Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins • Hacker News Board

Re: Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

#101

Post by qstyk » Fri, Sep 20, 2013, 5:14 PM UTC

john_b wrote: post #94

rorrr2 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they are doing work for money They are doing one of the least productive things I can imagine. They are actually wasting public electricity and services. It's fine if they are mentally ill, or disabled, but I doubt that's the case.

Charging their laptop at a library intended for use by the public (which they are a part of) burns less energy than someone who leaves their air conditioner running while they go get groceries. Most homeless people go out of their way to not waste public resources and services because they are used to criticisms like this, usually issued from a vantage point of indifference and ignorance.

I believe the actual resource being referred to is the aforementioned human capital. The article mentioned that he was a network engineer, a career path that can easily command $60K/year on the low end.

Network engineers that show up to work and crank out widgets don't get to stay in that position. Those that seek to learn and grow, while reliably performing there jobs are typically the last on the chopping block and if they do get RIF-ed, have a strong market to fall back on. This is a good use of his time. Figuring out ways to mindlessly click/watch garbage resources on the Internet to scrape up an occasional pizza is laughable, when compared to his potential. Based on the information presented in the form it was, this looks more like a failure of the person than the system.

Speaking of information presented, I see no reason to think you have any more insight into a homeless person's motivation than you do for passive-aggressively insinuating the poster you are responding to is indifferent and ignorant.

Re: Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

#102

Post by NovemberWest » Fri, Sep 20, 2013, 5:19 PM UTC

konceptz wrote: post #79

NovemberWest wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't these people get jobs? I am currently homeless. I am not looking for a job because I am medically handicapped. I walked away from a job with a Fortune 500 company that was helping to keep me ill. My condition is very expensive, thus my job amounted to a net loss in income. Since quitting and sleeping in a tent, I have paid down thousands of dollars in debt incurred during the years I had that job. I am curr…

I'm a student studying cs and would be happy to donate some dev time to any of your web projects. edit: How would we proceed?

There is a link in my profile. The landing page has an email at the bottom.

Thank you.

Re: Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

#103

Post by uberstuber » Fri, Sep 20, 2013, 5:21 PM UTC

lifeformed wrote: post #73

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…

I wonder if Amazon's Mechanical Turk pays in Bitcoins? That seems like a better choice than watching YouTube vids. You could earn much more than 60 cents a day.

They don't

Re: Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

#104

Post by Helianthus » Fri, Sep 20, 2013, 5:22 PM UTC

twoodfin wrote: post #87

Helianthus wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There are always enough jobs. There aren't enough jobs that people are willing to do for the money others are willing to pay. Nice. "Work willing to be done for others willing to pay" is what defines a job. It only took you two sentences to make the rest of your post into rubbish capitalist handwaving. >If I knew someone near me was living on Please do this actually. Someone near you is living on "It's not practical…

Someone near you is living on Oh yeah? Running $0 worth of income through a SNAP benefits calculator tells me that an individual with no job is entitled to $200/month. That's one anti-poverty program that blows past your <$1/day by almost an order of magnitude.

Wow, you and your fancy calculator sure showed me.

Anti-poverty programs don't automagically give $200 to everyone with no job. And (I assume) the $1/day was a somewhat arbitrary value anyway.

Re: Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

#105

Post by sidko » Fri, Sep 20, 2013, 5:23 PM UTC

abuda wrote: post #95

sidko wrote: post #92

Just so everyone knows, the calculation with watching videos at BitcoinGet is wrong. They would be making 6 cents for watching 12 videos and not 60 cents. This makes it even less of an incentive to go there. I am surprised they do. The site pays 40uBTC/video, which converts to 40*10^-6BTC = 0.00004BTC = $0.005(assuming 125USD/BTC) = 0.5 cents/video = 6 cents/12 videos. Also, it is a Silicon Valley startup Virool that…

If true, seems like a pretty big oversight by the author and editor. They claim 0.0004 BTC per view, when in reality it's 0.00004? Your math checks out, but I'm not familiar with what the site actually pays. While it was a good read about the other merits of bitcoin, there's a pretty huge difference between earning 60 cents a day vs 6 cents a day...

I am pretty sure that the payout per video is 40 micro bitcoin (it was recently dropped from 50 micro bitcoin). Unfortunately to see this number, you need to register. It's a common amount for watching one Virool video (e.g. another site ABitBack pays only 30 micro Bitcoin per Virool video).

I am surprised too that the error hasn't been corrected yet. The difference is 10 times, which isn't insignificant.

Re: Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

#106

Post by twoodfin » Fri, Sep 20, 2013, 5:23 PM UTC

cool100 wrote: post #98

twoodfin wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone near you is living on Oh yeah? Running $0 worth of income through a SNAP benefits calculator tells me that an individual with no job is entitled to $200/month. That's one anti-poverty program that blows past your <$1/day by almost an order of magnitude.

Not everyone is eligible.

http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/applicant_recipients/eligibilit...

Anyone with $2000 in a bank account or other "countable" resources.

Re: Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

#107

Post by ameoba » Fri, Sep 20, 2013, 5:27 PM UTC

rjwebb wrote: post #57

SolarNet wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the idea is that his laptop could be stolen/robbed. They are often worth a bit of money. But I bet there is a performance/age/fencing/cost point where it isn't worth it to rob someone for it.

Do thieves understand this?

Crackheads trying to get their next fix just take any sort of electronics and get $10-20 for it. It doesn't generally matter what it is - they'll take it if they can get their hands on it & want to unload it ASAP. If they've been strung out & off the grid long enough, they might not know the difference between a walkman and a iPhone.

A professional thief, OTOH, probably does know what's worth taking and what's worth keeping. The problem is that, while committing a robbery, you don't exactly have the time or resources to go on eBay and price check everything you see. It's more practical to take everything that might be valuable & then figure out what's worth trying to sell after the fact.

Re: Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

#108

Post by twoodfin » Fri, Sep 20, 2013, 5:27 PM UTC

hosh wrote: post #80

Taylorious wrote: post #50

Love the picture of the "homeless" guy using a laptop newer than mine, with his pet, nice bike, playing a video game while he smokes a cig. He also has an energy drink... as if he needs it to get through his day of sitting around. It's people like him who are hurting the homeless people that are actually in need.

Wow, you guys talking about how this guy should have an apartment or something because he has a laptop are lacking in empathy. When was the last time you met the eyes of one of these good-for-nothing, lazy, bad-smelling, disgusting … things ? If you can't even meet eyes with a homeless person, let alone really observing the person, you can't even put yourself into their shoes, feel what they feel, and see the world f…

When was the last time you met the eyes of one of these good-for-nothing, lazy, bad-smelling, disgusting … things?

That's a fairly vile perspective to project onto someone you're trying to have a productive conversation with.

Please treat folks on hn with a bit more respect.

Re: Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

#109

Post by Aloisius » Fri, Sep 20, 2013, 5:30 PM UTC

kjackson2012 wrote: post #46

_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…

I'm politically centrist, supporting neither the Republicans nor the Democrats. I was opposed to the recent $40B food stamp cuts that the Republicans passed in the House, until I read this article. Angie appears to be collecting food stamps, instead of trying to find a real job, which it sounds like he could get. The premise of the Food Stamp cuts were that eligibility was too broad, and people were abusing the syste…

Out of curiosity, what percentage of people on food stamps do you think are like this guy?

Re: Homeless, Unemployed, and Surviving on Bitcoins

#110

Post by twoodfin » Fri, Sep 20, 2013, 5:31 PM UTC

Helianthus wrote: post #104

twoodfin wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone near you is living on Oh yeah? Running $0 worth of income through a SNAP benefits calculator tells me that an individual with no job is entitled to $200/month. That's one anti-poverty program that blows past your <$1/day by almost an order of magnitude.

Wow, you and your fancy calculator sure showed me. Anti-poverty programs don't automagically give $200 to everyone with no job. And (I assume) the $1/day was a somewhat arbitrary value anyway.

My point was simply that it's a wild exaggeration to assume there are more than a handful of people in the United States who are involuntarily living on <$1/day. Whether it's "arbitrary" or not, it's not even close to reality.