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Could you provide sources? Search results are not so clear. Should You Give Money to Homeless People? http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/03/sho

by brown 10y ago

Could you provide sources? Search results are not so clear. Should You Give Money to Homeless People? http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/03/should-you-give-money-to-homeless-people/72820/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/03/should-y... "The short answer is no. The long answer is yes, but only if you work for an organization that can ensure the money is spent wisely." Reversal of Fortune is a 2005 Showtime documentary that asks the question "What would a homeless person do if they were given $100,000?" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversal_of_Fortune_(2005_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversal_of_Fortune_(2005_film... "When asked by Oprah how much of the $100,000 he still had, Ted replied "none." Ted also mentioned that he is homeless again, and content with his current circumstances."

jwatte 10y ago
A sample of one!
mars4rp 10y ago
http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/10/25/240590433/what-happens-when-you-just-give-money-to-poor-people http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/10/25/240590433/what-... one thing that I remember, we are not talking about $100,000. I can see your point that giving that much money to a homeless people is a bad idea, but giving them $300 a month is better than food stamp. giving them $2000 a month is better than a shelter! and so on
sedachv 10y ago
> Reversal of Fortune is a 2005 Showtime documentary that asks the question "What would a homeless person do if they were given $100,000?" That sounds like such a great film about this issue. Ted sounds like a really hard-working recycling bum. Since Ted is employing himself, Ted is an entrepreneur. A good thought experiment to put this into perspective is: what happens to the average employed person when they are given $100,000? Except we do not have to do a thought experiment; this scenario occurs thousands of times a year all over the world for lottery winners. The largest study of lottery winners that I know of found that receiving (average) $100,000 doubles the chances of a person going bankrupt: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/REST_a_00114 http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/REST_a_00114 Some people who win the lottery and go bankrupt end up worse off than before winning the lottery (also worth looking at: http://brandongaille.com/22-lottery-winners-bankrupt-statistics/ http://brandongaille.com/22-lottery-winners-bankrupt-statist...). Ted, on the other hand, after spending a few months living the high life, went back to his old recycling business. A lot of former tech entrepreneurs who gave up their dreams of running their own business (even some who went through Y Combinator!) can stand to learn a lesson from Ted's perseverance and positive attitude.

by brown 10y ago

jwatte 10y ago

A sample of one!

mars4rp 10y ago

http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/10/25/240590433/what-happens-when-you-just-give-money-to-poor-people http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/10/25/240590433/what-... one thing that I remember, we are not talking about $100,000. I can see your point that giving that much money to a homeless people is a bad idea, but giving them $300 a month is better than food stamp. giving them $2000 a month is better than a shelter! and so on

sedachv 10y ago

> Reversal of Fortune is a 2005 Showtime documentary that asks the question "What would a homeless person do if they were given $100,000?" That sounds like such a great film about this issue. Ted sounds like a really hard-working recycling bum. Since Ted is employing himself, Ted is an entrepreneur. A good thought experiment to put this into perspective is: what happens to the average employed person when they are given $100,000? Except we do not have to do a thought experiment; this scenario occurs thousands of times a year all over the world for lottery winners. The largest study of lottery winners that I know of found that receiving (average) $100,000 doubles the chances of a person going bankrupt: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/REST_a_00114 http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/REST_a_00114 Some people who win the lottery and go bankrupt end up worse off than before winning the lottery (also worth looking at: http://brandongaille.com/22-lottery-winners-bankrupt-statistics/ http://brandongaille.com/22-lottery-winners-bankrupt-statist...). Ted, on the other hand, after spending a few months living the high life, went back to his old recycling business. A lot of former tech entrepreneurs who gave up their dreams of running their own business (even some who went through Y Combinator!) can stand to learn a lesson from Ted's perseverance and positive attitude.