7 ms·

Ever slept in a bus station? I have, in the US. I went for 3 years without any healthcare, and then it took another 7 years and a lawyer (who took $16k USD) to

Ever slept in a bus station? I have, in the US. I went for 3 years without any healthcare, and then it took another 7 years and a lawyer (who took $16k USD) to get more permanent help. One thing is for certain: with 99.99% of people, their friendliness (or meanness) is proportional to the size of your bank account. If you want to know how people truly are, become actually poor, filthy, and seem depressed, then you will know their nature.

austincheney 6y ago
> If you want to know how people truly are, become actually poor, filthy, and seem depressed, then you will know their nature. You don’t need to be homeless to discover that some people lack sympathy. I lack sympathy. It doesn’t mean I’m an asshole. Sympathy isn’t empathy (huge distinction). Some people can’t tell the difference and everyone is just bad (cue the big tears). This is especially true if you’re a freeloader. I imagine most people are just as honest about freeloaders regardless if they are homeless or supremely wealthy. This problem isn’t mean people, but rather poor self-analysis and playing a victim. Most people don’t want anything to do with that nonsense, which is extremely unsympathetic.
- ausbah 6y ago
  you know "free loaders" aren't why most people are homeless right?
  - austincheney 6y ago
    I didn't say that.
    - cjaybo 6y ago
      No, but if there is no relation between the two then I'm not sure why the second paragraph is relevant here.
      - austincheney 6y ago
        Freeloading isn't related to homelessness in many cases (perhaps most), but it is very related to what I replied to.
  - BunsanSpace 6y ago
    Very location dependant. In my city the majourity of panhandlers you see have homes, and choose not to work and beg on the street. You can tell who's homeless because they don't bother you, they sit in silence, or in front of a shelter. Or they ask for food rather than money. People harassing you for money? Panhandlers. I'm sure it's different in cities that have higher costs of living s.t. a min wage earner can't afford rent anywhere.
    - forgotmypw17 6y ago
      No offense, but I don't think you personally know a single homeless person.
    - tehwebguy 6y ago
      lmao have you been stalking panhandlers in your city to see where they go at the end of the day?
  - collyw 6y ago
    I know in my home town some of the homeless weren't actually homeless, just scammers begging for money at pub closing time.
  - Cullinet 6y ago
    in one specific case I will willingly describe where that is precisely the reality that needs to be faced. (hardly gladly will I recount my experiences, I am barely past the stages of pure shock, I became homeless as the result of extensive almost decade long criminal harassment following when I accidentally uncovered a systematic fraud in government. ironically - actually I am pretty sure intentionally - the fraud is in housing and crosses the institutional walls between central and local government and into the world of QUANGOS and charities ostensibly helping the homeless but inextricably involved. the systematic enfranchisement of fraud in east London public housing authority and agencies intertwined and inseparable from hard drug dealing, is maintaining a permanent and pernicious status quo where under housing in consequence is denied by individuals who are officially homeless and who collectively by reason of being sufficiently well financially provided for by exceptional and exclusive permissive authority, exist en masse as a block preventing both the most needy to get housed from the street and the eligible and worthy to move on into permanent housing that they can sustain. the situation is naturally more complicated than this, but essentially these are the conditions that have such a deleterious effect on the public : the mode of cash money available for spending to the majority cohort is greater than the average free for spending cash income in London as a whole ; the percentage of technically "homeless" people who are housed ostensibly only temporarily but effective permanently on the doorstep of the City's financial center who are habitual beggars is greatly in excess of 50% and I can attest closer to 90 percent in my own experience ; income from begging frequently exceeds USD 1000 per week. ; organised crime is permeated throughout every corner of the entire environment these people - indeed any homeless person - encounters. I'll simply respond to any questions rather than drown you in the details straight away. of course, into this vipers' nest fell lil'ol'me who was raised by a Great Depression banker and brought up learning accounting from my pay dissecting the over valuation applied to the pension fund of his newly commercialized thrift which was paying their former board manager and one time gm responsible for their greatest historic growth, just 82 British pounds a week supposedly index linked... this ain't over quite yet due to the pandemic messing with case progression, so you might hear more yet.. I can rout out plentiful public sources meantime if you're particularly interested although if you are please forgive me in advance for being rather circumspect about who is who and the whys and wherefores, because this is long ago passed into the physical danger territory for not merely me but including anyone who has helped.. edited by necessity of brevity, excerpted text in profile
  - rdtwo 6y ago
    Drugs almost always this
  - nitrogen 6y ago
    It's nowhere near the majority case, but I have definitely met freeloader panhandlers when they were off duty. One was an older couple who made their grandkids put on ratty clothes and hold signs in the city, so they could continue living on the road in their very nice RV. I met them at a campground when I was a kid, and the grandkids accidentally let slip that "the bank" was code for panhandling. The other was clearly a bit mentally unhinged. He pulled up in a very nice Mercedes with a bunch of weird slogans silkscreened on the back window that would put Qanon to shame, but this was in 2004. If I remember right he showed us his fine suits in the trunk of the car. Told us about his private compound where he lived. Then proceeded to dance and sing in the middle of the street in his bum clothes.
    - austincheney 6y ago
      Most of the people I have known that I would label as "freeloaders" seem to have some combination of developmental emotional abuse and mental health issues that are either not diagnosed or not properly medicated. They tend to become homeless of their own accord and tend to blame people for the relationships they destroy. At first it comes off as entitlement when they assume free access to other people's property, time, and resources when those other people are trying to help. But after a long enough period of direct social involvement it becomes frustratingly clear the behavior is something like a passive non-violent anti-social behavior. It can be sad to watch. Its worse if they have children.
- airhead969 6y ago
  You may have missed the point, so I'll state it explicitly: almost all people lack empathy, it's just more than some have the self-control not to stab homeless people to death. Sympathy, gratuity, and freeloading are somewhere off in the distance. I hope you're not trying to slip in some duplicitous language to accuse me of being freeloader. What does it have to do with anything?
  - austincheney 6y ago
    > almost all people lack empathy There isn't any empirical assessment that agrees with that. A lack of empathy is narcissism, which only applies to a small percentage of any population according to most of the research on this subject.
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- anon_tor_12345 6y ago
  >This is especially true if you’re a freeloader. says the guy that was a pog for 24 years...
  - austincheney 6y ago
    I stopped being a pog?
Aeolun 6y ago
> If you want to know how people truly are, become actually poor, filthy, and seem depressed, then you will know their nature. I guess it’s just that so many poor, dirty people act mentally unhinged and (potentially) dangerous that you start to assume that about all of them. I find that I try to avoid them right up until they force me to interact with them and I find out they’re one of the (relatively) normal ones. Then I’m perfectly happy to buy them a sandwich (or two, if I’m going to buy you breakfast might as well have a decent one). I’m not quite sure why it works this way.
- marcusverus 6y ago
  > I’m not quite sure why it works this way. It works this way because people are, rationally, more interested in their own physical safety than they are in the feelings of strangers. Anecdote: I was in San Francisco a few years back. There were homeless folks everywhere. Some were nice, even chatty. We felt at ease even when walking through areas that were full of homeless folks. But a couple of days into our trip, a homeless dude accosted a coworker on the sidewalk. He shouted violent threats, shoved my coworker, and told him not to come back. When I asked my coworker what set the guy off, he said that he had absolutely no idea. That experience changed how I interacted with homeless folks for the remainder of the trip. I made no eye contact. I avoided areas with groups of homeless folks. I did not respond when spoken to. Is that fair to the average homeless person, who is perfectly normal, just down on their luck? To be perfectly honest, I do not care. My physical safety comes before your feelings. Full stop.
  - Lambdanaut 6y ago
    "Rationally"? You mentioned you had all sorts of nice experiences with homeless people and then one bad actor caused you to choose out of all of the attributes of this person, their lack of a home, to be the one for you to blanket-label all people like this as dangerous enough to place them outside of your treat-like-a-human-being sphere. Nah, there is not a rational way to blanket label groups like this from a sample size of 1. That's your trauma talking.
    - 6y ago
gumby 6y ago
> One thing is for certain: with 99.99% of people, their friendliness (or meanness) is proportional to the size of your bank account. This is worth repeating. Sadly we’re talking 99.99% of all people world wide, not just in country X.
dazc 6y ago
This resonates with me as someone who has been homeless for a, thankfully, short period of time. I was given a chance to get back on my feet by someone who was almost as poor as I was, he did have a house and a couch I could sleep on though. Ten years later I have no money worries, and because we remain good friends, neither does he.
jbluepolarbear 6y ago
I have, I’ve also lived in a car, showered in gyms/public bathrooms and it sucks. Especially, if you’re trying to keep up an image at work and don’t want them to know you’re homeless.

austincheney 6y ago

> If you want to know how people truly are, become actually poor, filthy, and seem depressed, then you will know their nature. You don’t need to be homeless to discover that some people lack sympathy. I lack sympathy. It doesn’t mean I’m an asshole. Sympathy isn’t empathy (huge distinction). Some people can’t tell the difference and everyone is just bad (cue the big tears). This is especially true if you’re a freeloader. I imagine most people are just as honest about freeloaders regardless if they are homeless or supremely wealthy. This problem isn’t mean people, but rather poor self-analysis and playing a victim. Most people don’t want anything to do with that nonsense, which is extremely unsympathetic.

ausbah 6y ago
you know "free loaders" aren't why most people are homeless right?
- austincheney 6y ago
  I didn't say that.
  - cjaybo 6y ago
    No, but if there is no relation between the two then I'm not sure why the second paragraph is relevant here.
    - austincheney 6y ago
      Freeloading isn't related to homelessness in many cases (perhaps most), but it is very related to what I replied to.
- BunsanSpace 6y ago
  Very location dependant. In my city the majourity of panhandlers you see have homes, and choose not to work and beg on the street. You can tell who's homeless because they don't bother you, they sit in silence, or in front of a shelter. Or they ask for food rather than money. People harassing you for money? Panhandlers. I'm sure it's different in cities that have higher costs of living s.t. a min wage earner can't afford rent anywhere.
  - forgotmypw17 6y ago
    No offense, but I don't think you personally know a single homeless person.
  - tehwebguy 6y ago
    lmao have you been stalking panhandlers in your city to see where they go at the end of the day?
- collyw 6y ago
  I know in my home town some of the homeless weren't actually homeless, just scammers begging for money at pub closing time.
- Cullinet 6y ago
  in one specific case I will willingly describe where that is precisely the reality that needs to be faced. (hardly gladly will I recount my experiences, I am barely past the stages of pure shock, I became homeless as the result of extensive almost decade long criminal harassment following when I accidentally uncovered a systematic fraud in government. ironically - actually I am pretty sure intentionally - the fraud is in housing and crosses the institutional walls between central and local government and into the world of QUANGOS and charities ostensibly helping the homeless but inextricably involved. the systematic enfranchisement of fraud in east London public housing authority and agencies intertwined and inseparable from hard drug dealing, is maintaining a permanent and pernicious status quo where under housing in consequence is denied by individuals who are officially homeless and who collectively by reason of being sufficiently well financially provided for by exceptional and exclusive permissive authority, exist en masse as a block preventing both the most needy to get housed from the street and the eligible and worthy to move on into permanent housing that they can sustain. the situation is naturally more complicated than this, but essentially these are the conditions that have such a deleterious effect on the public : the mode of cash money available for spending to the majority cohort is greater than the average free for spending cash income in London as a whole ; the percentage of technically "homeless" people who are housed ostensibly only temporarily but effective permanently on the doorstep of the City's financial center who are habitual beggars is greatly in excess of 50% and I can attest closer to 90 percent in my own experience ; income from begging frequently exceeds USD 1000 per week. ; organised crime is permeated throughout every corner of the entire environment these people - indeed any homeless person - encounters. I'll simply respond to any questions rather than drown you in the details straight away. of course, into this vipers' nest fell lil'ol'me who was raised by a Great Depression banker and brought up learning accounting from my pay dissecting the over valuation applied to the pension fund of his newly commercialized thrift which was paying their former board manager and one time gm responsible for their greatest historic growth, just 82 British pounds a week supposedly index linked... this ain't over quite yet due to the pandemic messing with case progression, so you might hear more yet.. I can rout out plentiful public sources meantime if you're particularly interested although if you are please forgive me in advance for being rather circumspect about who is who and the whys and wherefores, because this is long ago passed into the physical danger territory for not merely me but including anyone who has helped.. edited by necessity of brevity, excerpted text in profile
- rdtwo 6y ago
  Drugs almost always this
- nitrogen 6y ago
  It's nowhere near the majority case, but I have definitely met freeloader panhandlers when they were off duty. One was an older couple who made their grandkids put on ratty clothes and hold signs in the city, so they could continue living on the road in their very nice RV. I met them at a campground when I was a kid, and the grandkids accidentally let slip that "the bank" was code for panhandling. The other was clearly a bit mentally unhinged. He pulled up in a very nice Mercedes with a bunch of weird slogans silkscreened on the back window that would put Qanon to shame, but this was in 2004. If I remember right he showed us his fine suits in the trunk of the car. Told us about his private compound where he lived. Then proceeded to dance and sing in the middle of the street in his bum clothes.
  - austincheney 6y ago
    Most of the people I have known that I would label as "freeloaders" seem to have some combination of developmental emotional abuse and mental health issues that are either not diagnosed or not properly medicated. They tend to become homeless of their own accord and tend to blame people for the relationships they destroy. At first it comes off as entitlement when they assume free access to other people's property, time, and resources when those other people are trying to help. But after a long enough period of direct social involvement it becomes frustratingly clear the behavior is something like a passive non-violent anti-social behavior. It can be sad to watch. Its worse if they have children.
airhead969 6y ago
You may have missed the point, so I'll state it explicitly: almost all people lack empathy, it's just more than some have the self-control not to stab homeless people to death. Sympathy, gratuity, and freeloading are somewhere off in the distance. I hope you're not trying to slip in some duplicitous language to accuse me of being freeloader. What does it have to do with anything?
- austincheney 6y ago
  > almost all people lack empathy There isn't any empirical assessment that agrees with that. A lack of empathy is narcissism, which only applies to a small percentage of any population according to most of the research on this subject.
- deleted 6y ago
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anon_tor_12345 6y ago
>This is especially true if you’re a freeloader. says the guy that was a pog for 24 years...
- austincheney 6y ago
  I stopped being a pog?

Aeolun 6y ago

> If you want to know how people truly are, become actually poor, filthy, and seem depressed, then you will know their nature. I guess it’s just that so many poor, dirty people act mentally unhinged and (potentially) dangerous that you start to assume that about all of them. I find that I try to avoid them right up until they force me to interact with them and I find out they’re one of the (relatively) normal ones. Then I’m perfectly happy to buy them a sandwich (or two, if I’m going to buy you breakfast might as well have a decent one). I’m not quite sure why it works this way.

marcusverus 6y ago
> I’m not quite sure why it works this way. It works this way because people are, rationally, more interested in their own physical safety than they are in the feelings of strangers. Anecdote: I was in San Francisco a few years back. There were homeless folks everywhere. Some were nice, even chatty. We felt at ease even when walking through areas that were full of homeless folks. But a couple of days into our trip, a homeless dude accosted a coworker on the sidewalk. He shouted violent threats, shoved my coworker, and told him not to come back. When I asked my coworker what set the guy off, he said that he had absolutely no idea. That experience changed how I interacted with homeless folks for the remainder of the trip. I made no eye contact. I avoided areas with groups of homeless folks. I did not respond when spoken to. Is that fair to the average homeless person, who is perfectly normal, just down on their luck? To be perfectly honest, I do not care. My physical safety comes before your feelings. Full stop.
- Lambdanaut 6y ago
  "Rationally"? You mentioned you had all sorts of nice experiences with homeless people and then one bad actor caused you to choose out of all of the attributes of this person, their lack of a home, to be the one for you to blanket-label all people like this as dangerous enough to place them outside of your treat-like-a-human-being sphere. Nah, there is not a rational way to blanket label groups like this from a sample size of 1. That's your trauma talking.
  - 6y ago

gumby 6y ago

> One thing is for certain: with 99.99% of people, their friendliness (or meanness) is proportional to the size of your bank account. This is worth repeating. Sadly we’re talking 99.99% of all people world wide, not just in country X.

dazc 6y ago

This resonates with me as someone who has been homeless for a, thankfully, short period of time. I was given a chance to get back on my feet by someone who was almost as poor as I was, he did have a house and a couch I could sleep on though. Ten years later I have no money worries, and because we remain good friends, neither does he.

jbluepolarbear 6y ago

I have, I’ve also lived in a car, showered in gyms/public bathrooms and it sucks. Especially, if you’re trying to keep up an image at work and don’t want them to know you’re homeless.