17 ms·

Young, Unemployed and Living on the Street

218 points by kunle 14y ago

shanelja 14y ago
It took quite a lot of courage to write this post, but here goes: I spent a large portion of the past 9 months sleeping rough, maybe 1 in 10 days in total. I was living in Spain and moved back on my own at the age of 19, with no job to come to, the promise of a house to stay at for a month and £1,200. This was no grand entrepreneurial dream, it was simply trying against everything which told me it was stupid to improve the quality of my life, see the woman I left behind in the UK and find work within the tech industry. People these days are too quick to criticize the youth of today for not having jobs or sponging off their parents but in my opinion, even when you have a large skill set and are willing to do anything, it isn't easy to find work. I went to 41 interviews in everything from cleaning to PHP programming before I was finally accepted on a job. Even once I found a job, the pay was piss poor and I was living in sheltered accommodation (a step up from the bedsits and alley ways I never told any of my friends or families I was 'sleeping' in) to keep a roof over my head, all the time only being able to afford to eat one meal per day (on a good week!) Now, 9 months later, I am living in a home which I find adequate, I have a new, new job which pays me £13,000 per year (almost 3 times what I got paid at my first job) and my relationship with my girlfriend is stronger than ever. But more importantly, I feel more happy and more empowered than ever before in my entire life. The point of this post is really this: If you are in this situation, you can make it out, it won't be easy, but it isn't impossible. The area is totally different, but if you are currently homeless, or in danger of being homeless, or really just in any kind of trouble in the north of England, you can find my email address on my profile here, fire a message off to me and I will see what I can do. Somebody helped me out when I was at the darkest point, it's only fitting I do the same - no one wants to be alone at Christmas. Also, on a side note, the day I created my HN account on here I was sleeping rough, sat in the middle of a public park with just a backpack and a laptop, but dreaming of a better life, just wanted to thank all the people on here for showing me the better side of humanity when all hope seemed lost
- snikolic 14y ago
  Sincerely, thank you for sharing. (both your story and your generosity)
  - shanelja 14y ago
    It's really nothing, what might be something small to me now, like a food parcel costing a few pounds, could make a difference to someone else. It would be ungrateful and irresponsible of me not to want to help. I am however off to sleep now, but I will be awake again by 7am. My offer still stands to all who need it.
    - Tyrant505 14y ago
      I'm in america and feel like I just want to spend xmas with you! God bless. You're a good person. Kick some ass.
      - shanelja 14y ago
        Thanks a lot Tyrant - I just looked through my old posts on here and saw I posted that I will be alone for Christmas, I just wanted to say that I now won't be. I managed to collect a small group of like minded people for this Christmas and I truly can't wait to properly celebrate the first major holiday since moving back to the UK with them. As for my being a good person, I don't entirely agree, we all make stupid mistakes and do bad things in our life (unless of course you live the life of a saint) but it is our actions when we have the chance to do good which define this. Come back in a couple of years once I've helped a few more people and we will see if I consider myself a good person yet!
      - Crake 14y ago
        Seconding this! haha. Have a good holiday, both of you.
- guylhem 14y ago
  I sincerely wish you the best, in both your personal life and your career, but "when you have a large skill set and are willing to do anything" you DO find work. And when you are damn good at what you do and productive - more productive than the "average" mediocre default - you DO get rewarded. That being said, however being in a weak position is a self reinforcing spiral where you get fewer and fewer opportunities and become less productive. And small hits take a tremendous toll - one who has not experienced what you have should at least read Scalzi's "On being poor" - http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/ http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/ Yet for some reason you found the strength to get back on your feet. Once again, I sincerely wish you the best, and hope you can give a hand to other people. We all need help at one time or the other, and it's better when you are on the giving end :-)
calinet6 14y ago
This has scared me for quite some time: http://i.imgur.com/ZxBWh.png http://i.imgur.com/ZxBWh.png and: http://i.imgur.com/u6aU2.gif http://i.imgur.com/u6aU2.gif With a plausible explanation: http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2012/04/the-wedge-between-productivity-and-wages.html http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2012/04/the... The only explanation I can come up with is that this happened because it could. Because money is self-reinforcing, and breeds power, which allows control. But I don't think it's sustainable, and I think it's one of the largest, if not the largest problems with our society today. 1. I am not an economist. Is this view in any way valid? Am I seeing the right things? 2. What are the other causes? Surely the economy is complex and there are multiple driving factors. 3. What can we do? Help us all if this can't be resolved. Because that graph is very, very scary and I see this going downhill fast if something doesn't change.
- uiri 14y ago
  I think it may have everything to do with how we're measuring productivity. The world in 1975 is obviously not the world today. The biggest difference being the personal computer and by extension the internet. How much of productivity gains are due to computers? Email can be near-instantaneous and although the paperless office is probably a pipe dream, filing and paper work have become less plentiful and are taking less time. Not to mention the advances in software which improve productivity. Of course, this is just in offices. You can go ahead and look at factories which are becoming more computerized and I'm sure the primary sector has benefited from computers too. So, although workers of today are more productive - per dollar paid per hour/month/year, is it possible that people haven't actually been working harder but rather machines have been doing more work? Is it possible that these productivity gains represent value provided by giving every office an IT department rather than people working better (or harder or smarter)? I think it is possible, but I don't think it is a satisfactory explanation. It could simply be the effects of supply and demand on the marketplace. Beyond a certain point, money doesn't buy happiness so I see no reason why the upper end of salaries would increase other than pure greed (which is consistent with lots and lots of increases in executive pay) and unskilled labour provides minimal value so why would machines making one interchangeable labourer able to do the work of two or three interchangeable labourers lead to an increase in the pay of interchangeable labourers?
guylhem 14y ago
"Duane Taylor was studying the humanities in community college and living in his own place when he lost his job in a round of layoffs" Read - this guy was not only studying something with a very questionable market value, but paying through the nose and going in debt for that, when the actual objective truth reminded everyone that indeed was the truth and that there was no way around it. I'm sad for the suffering he incurred, but it was logical and likely.
- redschell 14y ago
  My initial reaction was similar, but, upon further reading, it appears that his only family, his mother, was in similarly dire straits, and thus the option of commuting from home to save money was not available.
- dnewms 14y ago
  While humanities majors are on the lower end of salary scales, there are plenty of assumptions that you made there. For one, "paying through the nose" is unlikely -- one term at Seattle area community college is about $1,300.
  - guylhem 14y ago
    A tenth of that pays for a full year in the FWI, and leaves enough for ~ 3 month of housing. And there are other countries in the world - you don't have to study in the same place. So I repeat myself - paying through the nose. Unless these things he did want to learn were so secret there was no public course online and no information on the internet, I fail to understand what kind of RoI this education would make during an education bubble. I'm sorry he wasn't in a position to do something stupid (and something many people also did while managing to escape the consequences of their acts) but it was totally predictable.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- purplelobster 14y ago
  I think you're being a bit harsh. He's partially to blame, but everybody makes mistakes. I think there's a slight lag in what people educate themselves in. For the longest time, only a minority went to college. When few go to college, having a degree at all meant you could get a job, so there was this culture of "study what you're passionate about, it'll be alright". This is unfortunately not true anymore, but this is what the older generations are telling us young people, because they haven't realized that things have changed. Today, you have to be able to make a life determining decision right out of high-school, with limited and outdated information and years of the older generations giving you an incorrect view. Soon we'll probably get an over correction with nobody going into humanities and loads of people going into engineering and computer science. What's really needed is mandatory statistics for every degree and school on the form "1 year after graduation 70% of graduates was able to find jobs, 40% related to their degree, 30% with salaries of $50k+, do you still want to apply?". That's what's needed to even remotely be able to make a rational choice. If you're great at humanities and you love it, it might be worth the chance, but for us average people, we're better off with something that gives us a better chance of success.
AVTizzle 14y ago
I'm torn whenever I hear stuff like this about my high-functioning (non-mentally handicapped) peers struggling out there. Half of me thinks: How weak. Don't they get it? It's not about "money" or "jobs". Those are abstractions. You have to create value. What do YOU do that's valuable? Why should someone hire you? Why should someone pay you? Can't they see? Quit blaming the economy. Quit waiting to be hired. Bring the locus of control inside. Put in on you. Go to the public library and start learning. Make yourself valuable. With enough determination and will, you will find a way. Or you will make one. Less fortunate people than you have done it. Dumber people than you have done it. That half of me recognizes that the hard work, the learning, the hours I've put in to get traction on a strong path of entrepreneurship wasn't handed to me. It wasn't intuitive. I make sacrifices, I toil, I struggle, but I make it work. Why can't they? The other half of me wonders: Why do I realize all that? It's a rather meta though. But... I can't tell you honestly why my life fell into place so that I would be so driven. Why my life fell just so, so I would be curious enough to seek out the books, essays, podcasts, and blog posts that have shaped my entrepreneurial character. Why was I drawn towards the heroes and role models that I was - business and technology leaders, instead of rock-stars or athletes - who inspired me towards a particular path? Sure, it has taken talent, drive, hard work, and sacrifice to capitalize on the opportunity presented to me. But perhaps it was the greatest luck of all - the lottery of birth - that gave me those gifts in the first place.
- redschell 14y ago
  I know how you feel. I count my lucky stars that I consider Elon Musk a role model and Kim Kardashian a fat-assed clown.
- onedev 14y ago
  This is so well put and exactly how I feel.
- DamnYuppie 14y ago
  The only issue I have with your first argument is that the majority of the people doing the hiring have no idea how to readily determine someones value. Often times they fall back on the easily quantifiable such as school, employment, and in our industry technical qualifications. Even at that few are able to administer even the barest of sniff tests to separate the wheat from the chaff. Otherwise I don't really disagree with you.
angrycoder 14y ago
Puts a whole different light on the glamorization of couch-surfing and minimalist lifestyles.
- ionforce 14y ago
  What do couch surfing and being minimalist have to do with earning a living?
techsupporter 14y ago
Two months ago, Mr. Tano gave up an apartment in his native Dallas after losing his job. He sold his Toyota and sought opportunities in the Pacific Northwest. He rented a room and set out with his résumé (expertise: fund-raising). But when his $2,000 in savings withered to nothing, "I ended up sleeping on the street for the first time in my life," he said. "I just kind of had to walk around and try to stay warm." I'm very hesitant to critique someone who is making what he or she perceives as the best choice, especially as a mostly-anonymous commenter on the wild Internet, so I'll frame this as general advice that I think really needs to get out on the general Internet: Do a little research before making a move like this. Dallas is one of the lowest-cost large cities in the country. $2,000 would pay for three months of rent and utilities in several areas of the Metroplex. Denton is cheap, if you like public transit, even to Dallas or Fort Worth, and being in a college town; virtually anywhere in the Mid-Cities is also cheap but lacks transit. And, as the news will tell you, jobs are booming down there. Seattle, on the other hand, is one of the most expensive places to live outside of California or New York. $2k will last a month or two, tops, even down in Rainier Beach or Othello. Yes, Seattle is a virtual dream land of fairly nice people, decent weather (it doesn't rain _that_ much), and a different brand of politics, but at least someone in this situation can still eat in Dallas. Young wanderer, if you're ever in this boat and still feel the yearning to move, try Austin. (I moved from Dallas to Seattle with a very good paying job and relocation benefits. My wallet still hurts every month. I can't imagine what it would be like for someone in these straits to do the same.)
- jjoonathan 14y ago
  This. In high school I was forced to take AP Human Geography (I was meeting a requirement) and I was genuinely shocked to discover just how much geography mattered. Cost of living, cost of health care, job availability, industrial economics, EVERYTHING is a function of geography. Not in a subtle way, either: economic metrics that I thought would vary merely by 5% or 10% often varied by factors of 2 or 3 (health care) or 10 (for industry). If you are willing to optimize the geography function but haven't computed the value of doing so, you're missing out big time.
joonix 14y ago
Perhaps Americans can take some cues from more collectivist, family oriented cultures now. In my culture, sleeping on the street when your sister has her own place and a couch would be unheard of. I don't care how imposing it would be or how small my own home is, I wouldn't let my brother sleep on the streets. And what about parents? Uncles? I do respect the struggle and pull yourself up mentality, but that's a lot easier to do when you have an address, a safe place to sleep and a shower. We have to face the reality that there are economic factors at play here, and it's not always someone's own fault if they are down on their luck in finding work.
- zem 14y ago
  yeah, that kind of shocked me too. no matter how poor i was, if i had a roof over my head and one of my relatives did not, i'd find a way for them to stay with me.
  - mgkimsal 14y ago
    Even if they were a convicted pedophile and you had small children in the house? That was a situation a friend of mine faced recently. Oddly enough, it was similar to a situation another friend's family faced 20 years ago (minus the conviction).
    - zem 14y ago
      that's definitely a hard situation to be in, but it's an outlier.
- ladzoppelin 14y ago
  Most people in this country agree with you and probably even have somebody to lean on in a situation like this however most does not mean everyone. The person in the article probably did not want to get into the real reason which is why his explanation seems strange. I feel really bad for this person and hope he at least finds a way off the streets.
- Wingman4l7 14y ago
  One of the NYTimes commenters made a good counterpoint to this: just because you have family with a home does not mean moving in with them is a viable option -- said family may be drug addicts, violent, mentally ill, abusive, or manipulative. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/us/since-recession-more-young-americans-are-homeless.html?comments#permid=13:2 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/us/since-recession-more-yo...
html5web 14y ago
I've recently arrived to NYC with Green Card (permanent residence program), I'm from Uzbekistan I've worked in my country as Web Designer, I've applied to more than 100 Web related jobs, in NY I but no result. since November 20th (my arrival date) I've done almost all jobs, moving helper, Dunkin' Donuts baker, Delivery helper at supermarket, Busboy at restaurant (all part time jobs). Nobody gonna hire me. I feel myself lost in the big NYC. I hope 'll find a job I want.
- nlh 14y ago
  Welcome to NYC, and I hope you end up doing something you love and that pays you well for it. I'm curious -- how are things here compared to back home? Are you earning more in your part-time jobs here than you did back home? I know it's only been a month, but I'm just curious about your perspective. I ask because I've heard a lot of stories from a lot of immigrants and they cover a HUGE range. I've had some guys tell me that they're thrilled to be earning $7/hour, that they love living in a home with 10 other people, and that they're happier than they've ever been because compared to back home, they're earning 10x as much, living with heat, hot water, eat well every day (McDonalds is well for them), and are _still_ sending money home. So it's a matter of perspective -- just curious to hear your story...
- tudorizer 14y ago
  A link to your portfolio or some of your work on your profile would always help ;)
- vellum 14y ago
  You'll get better results if you spend more time introducing yourself at tech meetups, and less time browsing monster.com A lot of those job sites are black holes as far as resumes are concerned. I don't know all get-togethers in NY, but meetup.com is a good place to start.
jibjaba 14y ago
There are a lot of very entitled comments to this post. I have a feeling that many of those commenters have never experience true hardship. It's easy for such a person to overlook the myriad of advantages they have and have no conception of the difficulties faced by people without them. Before making the typical ignorant "you have the power to change your life" or "stop being lazy" comment ask yourself how much do you really know about what the bottom 10% of society life is like. This question itself has issues of course, one of which is that many people do not know how little they know. Spend some time ding a little research online. Several interesting stories came out during the run up to last US election. Typically of conservatives whose idealogical world view proved inadequate when they ran into real people with real problems.
moultano 14y ago
It was quite a shock the first time I saw a homeless person who was younger then me. Until then I had been able to rationalize them away as the responsibility of the previous generation, but no longer.
dmd149 14y ago
I wrote a blog post not too long ago about my experience moving to a city with no job or apartment. I detail what my "unfair advantages" were and what the emotional impact was like. I think my experience would most likely to apply to young people from middle to upper middle class backgrounds. The most surprising part to me was how little I got done with my side projects, especially considering all the free time I had. You get into a funk and you just really don't want to do anything. Small wins make you really happy, but the rest of your free time is spent in this kind of depressed funk. Here's the link if you care to read it: http://dalethoughts.com/2012/11/what-its-like-to-move-to-a-city-with-no-apartment-and-no-job/ http://dalethoughts.com/2012/11/what-its-like-to-move-to-a-c...
cloudshoring 14y ago
It is difficult to imagine the plight. Is there a way, some of us could join hands and create a fund to help the needy.Perhaps create a micro financing system,that can help some of them who could get a job and pay back or if they are entrepreneurial and they could attempt and succeed. There are jobs outside the US,I have met youngsters from the UK and US who work here in India in the IT and Financial companies for reasons such as this. perhaps the qualified can temporarily get a reprieve until the economy becomes better, make sure there is a predictable job and earnings. Some or many of us could join hands to explore how we could help and if there is a possibility act on it. All these may be wild thoughts, but a lot of things are possible if we could try .Even a small up-liftment may be of significant help. Let me know your thoughts. sankar@cloudshoring.in

218 points by kunle 14y ago

It took quite a lot of courage to write this post, but here goes: I spent a large portion of the past 9 months sleeping rough, maybe 1 in 10 days in total. I was living in Spain and moved back on my own at the age of 19, with no job to come to, the promise of a house to stay at for a month and £1,200. This was no grand entrepreneurial dream, it was simply trying against everything which told me it was stupid to improve the quality of my life, see the woman I left behind in the UK and find work within the tech industry. People these days are too quick to criticize the youth of today for not having jobs or sponging off their parents but in my opinion, even when you have a large skill set and are willing to do anything, it isn't easy to find work. I went to 41 interviews in everything from cleaning to PHP programming before I was finally accepted on a job. Even once I found a job, the pay was piss poor and I was living in sheltered accommodation (a step up from the bedsits and alley ways I never told any of my friends or families I was 'sleeping' in) to keep a roof over my head, all the time only being able to afford to eat one meal per day (on a good week!) Now, 9 months later, I am living in a home which I find adequate, I have a new, new job which pays me £13,000 per year (almost 3 times what I got paid at my first job) and my relationship with my girlfriend is stronger than ever. But more importantly, I feel more happy and more empowered than ever before in my entire life. The point of this post is really this: If you are in this situation, you can make it out, it won't be easy, but it isn't impossible. The area is totally different, but if you are currently homeless, or in danger of being homeless, or really just in any kind of trouble in the north of England, you can find my email address on my profile here, fire a message off to me and I will see what I can do. Somebody helped me out when I was at the darkest point, it's only fitting I do the same - no one wants to be alone at Christmas. Also, on a side note, the day I created my HN account on here I was sleeping rough, sat in the middle of a public park with just a backpack and a laptop, but dreaming of a better life, just wanted to thank all the people on here for showing me the better side of humanity when all hope seemed lost

snikolic 14y ago
Sincerely, thank you for sharing. (both your story and your generosity)
- shanelja 14y ago
  It's really nothing, what might be something small to me now, like a food parcel costing a few pounds, could make a difference to someone else. It would be ungrateful and irresponsible of me not to want to help. I am however off to sleep now, but I will be awake again by 7am. My offer still stands to all who need it.
  - Tyrant505 14y ago
    I'm in america and feel like I just want to spend xmas with you! God bless. You're a good person. Kick some ass.
    - shanelja 14y ago
      Thanks a lot Tyrant - I just looked through my old posts on here and saw I posted that I will be alone for Christmas, I just wanted to say that I now won't be. I managed to collect a small group of like minded people for this Christmas and I truly can't wait to properly celebrate the first major holiday since moving back to the UK with them. As for my being a good person, I don't entirely agree, we all make stupid mistakes and do bad things in our life (unless of course you live the life of a saint) but it is our actions when we have the chance to do good which define this. Come back in a couple of years once I've helped a few more people and we will see if I consider myself a good person yet!
    - Crake 14y ago
      Seconding this! haha. Have a good holiday, both of you.
guylhem 14y ago
I sincerely wish you the best, in both your personal life and your career, but "when you have a large skill set and are willing to do anything" you DO find work. And when you are damn good at what you do and productive - more productive than the "average" mediocre default - you DO get rewarded. That being said, however being in a weak position is a self reinforcing spiral where you get fewer and fewer opportunities and become less productive. And small hits take a tremendous toll - one who has not experienced what you have should at least read Scalzi's "On being poor" - http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/ http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/ Yet for some reason you found the strength to get back on your feet. Once again, I sincerely wish you the best, and hope you can give a hand to other people. We all need help at one time or the other, and it's better when you are on the giving end :-)

calinet6 14y ago

This has scared me for quite some time: http://i.imgur.com/ZxBWh.png http://i.imgur.com/ZxBWh.png and: http://i.imgur.com/u6aU2.gif http://i.imgur.com/u6aU2.gif With a plausible explanation: http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2012/04/the-wedge-between-productivity-and-wages.html http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2012/04/the... The only explanation I can come up with is that this happened because it could. Because money is self-reinforcing, and breeds power, which allows control. But I don't think it's sustainable, and I think it's one of the largest, if not the largest problems with our society today. 1. I am not an economist. Is this view in any way valid? Am I seeing the right things? 2. What are the other causes? Surely the economy is complex and there are multiple driving factors. 3. What can we do? Help us all if this can't be resolved. Because that graph is very, very scary and I see this going downhill fast if something doesn't change.

uiri 14y ago
I think it may have everything to do with how we're measuring productivity. The world in 1975 is obviously not the world today. The biggest difference being the personal computer and by extension the internet. How much of productivity gains are due to computers? Email can be near-instantaneous and although the paperless office is probably a pipe dream, filing and paper work have become less plentiful and are taking less time. Not to mention the advances in software which improve productivity. Of course, this is just in offices. You can go ahead and look at factories which are becoming more computerized and I'm sure the primary sector has benefited from computers too. So, although workers of today are more productive - per dollar paid per hour/month/year, is it possible that people haven't actually been working harder but rather machines have been doing more work? Is it possible that these productivity gains represent value provided by giving every office an IT department rather than people working better (or harder or smarter)? I think it is possible, but I don't think it is a satisfactory explanation. It could simply be the effects of supply and demand on the marketplace. Beyond a certain point, money doesn't buy happiness so I see no reason why the upper end of salaries would increase other than pure greed (which is consistent with lots and lots of increases in executive pay) and unskilled labour provides minimal value so why would machines making one interchangeable labourer able to do the work of two or three interchangeable labourers lead to an increase in the pay of interchangeable labourers?

guylhem 14y ago

"Duane Taylor was studying the humanities in community college and living in his own place when he lost his job in a round of layoffs" Read - this guy was not only studying something with a very questionable market value, but paying through the nose and going in debt for that, when the actual objective truth reminded everyone that indeed was the truth and that there was no way around it. I'm sad for the suffering he incurred, but it was logical and likely.

redschell 14y ago
My initial reaction was similar, but, upon further reading, it appears that his only family, his mother, was in similarly dire straits, and thus the option of commuting from home to save money was not available.
dnewms 14y ago
While humanities majors are on the lower end of salary scales, there are plenty of assumptions that you made there. For one, "paying through the nose" is unlikely -- one term at Seattle area community college is about $1,300.
- guylhem 14y ago
  A tenth of that pays for a full year in the FWI, and leaves enough for ~ 3 month of housing. And there are other countries in the world - you don't have to study in the same place. So I repeat myself - paying through the nose. Unless these things he did want to learn were so secret there was no public course online and no information on the internet, I fail to understand what kind of RoI this education would make during an education bubble. I'm sorry he wasn't in a position to do something stupid (and something many people also did while managing to escape the consequences of their acts) but it was totally predictable.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
purplelobster 14y ago
I think you're being a bit harsh. He's partially to blame, but everybody makes mistakes. I think there's a slight lag in what people educate themselves in. For the longest time, only a minority went to college. When few go to college, having a degree at all meant you could get a job, so there was this culture of "study what you're passionate about, it'll be alright". This is unfortunately not true anymore, but this is what the older generations are telling us young people, because they haven't realized that things have changed. Today, you have to be able to make a life determining decision right out of high-school, with limited and outdated information and years of the older generations giving you an incorrect view. Soon we'll probably get an over correction with nobody going into humanities and loads of people going into engineering and computer science. What's really needed is mandatory statistics for every degree and school on the form "1 year after graduation 70% of graduates was able to find jobs, 40% related to their degree, 30% with salaries of $50k+, do you still want to apply?". That's what's needed to even remotely be able to make a rational choice. If you're great at humanities and you love it, it might be worth the chance, but for us average people, we're better off with something that gives us a better chance of success.

AVTizzle 14y ago

I'm torn whenever I hear stuff like this about my high-functioning (non-mentally handicapped) peers struggling out there. Half of me thinks: How weak. Don't they get it? It's not about "money" or "jobs". Those are abstractions. You have to create value. What do YOU do that's valuable? Why should someone hire you? Why should someone pay you? Can't they see? Quit blaming the economy. Quit waiting to be hired. Bring the locus of control inside. Put in on you. Go to the public library and start learning. Make yourself valuable. With enough determination and will, you will find a way. Or you will make one. Less fortunate people than you have done it. Dumber people than you have done it. That half of me recognizes that the hard work, the learning, the hours I've put in to get traction on a strong path of entrepreneurship wasn't handed to me. It wasn't intuitive. I make sacrifices, I toil, I struggle, but I make it work. Why can't they? The other half of me wonders: Why do I realize all that? It's a rather meta though. But... I can't tell you honestly why my life fell into place so that I would be so driven. Why my life fell just so, so I would be curious enough to seek out the books, essays, podcasts, and blog posts that have shaped my entrepreneurial character. Why was I drawn towards the heroes and role models that I was - business and technology leaders, instead of rock-stars or athletes - who inspired me towards a particular path? Sure, it has taken talent, drive, hard work, and sacrifice to capitalize on the opportunity presented to me. But perhaps it was the greatest luck of all - the lottery of birth - that gave me those gifts in the first place.

redschell 14y ago
I know how you feel. I count my lucky stars that I consider Elon Musk a role model and Kim Kardashian a fat-assed clown.
onedev 14y ago
This is so well put and exactly how I feel.
DamnYuppie 14y ago
The only issue I have with your first argument is that the majority of the people doing the hiring have no idea how to readily determine someones value. Often times they fall back on the easily quantifiable such as school, employment, and in our industry technical qualifications. Even at that few are able to administer even the barest of sniff tests to separate the wheat from the chaff. Otherwise I don't really disagree with you.

angrycoder 14y ago

Puts a whole different light on the glamorization of couch-surfing and minimalist lifestyles.

ionforce 14y ago
What do couch surfing and being minimalist have to do with earning a living?

techsupporter 14y ago

Two months ago, Mr. Tano gave up an apartment in his native Dallas after losing his job. He sold his Toyota and sought opportunities in the Pacific Northwest. He rented a room and set out with his résumé (expertise: fund-raising). But when his $2,000 in savings withered to nothing, "I ended up sleeping on the street for the first time in my life," he said. "I just kind of had to walk around and try to stay warm." I'm very hesitant to critique someone who is making what he or she perceives as the best choice, especially as a mostly-anonymous commenter on the wild Internet, so I'll frame this as general advice that I think really needs to get out on the general Internet: Do a little research before making a move like this. Dallas is one of the lowest-cost large cities in the country. $2,000 would pay for three months of rent and utilities in several areas of the Metroplex. Denton is cheap, if you like public transit, even to Dallas or Fort Worth, and being in a college town; virtually anywhere in the Mid-Cities is also cheap but lacks transit. And, as the news will tell you, jobs are booming down there. Seattle, on the other hand, is one of the most expensive places to live outside of California or New York. $2k will last a month or two, tops, even down in Rainier Beach or Othello. Yes, Seattle is a virtual dream land of fairly nice people, decent weather (it doesn't rain _that_ much), and a different brand of politics, but at least someone in this situation can still eat in Dallas. Young wanderer, if you're ever in this boat and still feel the yearning to move, try Austin. (I moved from Dallas to Seattle with a very good paying job and relocation benefits. My wallet still hurts every month. I can't imagine what it would be like for someone in these straits to do the same.)

jjoonathan 14y ago
This. In high school I was forced to take AP Human Geography (I was meeting a requirement) and I was genuinely shocked to discover just how much geography mattered. Cost of living, cost of health care, job availability, industrial economics, EVERYTHING is a function of geography. Not in a subtle way, either: economic metrics that I thought would vary merely by 5% or 10% often varied by factors of 2 or 3 (health care) or 10 (for industry). If you are willing to optimize the geography function but haven't computed the value of doing so, you're missing out big time.

joonix 14y ago

Perhaps Americans can take some cues from more collectivist, family oriented cultures now. In my culture, sleeping on the street when your sister has her own place and a couch would be unheard of. I don't care how imposing it would be or how small my own home is, I wouldn't let my brother sleep on the streets. And what about parents? Uncles? I do respect the struggle and pull yourself up mentality, but that's a lot easier to do when you have an address, a safe place to sleep and a shower. We have to face the reality that there are economic factors at play here, and it's not always someone's own fault if they are down on their luck in finding work.

zem 14y ago
yeah, that kind of shocked me too. no matter how poor i was, if i had a roof over my head and one of my relatives did not, i'd find a way for them to stay with me.
- mgkimsal 14y ago
  Even if they were a convicted pedophile and you had small children in the house? That was a situation a friend of mine faced recently. Oddly enough, it was similar to a situation another friend's family faced 20 years ago (minus the conviction).
  - zem 14y ago
    that's definitely a hard situation to be in, but it's an outlier.
ladzoppelin 14y ago
Most people in this country agree with you and probably even have somebody to lean on in a situation like this however most does not mean everyone. The person in the article probably did not want to get into the real reason which is why his explanation seems strange. I feel really bad for this person and hope he at least finds a way off the streets.
Wingman4l7 14y ago
One of the NYTimes commenters made a good counterpoint to this: just because you have family with a home does not mean moving in with them is a viable option -- said family may be drug addicts, violent, mentally ill, abusive, or manipulative. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/us/since-recession-more-young-americans-are-homeless.html?comments#permid=13:2 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/us/since-recession-more-yo...

html5web 14y ago

I've recently arrived to NYC with Green Card (permanent residence program), I'm from Uzbekistan I've worked in my country as Web Designer, I've applied to more than 100 Web related jobs, in NY I but no result. since November 20th (my arrival date) I've done almost all jobs, moving helper, Dunkin' Donuts baker, Delivery helper at supermarket, Busboy at restaurant (all part time jobs). Nobody gonna hire me. I feel myself lost in the big NYC. I hope 'll find a job I want.

nlh 14y ago
Welcome to NYC, and I hope you end up doing something you love and that pays you well for it. I'm curious -- how are things here compared to back home? Are you earning more in your part-time jobs here than you did back home? I know it's only been a month, but I'm just curious about your perspective. I ask because I've heard a lot of stories from a lot of immigrants and they cover a HUGE range. I've had some guys tell me that they're thrilled to be earning $7/hour, that they love living in a home with 10 other people, and that they're happier than they've ever been because compared to back home, they're earning 10x as much, living with heat, hot water, eat well every day (McDonalds is well for them), and are _still_ sending money home. So it's a matter of perspective -- just curious to hear your story...
tudorizer 14y ago
A link to your portfolio or some of your work on your profile would always help ;)
vellum 14y ago
You'll get better results if you spend more time introducing yourself at tech meetups, and less time browsing monster.com A lot of those job sites are black holes as far as resumes are concerned. I don't know all get-togethers in NY, but meetup.com is a good place to start.

jibjaba 14y ago

There are a lot of very entitled comments to this post. I have a feeling that many of those commenters have never experience true hardship. It's easy for such a person to overlook the myriad of advantages they have and have no conception of the difficulties faced by people without them. Before making the typical ignorant "you have the power to change your life" or "stop being lazy" comment ask yourself how much do you really know about what the bottom 10% of society life is like. This question itself has issues of course, one of which is that many people do not know how little they know. Spend some time ding a little research online. Several interesting stories came out during the run up to last US election. Typically of conservatives whose idealogical world view proved inadequate when they ran into real people with real problems.

moultano 14y ago

It was quite a shock the first time I saw a homeless person who was younger then me. Until then I had been able to rationalize them away as the responsibility of the previous generation, but no longer.

dmd149 14y ago

I wrote a blog post not too long ago about my experience moving to a city with no job or apartment. I detail what my "unfair advantages" were and what the emotional impact was like. I think my experience would most likely to apply to young people from middle to upper middle class backgrounds. The most surprising part to me was how little I got done with my side projects, especially considering all the free time I had. You get into a funk and you just really don't want to do anything. Small wins make you really happy, but the rest of your free time is spent in this kind of depressed funk. Here's the link if you care to read it: http://dalethoughts.com/2012/11/what-its-like-to-move-to-a-city-with-no-apartment-and-no-job/ http://dalethoughts.com/2012/11/what-its-like-to-move-to-a-c...

cloudshoring 14y ago

It is difficult to imagine the plight. Is there a way, some of us could join hands and create a fund to help the needy.Perhaps create a micro financing system,that can help some of them who could get a job and pay back or if they are entrepreneurial and they could attempt and succeed. There are jobs outside the US,I have met youngsters from the UK and US who work here in India in the IT and Financial companies for reasons such as this. perhaps the qualified can temporarily get a reprieve until the economy becomes better, make sure there is a predictable job and earnings. Some or many of us could join hands to explore how we could help and if there is a possibility act on it. All these may be wild thoughts, but a lot of things are possible if we could try .Even a small up-liftment may be of significant help. Let me know your thoughts. sankar@cloudshoring.in