Yes, it WOULD be seedy web-entrepeneurs often known for their spam (namely, shady online poker sites) that would use bums as advertising, and it’s here to stay. What did the fine homeless chap above get from the kind bum-spammer? Why, the princely sum of $5, a package of Fig Newtons, and bottled water, according to the Seatlle Post-Intelligencer:
Now several times a week [Ben Rogovy, poker site entrepeneur] steps into his four-door Mercedes, dressed in a button-down shirt, and goes hunting, as he puts it, for “good, consistent beggars.” Then he makes an offer — a bit of food and water, plus $1 to $5, according to each panhandler’s relative value, a determination Rogovy calculates in his head, based largely on traffic patterns. In the past month, he has hired about a dozen vagrant sign-holders.
“I am fascinated by these people, out there from dawn to dusk,” he said. “It was so much untapped labor. Some of them were working longer days than I was.”
So is he helping the homeless by giving them a li’l cash, some water and maybe a morsel to feed on? Or is he exploiting them for cheap advertising, inciting vagrants to fill the landscape with his “irl spam” as they stand out in the hot sun instead of seeking shelter? I’ll let you be the judge of that one. But I have to say, the fact that guy has no qualms about “valuing” a homeless person as low as a dollar is pretty damned rough. Make you wonder what kind of sweat shop conditions this guy would want to impose if he were your boss.
Just for curiosity’s sake, one must wonder what kind of pop-up blocker is required to get ride of a homeless man that’s hell-bent on getting you to give him booze money AND take a chance at blackjack at GoGetScammed.com.
I, personally, picture a giant flyswatter.
Oh, right, and testing one two three, testing one two three, this is Pengy trying to make a comment and hoping that the coding to your site doesn’t give me a big “EFF YOU, JERKFACE” again.
This is ridiculous, can we say “exploitation”??? If I were that homeless person I would do unto him what he did unto me, take the $5 and pocket it… post the little sign, then I’d drink all my water and fill up on my figs… wait for him to leave and pull the sign down. The next time he came around I’d be sure to piss on his Italian leather shoes and leave a nice warm little pie of digested fig atop his beautiful Mercedes windshield. What a crock. If they really cared about making sure these people had something to eat, drink, and a little cash in their pocket… they would use their “untapped resource of labor” in a more humane way. The guy down the street in the hotdog suit handing out flyers makes minimum wage and isn’t completely forced by destitution into that position (he has a choice) so should that homeless person… they are people too damn it. Help the guy clean up a bit, give him some decent clothes to wear, give him a good lunch, and pay him minimum to hand out flyers to people who are willing to receive them.