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Lets test the theory
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2024
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It didn't end that quick, but he stopped after 9 months due to health concerns. The goal was to earn $1 million in a year, he had earned $62k.
And IIRC, he only did so through siphoning off the value of free facebook/craigslist furniture.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13332399/Millionaire-Mike-Black-homeless-broke-purpose-ends-bizarre-social-experiment.html
It sucks that the only reporting on this is shitty tabloids.
Don't forget he accepted charity in the form of free housing and donations that were likely only available to him through existing connections.
Also this:
So this dipshit learned nothing. He failed, and would probably have died in the gutter, but instead he pulled the ripcord and bailed on poverty in a way that isn't available to 99% of humans on earth.
He had knowledge and connections to the upper echelons and he couldn't make it, and when health concerns arose he went back to his money because it sucks to be working poor and in need of medical assistance.
He also didn’t have the stress that would come from actual failure with no money.
Bankruptcy, homelessness and real poverty fuck up your ability to succeed in a vastly underrated way.
Exactly. The calculus for taking risks is vastly different when there's a safety net. You can treat it as a game and go all in.
On the other hand if there's even a small chance of losing housing or getting in legal trouble or your family being destitute you take no risks - if you are a person with a sense of responsibility that is.
Yup, or you take maybe a couple risks in a lifetime, but if they don't pan out you suffer from them for years as you go back to stability and try to regain what little of a toehold on a good life you might have had.
The very real lesson for the poor is "don't try," especially if you have dependents. You'll be knocked back harder than you can imagine.
These mfs don't know what it's like to see loved ones start losing teeth because you made a failed push and now you're paying it back with interest.
You can see how this structure favours the most sociopathic members of society, as they are the ones that will take more risks without regard for others.
His father got cancer during the experiment. He considered ending it then, but he continued with the experiment.
Imagine having that sort of choice. He didn't have to skip work to take his dad to appointments. He didn't have to eat ramen to afford chemo. It was only when his own health was at risk that he pulled the plug.
Imagine a world where everybody had that sort of safety net. Just like, "Nope, shit's too hard."
For most people, it's easier to become homeless than it is for the homeless to extricate themselves from it.
This is all political horseshit. It's not that hard to get out of homelessness, I was homeless a lot in my late teens and early twenties. Of course freezing to death in a Canadian winter is a strong motivator. Fucking taking a shower and doing work that you'd rather not is all it takes if you're not mentally fucked or strung out
As someone who was homeless for 2 ½ years in Los Angeles, I disagree with you.
And despite my efforts to get a new job after being laid off, I'm about to be back on the streets. So maybe, right now, I don't wanna hear it.
Oh look. Exactly who I'm talking about showed up. You're not willing to do what it takes, you'd rather be homeless in LA than working in Oxnard
You have a twisted sense of what "rather" means. I can't get to fucking Oxnard, I have no car.
I'm spending what little money I have to store what little possessions I have, to get a mailbox, and a gym membership. Because you need an address, and a place to clean up, and a place to change clothes...or just vibe for a little before going back and dealing with the bullshit of homelessness.
How much is it gonna cost to move to Oxnard without established housing? What employer is going to provide me with immediate housing? How far is the housing from the employer? How good is the transit? If bad, is the money from the employer sufficient to get a car in the area? Are the cars reasonably priced?
Also, what's the work? I have multiple injuries that prevent me from doing certain work. I'm older and overweight (largely due to those injuries), so my options are limited. I have mental health issues that need regular maintenance, how's the emperor's healthcare package, or do they pay enough to get my own insurance?
Unless you can guarantee me a residence for free, you might wanna start looking at the nuances of why someone is homeless in the first place.
I'm more than willing to move to a new location, but moving isn't cheap, even with a few boxes of necessities, it can be a massive hassle.
So maybe instead of judging me or anyone else, start providing concrete fucking answers, instead of vague bullshit that strokes your ego.
Yeah, but answers are hard, much easier to be a judgemental prick. (And people like that call people like us lazy...)
Fucking hell man, I was homeless too because of financial reasons (tried something and it didn't work). It's true it's a huge advantage on most people in that situation if you've just got your head screwed on right and your eye on the prize.
We were lucky.
But even then, the label starts to stick to you after a while. Having made the same excuse of just "having come from the gym" because you carry all your shit to interviews in a duffel bag, starts to ring hollow. You start getting looks or thinking you're getting looks when you realize people know (how could they know? You work so hard to cover it up). You just start to feel homeless.
Not everyone can shake that off so easily. And yeah, maybe they've got other shit going on that act as comorbidities to homelessness. It's actually more likely than not, otherwise they wouldn't be homeless.
I can tell by the way you speak that in your current frame of mind you probably don't have the mental space to stop and consider what this is like. So I just hope you meet someone more empathetic than yourself if ever your luck turns sour again - especially if you don't have your health and all your faculties to pull your through like last time.
Blah blah blah. You people are fucking tiresome
Lol
Even the stress of worrying about money. Yeah you can take out a loan for your risky business venture when you know you won't have to worry about paying it back. Yeah, you can couch surf for a while when you aren't staring down the next few decades of your life.
Right, those 62k he did earn would have been gone and him probably homeless as soon as his health issues got worse. It's a reality for a lot of Americans. Also those 62k he earned were thanks to all the education and experience he was able to get thanks to his privilege. Most people aren't fortunate enough to have his level of education and experience to help them even get to 62k. I make 25 percent less than that and still feel fortunate of where I got to since I came from absolutely nothing.
Yea, he flipped free furniture off of Facebook. Only a rich asshole would come up with an idea like that
"If I can be a parasite, you can too*"
* just ignore that I didn't again become a millionaire like I said I would. And just ignore all the experience and schooling I started with that others don't.
This video was such absolute bull crap lol. He randomly found some dude on like his SECOND night homeless that let him stay in a spare room for free.
Then he flipped free stuff on Craigslist and Facebook for cash which is... fine I guess. A little sleazy but whatever. Magically found transportation and the ability to store and haul this stuff all over town but never explained any of that.
Then he majestically found someone to cosign and provide initial payments to rent like a four bedroom house that he sublet to 3 other tenants... So he found some random guy to COSIGN for him which is crazy knowing how much liability that puts on you while ALSO finding a landlord that is allowing a guy with no job, no income, no credit, no prior residences, and no money to not only rent from him with a random co signer but also allowing him to sublet to three other random ass people the landlord will never even meet. This is possible... But EXTREMELY unlikely. Also, the fact that this dude tries to do a homeless challenge by immediately becoming a landlord is pretty funny ngl. Also it's worth noting that his final number ($64k or whatever) was revenue not profit. He said himself he was making about 50% profit so he made closer to around $30k on the year.
And on top of all that, the fact that he cites health issues as this unforeseen unfortunate issue that got in the way of his inevitable success is kinda rich. That's... kinda the deal with poverty. You fall on hard times. Health often falls apart. Unexpected expenses destroy you. It can and often does completely tear your world apart. Thems the breaks man lol. Dude just experienced life a little and quit.
It sounds like he wasn't using his money directly but might have used his ability to access his money to build "credit" with others.
Used his existing social credit too. All his random business successes during those 9 months were from "I know a guy that might want in on this" kind of crap.
Or scammed someone really hard which is worse.
I mean, it's possible but unless he specifically said that he wouldn't use his identity during the experiment, just proving who he was would be enough to trivialize the risk of even a significant loan for most people. A lender would know that whatever happens, either they'll get paid back by him from within the experiment or he'll pay them back as the billionaire after the experiment, maybe even rounding up to the next significant digit or something crazy like that (but still trivial for him).
Also, "I was doing an experiment" isn't a defense against fraud. Though him being a billionaire probably means that the only penalty would be paying back the victim with maybe a little extra plus legal fees or hush money.
Nitpicking, but that's also not like a sustainable way to conduct oneself in a society. Like his only "service" was inserting himself as an unnecessary middleman.
If everyone did that you'd have nothing but grifters making money moves on eachother, and nothing would ever get actually made. Basically, it's not the kind of work which produces new value through labour.
Which maybe if the point idk, I'm not a total parasite
Ah, so despite having tons of advantages, they were able to find themselves right smack dab at an average income. Nice.
I could be wrong but isn't that more than most people make in 12 months?
So it might not be possible to make millions, but for someone who has the loose ethics of millionaires it's still possible to make significant money starting from scratch. The issue being the unethical/exploitative behavior needed to get there.
He didn't really start from scratch, though. He used connections and training he had from before he embarked on this "experiment".
That, and getting free stuff online and selling it for profit is kind of shitty.
That's what I mean by loose ethics and exploitation.
Eh, that's a common hustle among people who need money.
Not really something to be held up as an example of success. Not everyone can do that, or it wouldn't work. Plus there are people who could use that free stuff that he's essentially stealing from. Just goes to show that this guy has no ethics.
Honestly, I would argue at least a portion of those items would get thrown away if he hadn't gotten them. When someone wants something gone, and when a different person wants to acquire that particular thing don't always align. It's tweaker arbitrage, but it's not that big a deal IMHO.
The real moral failing from my perspective is not recognizing how much help he got, and how 'lucky' he was.
But the kind of thing rich people do. Also, why does lemmy say that you answered @Zorque@lemmy.world before they even wrote their comment?
Anybody can get training at a community college or do networking. This isn't exclusive to millionaires.
One of his connections provided him with free housing
0-62k in a year aint bad tbf
Sure, without any debt plus free housing and donations from folks you already know.
In the middle of a pandemic, no less.
Using a free car that "magically" fell into his lap, whats more.
You'd be surprised at the things you can get for free simply for not being an onerous person.
Sure, the a pick-up magically landing in his lap for free, at the exact moment he needed one, because he wasn't difficult to deal with is way more believable than "he lied and it wasn't even a good lie."
Well, with that attitude I’m not surprised this hasn’t happened to you because you’d probably end up blaming the person who gave it to you if anything goes wrong with it.
Lol, maybe I should just decide people who see the world for what it is as having a bad attitude, like you instead?
Even cheating he couldn't come close. Thats about all there is to it.
Hey, it's a free country, you can believe whatever you want to.
Very true, you can believe in magical cars falling into your lap for free, just at the exact second you need one for your YouTube video, atlantis, alchemy or even the tooth fairy, if you like.