quote:Originally posted by BlueWizard: I don't think most of you are looking at the extreme complications of a homeless man suddenly finding $100,000 in a dumpster.
I think most people are looking at it precisely the same way as you are, actually. Only a couple of people have commented on what they would do with a hundred grand, and arguably that's just a tangent, not a commentary on this guy's life. I don't know if specifically giving a poor guy a hundred grand is reprehensible. I have a hard time seeing that. But I do agree that creating this spectacle so that we could all watch it is.
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quote:Originally posted by BlueWizard: I don't think most of you are looking at the extreme complications of a homeless man suddenly finding $100,000 in a dumpster.
Some of you have said, put it in the bank, but that means it gets reported to the Federal government, and how do you explain finding $100,000.
The money would have to be turned over to the authorities, then the long wait while they tried to find out who had lost the money. What if someone made a false but reasonable sounding claim against the money? What if the authorities just kept it; essentially just screwed him out of it?
So, let's just say this homeless person decides to keep it rather than turn it in. Where does he keep it? If anyone even remotely knew he had any kind of money, he would be a severe risk of being robbed and probably killed. To a homeless man, $100,000 CASH is not an asset, it is an extreme liability. The faster you get rid of it the better off you are.
Even putting it in a safety deposit box still represents a liability if anyone finds out.
Most of you are speculating on what you would do with the money, but YOU are not a homeless person. Put yourself in this person's place; no home, no mailing address, no telephone, completely vulnerable on the street, sleep in under bridges, surrounded by dark and desperate people, no one you can trust, walking the mean streets with $100,000 in cash in your pocket. That is a very dangerous and unstable position. That is a position that could easily get you killed.
Now if this news crew really wanted to help this person, they would have arranged a bank account for him, and put the money in there. Then they would have arrange for him to take care of the tax liability. Then they would have found a place for him to live. That would have given him a stable start. That would have allowed him a safe and stable way to have the money without risking his life.
This wasn't an attempt to help this homeless person, they simply used him as a social experiment. The set him up for failure, and then sat back and filmed while he fullfilled the expectations spectacularly.
Before you comment on what you would do, put yourself in his position, put yourself alone on the dark and dangerous streets with $100,000 cash, out there amoung the junkies, thieves, and assorted riff-raff.
You would probably do exactly what this person did, dump the cash as soon as possible, dump it before it got you killed.
Just passing it along.
Steve/BlueWizard
(Since this post is assuming the person's mental health, I'm going to assume it as well.)
If he had bothered to try finding one, it would have taken him almost no time to find a place to live. How many people do you think he would have had to ask if he had contacted a few apartment managers / landlords and said "I need a place to live. I can put down a $10,000 security deposit and pre-pay a year in advance?"
From there, 95% of the problems you described above vanish.
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