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Old 08-28-2015, 05:00 PM
 
14,376 posts, read 18,273,587 times
Reputation: 43042

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr_Geek View Post
Thanks Dr. Freud.

I'm glad I'm not at a point in my life where I have to look for discussion topics to complain about because I need reasons to be miserable.
Well, I didn't imply that you were the scum of the earth (you know, like most of the posters were implying about the folks who are the topic of this thread). Just that you have some issues. And I wasn't really complaining, just kind of appalled by the anger at people who are at the bottom of the barrel. It's a little different. But if you're jealous of them, it's not like you need to fill out an application to have that glamorous lifestyle they've achieved - go for it.

Personally? I'll just appreciate the heck out of my rather stressful 50+-hours a week job, my mortgage and my relatively cushy lifestyle in which I am surrounded by friends, family and pets and get to partake in hobbies that a homeless person generally could not afford.

Have you talked to some of these people? A lot of them (if not most) have mental illness that really precludes them actually functioning in a normal way. Sadly, many of those are highly treatable mental illnesses, but we've got a crap system for dealing with that kind of thing.

A lot of them DO have an entitlement attitude after being raised in highly dysfunctional circumstances or maybe just because of a personality disorder. Whatever. Some people can pull themselves out of their bad background while others just embrace it and let it drag them down. There's always gonna be people like that. Does it mean their lives are worthless and they are unworthy of being afforded basic human dignity? I guess to some folks.

But we're generally not talking about people who come from a lot of advantages or have all their mental faculties when we're talking about the long-term homeless. I don't see the point in scorning or deriding them.

You don't have to give 'em money beyond what you pay in taxes. I get that. I don't give homeless people money when I encounter them as a general rule though I do donate to charities that support them when I can. But if you're really mad about your taxes, you might want to advocate for reductions in military spending before you go picking on the dregs of society. I just don't see the point in all the dripping contempt in this thread.
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Old 08-28-2015, 05:13 PM
 
Location: Hookerville, formerly in Tweakerville
15,111 posts, read 32,143,493 times
Reputation: 9689
Quote:
Originally Posted by UrbanCrossroads View Post
No, that's a lie. Obamaphones are basic cellphones, not smartphones. Anybody who claims that they saw somebody carrying an "Iphone Obamaphone" is full of crap.
Incorrect.

I have an Obamaphone, and it's an S2, on Lifeline. The battery life is about 4 hours, and I use it for making calls when my S5 is on the charger. Both of the phones were free - I qualified for the S2 because I have Medi-Cal, and T mobile gave me the S5 for free because I've been a customer for so long. The S2 is technically worthless, and Sprint sends me text messages every week to use it.
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Old 08-28-2015, 05:31 PM
 
Location: Planet Earth
2,776 posts, read 3,038,575 times
Reputation: 5022
Quote:
Originally Posted by moved View Post
Incorrect.

I have an Obamaphone, and it's an S2, on Lifeline. The battery life is about 4 hours, and I use it for making calls when my S5 is on the charger. Both of the phones were free - I qualified for the S2 because I have Medi-Cal, and T mobile gave me the S5 for free because I've been a customer for so long. The S2 is technically worthless, and Sprint sends me text messages every week to use it.
Wish my clients had something as good as the S2 many of the clients have the Samsung S150G.
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Old 08-28-2015, 07:31 PM
 
Location: Elsewhere
88,056 posts, read 83,895,248 times
Reputation: 114291
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoCUBS1 View Post
Yes, that's true. You can tell who is desperately in need. Like the dirty, frail-looking woman at my train station pushing around a shopping cart which contains her sleeping mat, life possessions, and all the cans and half-sandwiches she pulls out from the garbage. I also have seen her sleeping under an overpass. That is a person I can buy food for. A guy on a corner with a sign and a new cell phone? No.
My daughter left a restaurant in NYC with her boxed leftovers and she said a man came up to her and he was crying and asking for help because he was hungry. She held out the food and told him it was vegetarian food, half expecting him to walk away because it wasn't money. She said he kept crying but took the box and opened it and started stuffing the food in his mouth with his fingers. So sad.
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Old 08-28-2015, 08:10 PM
 
Location: Elsewhere
88,056 posts, read 83,895,248 times
Reputation: 114291
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted Bear View Post
Hey, its a career for most of them. Some practice law; others are bank tellers or auto mechanics. Some are panhandlers. It provides a pretty good living.

And there is no shortage of gullible citizens who are afraid to say "go the salvation army" or the "homeless shelter" and they will provide everything they need. Instead, folks perpetuate the scam.

Sure...there are some who really need. it. Their entire life is usually loaded in a shopping cart, they have obvious mental or physical (not like the guy with the "missing leg" folded underneath him) challenges, and there is a very altruistic feeling associated with helping them out.

The guy with the Nike shoes, or the i-phone? Maybe no.
My own father was a double amputee, WWII, so I knew that the guy I saw yesterday couldn't possibly be faking. The stumps were wrapped and at approximately the same point of amputation as Dad, just below the knee. Perhaps he was a vet, too.

Lots of them among the homeless.
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Old 08-28-2015, 08:19 PM
 
Location: Planet Earth
2,776 posts, read 3,038,575 times
Reputation: 5022
Quote:
Originally Posted by UrbanCrossroads View Post
No, that's a lie. Obamaphones are basic cellphones, not smartphones. Anybody who claims that they saw somebody carrying an "Iphone Obamaphone" is full of crap.
I have helped clients fill out paper work for these Obamaphones...they received a giant piece of crap phone. The phone is not made for elders or people who have hand/mobility issues.
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Old 08-28-2015, 08:40 PM
 
Location: StlNoco Mo, where the woodbine twineth
10,000 posts, read 8,510,809 times
Reputation: 14545
Earlier this summer I encountered a panhandler. I had to get groceries and a couple of furnace filters and both the grocery store and the hardware store were in the same shopping center but a long distance across the parking lot from each other. I decided to go to the hardware store first and then drive across the parking lot to get the groceries. After I left the hardware store I notice a cop zoom up behind me and block me in as I parked at the grocery store. He wrote me a ticket for not having my seatbelt on, that ended up costing $15.00. I was now in a bad mood when I came out of the store pushing the cart and I noticed someone getting out of a nice looking SUV a couple rows up but didn't pay much attention to him. As I was loading bags into my trunk I hear some guy say " Excuse me sir " he seemed to be out of breath, probably from running to catch up to me. He started telling me how he was laid off and he needed money to pay his bills and buy his boy a birthday present. I told him I already donated for the day and slammed my trunk and drove off making sure I was fastened in. Sometimes I feel like I'm a plate of brownies at an office party, everybody grabbing.
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Old 08-28-2015, 09:45 PM
 
Location: Living rent free in your head
42,745 posts, read 25,916,011 times
Reputation: 33842
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheBestInTheWorld View Post
I find seeing La'-sha standing in the grocery checkout line with her brand new har did, ooking into her sail foam, paying for her cart full of name brand junk food with her EBT card, much more irritating.
You know what I find irritating? racist trolls
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Old 08-28-2015, 09:53 PM
 
1,589 posts, read 1,175,674 times
Reputation: 1097
Quote:
Originally Posted by aliasfinn View Post
Sometimes I feel like I'm a plate of brownies at an office party, everybody grabbing.
Next time you start feeling all sorry for yourself, go spend a few hours at the soup kitchen or the homeless shelter. See if that doesn't turn you around a little.

Did you ever on a hot day fill up a couple of coolers with some Deer Park, dump a bag of ice cubes in there, then drive downtown and pass those bottles out to homeless people?
Why not?
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Old 08-28-2015, 10:36 PM
 
36 posts, read 28,451 times
Reputation: 143
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2sleepy View Post
You know what I find irritating? racist trolls
Racist?? I'm supposed to enjoy seeing La'-sha standing in the grocery checkout line with her brand new har did, ooking into her sail foam, paying for her cart full of name brand junk food with her EBT card?

You really should take your intolerance and bigotry elsewhere.
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