Cranius wrote:Well, he seems to have learnt something useful:

Do you need a college education? I don't think so. To be honest with you, I think I was disadvantaged, because my thinking was inside of a box.

Punchable, much?

That's EXACTALY what I picture nerdybear looks like.
Maybe with a little more eye shadow.

Marsupialized wrote:EXACTALY

That's spelled EXACTLY btw.

I believe he did what he says he did, but so what. His goal was to get a place to live and save $2500 in a year. He made it to $5000, then game over. Some lousy job, a pickup, and eating Rice-a-Roni every day isn't a life. A lot of people could have done the same. Especially if one had some performance art star-making stunt bullshit motivation.

What bothers me is that he thinks he's proved some sort of Everything's Wonderful, Land of Opportunities point.

I think the only way we can solve the homeless problem is by giving them all blackberries. Or iPhones. What with all the useful stuff right at your fingertips!

Skronk wrote:It's a little unnerving the way a few of you are painting the homeless, as if saying "lack of this", or "addiction" is going to accurately represent the vast majority of the homeless.

As if "white privilege" prevents whites from being in a similar situation.

It's fairly commonly known, I think, that most homeless in the U.S. are transiently homeless, if you'll pardon the pun. When I talk about Mr. Shithead's smug, naive, privileged, pointless "experiment," I'm gauging its relevance to the "hard case" homeless, the vast majority of whom do have some type of crippling problem or set of problems that affects their ability to climb out.

Also, fuck this guy.

STF wrote:What bothers me is that he thinks he's proved some sort of Everything's Wonderful, Land of Opportunities point.

Exactly.

What this smug, repellent bullshit really says is "See? The homeless will be fine. Stop worrying so much, America. Only the lazy ones will be left out in the cold. And they'll get exactly what they deserve."

joelb wrote:

Skronk wrote:It's a little unnerving the way a few of you are painting the homeless, as if saying "lack of this", or "addiction" is going to accurately represent the vast majority of the homeless.

As if "white privilege" prevents whites from being in a similar situation.

It's fairly commonly known, I think, that most homeless in the U.S. are transiently homeless, if you'll pardon the pun. When I talk about Mr. Shithead's smug, naive, privileged, pointless "experiment," I'm gauging its relevance to the "hard case" homeless, the vast majority of whom do have some type of crippling problem or set of problems that affects their ability to climb out.

Also, fuck this guy.

Oh, my point really had nothing to do with this guy or his experiment, I couldn't care less about that, but that homelessness can occur because of a myriad of reasons, not just the typical "drugs, mental problems, etc." line.

kerble wrote:someone should kidnap him, get him hooked on H, give him $25 bucks and see if he can do it again.

Or give him schizophrenia.

I have a hard time believing that ANYONE is homeless by choice.

Rick Reuben wrote:It would be impossible for one single person to conduct an experiment that reflected every variety of challenge faced by the myriad of homeless. His experiment only shows what can happen to *one* type of person who enters homelessness in the manner he designed.

I'm genuinely curious: what do you think the utility of this experiment was? Do you think it shows something important or new or interesting about the problem of homelessness?

Rick Reuben wrote:Problem is, steve has not answered when asked how the guy cheated his way out of homelessness. He only addresses who the guy was, *before* he began his experiment.

I said he wasn't part of the class that is homeless, he merely pretended to be. He had 20-odd years head start to learn all the adaptive skills that allow one to maneuver through situations like pretending to be homeless for a while. He never had to make a difficult choice about his conduct or means because he could give up at any time and go back to being comfortable. He made his choices with no risk, so they were all purely based on preference.

If you walk a tightrope over Niagra Falls, every step will matter more to you if you will die if you fall. If you are tethered to a hot air balloon, the worst that can happen is a momentary thrill and maybe a blush of disappointment.

This fuck never had to decide between doing something illegal to survive or getting a job -- he knew from experience that he could get a job, and he would never be in the position of considering doing something illegal because his "rules" (as made possible by the credit card in his pocket) didn't allow it.

He also knew from 20-odd years of socialization how to disarm people, lie convincingly, present himself as nonthreatening, speak at the level of his employers, etc.

Let's see him start with 20 years in a fucking hovel with no familial support, no household stability, no stable peers, the legal system fucking with him constantly, etc. Let's see him start where poor people start, then we'll talk.