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Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

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Re: Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

#31

Post by total__C »

_delirium wrote: post #16
Lewton wrote: post #9

Some of the comments on that article are surprisingly nasty

Comments on general news sites tend to be cesspools in general. Oddly, the same people posting weird vitriol about how America is being ruined by freeloading parasites seem to be: 1) not highly educated; and 2) able to spend hours and hours a day posting angry comments on news websites. I wonder where they're getting their own income from. Are they all retirees and students? People on SS disability? Stay-at-home pare…

Conservative political groups in the USA pay people to basically troll on major news sites/message boards/blogs:

http://www.alternet.org/story/149197/are_right-wing_libertar...

Re: Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

#32

Post by VMG »

hooande wrote: post #29

There were a few points that the article didn't bring up. I was surprised that they didn't discuss the speculative value of bitcoins. There's no way that the value of a dollar in your pocket will suddenly double, but the value of a bitcoin has and will again. Obviously volatility isn't all fun...would you want your salary paid in bitcions? In the current market you might actually come out ahead over the next few year…

The minimum wage does a lot of good

Interesting you say then when you can clearly see that actually hurts those people.

Re: Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

#33

Post by MacsHeadroom »

notahacker wrote: post #24
rorrr2 wrote: post #6

The math doesn't add up. At "0.000133 bitcoins a day" it would take 7518 days (more than 20 years) to make one bitcoin. At "0.0004 bitcoins" per video it would take 2500 videos to watch to make one bitcoin. The amount of wasted human capital is insane. Why don't these people get jobs? There are tons of posts on Craigslist for jobs that don't require any education - delivery, waiters, busboys, cleaning, etc.

Plus "60 cents a day" of income is going to be eaten up by transaction fees when they need actual cents to buy lunch (I don't think online delivery services or trendy cafes accepting bitcoin payments cater for the homeless end of the market; there's only so many gyft-funded $10 Papa John's pizzas one can afford) The whole thing reeks of a PR stunt to the point where I can easily see the people involved's actual "job"…

There are multiple aggregate food delivery sites which accept bitcoins comprising over 10,000 delivery locations nationwide.

Some even have negative bitcoin transaction fees- kind of like a cash discount.

The minimum order for some places is as low as $3.

Re: Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

#34

Post by mrb »

rorrr2 wrote: post #6

The math doesn't add up. At "0.000133 bitcoins a day" it would take 7518 days (more than 20 years) to make one bitcoin. At "0.0004 bitcoins" per video it would take 2500 videos to watch to make one bitcoin. The amount of wasted human capital is insane. Why don't these people get jobs? There are tons of posts on Craigslist for jobs that don't require any education - delivery, waiters, busboys, cleaning, etc.

"At 0.0004 bitcoins per video it would take 2500 videos to watch to make one bitcoin."

You seem confused by the divisibility of bitcoin. His goal is not to make one whole bitcoin, but probably to watch ~100 videos (3-4 hours total?) which is 0.04 bitcoins which is enough to buy a meal (~$5).

Also the article is poorly worded but it sounds like the homeless guy is not taking advantage of the 0.000133 btc per day offer (it says "he can beef up..." but should be "he could beef up...")

Re: Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

#35

Post by luscious »

SolarNet wrote: post #27
rorrr2 wrote: post #6

The math doesn't add up. At "0.000133 bitcoins a day" it would take 7518 days (more than 20 years) to make one bitcoin. At "0.0004 bitcoins" per video it would take 2500 videos to watch to make one bitcoin. The amount of wasted human capital is insane. Why don't these people get jobs? There are tons of posts on Craigslist for jobs that don't require any education - delivery, waiters, busboys, cleaning, etc.

"Why don't these people get jobs?" Because: THERE. ARE. NOT. ENOUGH. JOBS. * The economy crashed a while ago. We still haven't recovered all the jobs we lost, by either absolute or percentage. * Increased automation and efficiency is slowly removing those jobs you just described. Exec, a YCombinator app, makes a more efficient and automated solution to craigslist cleaning jobs. This is happening in every sector in th…

There are always enough jobs. There aren't enough jobs that people are willing to do for the money others are willing to pay. If I knew someone near me was living on The problem isn't a lack of jobs, it's the draining of capital flow that happen when the monetary system dries up. Whether you believe that to be unfairness or just some players being so adept at the game... that doesn't matter.

The ball needs to move or people who want to play the game will be sitting out. If the ball is kept moving, even artificially, anyone who wants to play will get to play. The only ones left out would be willingly out or mentally/physically unable to play at all.

Right now, we let the game rules be such that some smart shits helped some lucky shits collect the ball and now the dumbshits think the pile of "money" is worth something when not in circulation. Look at all my symbols of currency! Doesn't matter if it's dollars, metals/commodities, or the butcoin... without a functioning-thriving ebb and flow of currency, everyone is poorer.

Spend like death with 0 is the goal. Don't take on debt or get greedy. We'll all live better.

Re: Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

#36

Post by _delirium »

runj__ wrote: post #26
techtalsky wrote: post #2

Seems like you could make more than .60 a day doing Mechanical Turk jobs. It'd be a little less mind numbing than watching commercials every day.

cmd-F Mechani Oh, there you are. Exactly. You can easily make ~10cents a minute, that's 6 dollars an hour. It's probably pretty hard work but the premise of this is just so... If you're homeless in america, sign up for mechanical turk. You'll make more than enough for food.

This used to be true, but a huge proportion of Mechanical Turk jobs these days are scams, which either don't pay out at all, or end up paying less than $1/hr. Amazon has completely neglected the platform and it's rotted.

Re: Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

#37

Post by rubikscube »

VMG wrote: post #32
hooande wrote: post #29

There were a few points that the article didn't bring up. I was surprised that they didn't discuss the speculative value of bitcoins. There's no way that the value of a dollar in your pocket will suddenly double, but the value of a bitcoin has and will again. Obviously volatility isn't all fun...would you want your salary paid in bitcions? In the current market you might actually come out ahead over the next few year…

The minimum wage does a lot of good Interesting you say then when you can clearly see that actually hurts those people.

Yep. All in all, minimum wage is a feel good hit. :)

Re: Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

#38

Post by lotsofcows »

luscious wrote: post #35
SolarNet wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Why don't these people get jobs?" Because: THERE. ARE. NOT. ENOUGH. JOBS. * The economy crashed a while ago. We still haven't recovered all the jobs we lost, by either absolute or percentage. * Increased automation and efficiency is slowly removing those jobs you just described. Exec, a YCombinator app, makes a more efficient and automated solution to craigslist cleaning jobs. This is happening in every sector in th…

There are always enough jobs. There aren't enough jobs that people are willing to do for the money others are willing to pay. If I knew someone near me was living on The problem isn't a lack of jobs, it's the draining of capital flow that happen when the monetary system dries up. Whether you believe that to be unfairness or just some players being so adept at the game... that doesn't matter. The ball needs to move or…

"There are always enough jobs." That's patently rubbish as can be seen all around the (1st) world at the moment.

However, I don't agree with the parent's comment that technology causes a lack of jobs - also obviously untrue if you look around you.

Currently we're on the tail-end of a recession, thus money isn't moving around, thus it's harder to insert one's self into the money stream.

As people start spending, jobs pick up. This is already happening in most of the richer parts of the recession hit world. Here in the UK, unemployment has been dropping steadily. New small businesses are appearing fast. Manufacturing's on the way up.

FWIW, I agree with everything after your very first sentence.

Re: Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

#39

Post by JackFr »

total__C wrote: post #31
_delirium wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comments on general news sites tend to be cesspools in general. Oddly, the same people posting weird vitriol about how America is being ruined by freeloading parasites seem to be: 1) not highly educated; and 2) able to spend hours and hours a day posting angry comments on news websites. I wonder where they're getting their own income from. Are they all retirees and students? People on SS disability? Stay-at-home pare…

Conservative political groups in the USA pay people to basically troll on major news sites/message boards/blogs: http://www.alternet.org/story/149197/are_right-wing_libertar...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines

"This story is a great demonstration of my maxim that any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word 'no.' The reason why journalists use that style of headline is that they know the story is probably bullshit, and don’t actually have the sources and facts to back it up, but still want to run it."

Re: Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

#40

Post by JonSkeptic »

hooande wrote: post #29

There were a few points that the article didn't bring up. I was surprised that they didn't discuss the speculative value of bitcoins. There's no way that the value of a dollar in your pocket will suddenly double, but the value of a bitcoin has and will again. Obviously volatility isn't all fun...would you want your salary paid in bitcions? In the current market you might actually come out ahead over the next few year…

>there's something to be said for everybody pitching in, even if just a little bit.

I'm not sure how clicking links on youtube could ever, in any reality or worldview, be considered "pitching in" in any significant way.

Bitcoin may be a great way for homeless people to make money, and it may have many benefits over carrying cash or having to wait on a pay check. All of that is good. But to say that clicking youtube links contributes any value to society (or really anything except youtube's advertising revenue) is outright ridiculous.

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