good health. Education - He was well educated. Family - He only had to support himself. Location - He lived in the U.S. So he really had no factors for being poor.