My theory on the homeless...
 

Inspired by this post...
Now this is just a THEORY based on observation. Please educate me with facts and information if you know something I don't.

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I live in San Diego, a fairly expensive city to live in. I live a block away from a large University, meaning my cost of living may be higher than other areas of the city due to space.

I figured out my daily cost of living. Granted, this includes no "extras" or "luxuries", but honestly I really don't buy that type of stuff.

Monthly rent: $415
Phone bill: $7
Electric bill: $15
Cable bill: $10
Internet bill: $50
Food bill (I eat good, too): $150

Grand total: $647

Which comes out to about $22 daily. It costs me around $22 a day to live fairly comfortably and happy. Now, a homeless person wouldn't have a good chunk of these expenses.

Monthly rent: shelters and hostels, no?
Phone bill: no bill, let's say $5 for pay phone use.
Electric bill: no electric bill.
Cable bill: no cable bill.
Internet bill: no Internet bill.
Food bill: when I first moved out I was living on $100 monthly eating crap. We'll say that.

Grand total: $105

A homeless man would need around $3-4 daily to break even. Anything over that $3-4 daily could be saved, spent on "extras" (medicine, entertainment, better food, drugs, alcohol, etc), or it could be used to better his life (buy new clothes and look for jobs.)

Ok, so homeless man needs $4 daily. Now how the hell does homeless man get $4 daily? Well, I often see homeless people recycling cans and bottles for cash (every week I give a neighborhood homeless man over 100 bottles to recycle), I ALWAYS see homeless people asking for spare change or food, OR they could go out on a limb and spruce up just a bit so they can get a job.

What jobs? Our economy sucks!

Whether you want to believe it or not, there are still plenty of jobs around. I see them all the time. One of the main reasons people always claim there are no jobs available is because they would NEVER consider working at any of the available jobs. Fast food, janitorial, washing cars, street sales, etc.

So again, this is just my weak theory. I've pointed out how much money is needed to live (and grow) and I've also pointed out ways to make that little amount of needed cash.

Why are there homeless people?

cuz they are lazy


and 10 dolla electricy !??????????!11111

Your cost of living is ridiculously low. I couldnt even run a laptop and desktop for $15 a month in electricity. $415 rent? I pay $680 for a 1 bedroom shithole. Food bill? I spend $250 a month on lunches alone.

You might find some answers here if you are interested.

no solution to people who are not willing to help themselves

I live in a 3 bedroom, decent apartment. Monthly rent is $1250. You spend $250 on lunches alone? You either eat way too much or you eat out every day.

Most have mental problems and/drug/alcohol problems.Any sane person would work anywhere rather than live like that

i'm a capitalist libertarian (in your lingo)...

basically, work asshole. don't tax me. stay the fuck out of my life.

a lot of homeless ppl have mental illnesses or addictions to drugs or alcohol. i wouldn't say homeless ppl are just lazy.

Thats only $8.30 a day for lunch.. Unless you go to McDonalds every day thats not much.

damn you are living cheap

Bingo.

It's kinda obvious you live at your mom's place. (lol)

1 : If a 400 $ rent was expensive then what the fuck now ! Unless you live with 5 people in a medium appartement it's kinda impossible

Electric bill: $15 = ROFLMAO

and btw, homeless people can't cook so they gotta go at the restaurent . They pay way more than it cost you make your home food ... And eating on 150 $ a month is possible I dunno ... you gotta eat lot of TOFU and that kidn of shit .

OK for an apartment you'd need the down payment. You'd have to save up for that. You need transportation to and from work. Figure a $2.10 bus ride a day if you're lucky, maybe $8 if you're not so lucky(which is more likely, since most of the low wage jobs require a commute to a more affluent area). You need to eat, but you have no refridgerator or stove so you have to eat out. You COULD get fresh food but they don't sell that in the ghetto, they only sell fast food. You CAN get a refridgerator but without the money and no credit you'd have to rent one for a ridiculous amount.

You can't even get a bank account because again, there's no banks in the ghetto. You have to use a check cashing place that takes a chunk of your profit, that's more money gone. It's ALOT more expensive to live as a poor person than a person who has something to start out with.

So you eat out every day then? I don't eat out.

Haha, ok, forget about my expenses. LOL. What can I say, I invest most of my income. :winkwink:

he doesn't live at his mom's place. i didn't bother reading the rest.

Ok, I'm busted. I live with mommy and daddy.

You have the luxory of being able to store/prepare food in your place of residence. You're alot luckier for that than you think.

its all about circumstances, you cant pt a figure or a reason as to why their homeles.

i garauntee any one of you, that if you spent 1 week on the street in the cold by the end of that week you would be sick, tierd and have lost hope.........these people have nothing its not always their fault. and even if it is its your duty to help them, if you where in the situation you would want help too.


humans help weach other out, but i see in american society its all about "me me me" you dont care about anyone elses problems, only yourself which is realy selfish and fucked up.

much cheaper to eat out, than to cook at home...

oh shit this is funny.

We don't know why people are in the positions they are in. I knew a guy that was homeless, because is house burned down (yes he had insurance) but he lost his wife and kids in the fire. He fell apart and just lived on the street. Went sort of crazy.

You do have a good point about meals costing more and meal preparation. However, I know of quite a few places that give free meals to the homeless.

Transportation over $2-3 a day? If you're lazy, sure. Most cities have small "niche communities". Now based on where you would be staying (a shelter or hostel) you would need to find some place relatively close to work at. If you need to walk 2-5 miles to work, so be it. A lot of people do it. Spending the extra money on the bus tickets is a choice, not a necessity.

Hey man I'm sure lots of underpriveladged people would love to live on ramen noodles but it's kinda hard to scrape up the money for a stove.

Plus food is way more expensive in the hood. I lost my license once and the only way to get to college was the bus. I had to stop in Paterson every day(people in NJ will know where I'm talking about). I'd usually end up spending a good amount of time there around lunch or dinner time so sometimes I'd eat there. Even at major chains, the food prices are jacked way up. Supply and demand.

for fuck sakes. i lived off of no name brand soup for most of my university years. it was like 40 cents for a bowl. all you needed was hot water.

bah...

you can buy a soup at a 7-11, and have it warmed in the microwave. are you trying to be funny?

Alot of these places turn people away all the time. Especially since 9/11 people started donating money to the red cross and totally forgot about the homeless and other charities. It's all about location though. If you're in the suburbs there's usually somewhere to go but you're basically screwed if you're stuck in a place where the people around you don't have extra money to give.

I know he don't was just fucking arround but his expense are kinda crazy ... can't live with that kind of money .

The hood doesn't have 7-11, every block consists of a bodega, liquor store, fried chicken place and either a check cashing place or a church.

I like ketchup soup.It reminds me of the times I had to struggle to make it work..It builds character:glugglug

Most homeless people are homeless because they really cant cope with having to do things for themselfs they just cant get orginized enough and weather this is caused by just being to lazy or drug problem dosent matter.
Even here in Aus where the welfare system is way over the top we still have homeless people even thou we pay the rent and give them up 1000$ a month to live on they are still homeless many say they cant cope with the welfare office and forms they must fill out. so they live on the street.

Mr noodles rock !

The homeless in my area that I am aware of...are strung out druggies...or alchoholics. They are that by choice. I would assume that they could not...or would not hold a job if they had one.

An anecdotal story.

I took in a homeless person one time (he was holding up a sign that said will work for food)...bought the person some clothes...got the person a job (a night floor man at a supermarket) and after about ten days or so...I left for the weekend on a trip. When I returned my house had been ransacked...and when I checked the person did not show up for work on the very night of the day I left. A couple of years later I coincidently spotted him in another city...looking even scroungier than when I had first saw him panhandling on the street. I approached him with the intentions of kicking his ass...but he was so stoned that he didn't recognize me...so I let it slide. I have not taken in a homeless person since. I personally believe that 90% of the homeless are homeless by the decisions they have made and continue to make. Fuck 'em.

you like to take an already silly senario to the extreme. so why not buy a 4th hand boiling pot from the hood pawn shop, and plug it into the parking lot outlet of some bastard walmart manager - boil water. eat soup.

fucking stupid.

ramen noodles at walmart is less than 25 cents.

Alot of that depends on location too. I think the more poverty-stricken the neighborhood, the more sincere the homeless are. There's alot of lazy pricks out there that are just living like hobo's mooching off society. The people who really need and deserve help are the ones in situations so bad you'll probably never get a chance to see them unless you make a wrong turn into the projects.

Because that would take work.

I think what cluck is really trying to tell us is that homeless people are really either too lazy or too stupid to take care of themselves. Thus, they need help.

i will give money to a homeless person if they do something for it like pick up the trash on the corner theyre begging at.


....an idea ive been thinking about and am going to try is to pay homeless people to hold cardboard signs with my URL on it at busy intersections and it will say:

I am homeless because I spent all my money at HTTP://WWW.FANTASYENTERTAINMENT.NET

Well most of the ones you'll meet on the street are too lazy or stupid and fuck them. You know homeless people in the village are just trying to take the easy way out and beg people for money. If they can get into china town they can find some cheap food or something.

You have to go to a real bad area to actually find the people you can feel bad for. Alot of the people are even going to work but still can't get an apartment. Alot of that shit depends on credit history too.

I think this is exactly what most of us have been saying. :winkwink:

Walk a mile in their shoes.


Funny thing about life. There's this thing people like to call Karma, or say what goes around comes around, reap what you sow...etc.

Well, that funny thing is that life will throw you such a breaking curve sometimes and test you on what you say.

Instant Karma's a motherfucker.