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Google Helps Homeless Street Vendors Get Paid By Cashless Consumers
An anonymous reader writes Starting today Seattle pedestrians can no longer pat their pockets and claim to have no cash when offered a copy of the ironically-named Real Change weekly newspaper by a homeless street vendor. Google has spent two years working with the Real Change organization to develop a barcode-scanning app which lets passers-by purchase a digital edition with their mobile phones. Google's Meghan Casserly believes the Real Change app — available on Android and iOs — represents the first of its kind in North America.
Now people will have to act like adults and simply say "no, thank you."
Or just ignore them and walk by without a word. That might piss them off enough to justify calling the cops on them, which at least gets them a warm night and a meal. It's for their own good.
People are not smart.
There are panhandlers at the freeway offramp lights around here, usually because they can stand on the left side of traffic near the driver's side. If you consider that your average light takes about 90 seconds to cycle, there are about forty times an hour when cars are sitting there. If one driver, every other light gives $2, then the panhandler can make $40/hr while sitting at the light. The advantage the panhandler has is that since the potential givers completely flush and replace every 90 seconds, there are new marks constantly, and it's unlikely that any would see anyone else giving money, so they may feel obligated to be the one to do so.
I figured out it was a borderline scam when I saw the bicycle that the panhandler had sitting off in the bushes. It cost more than the car I was driving.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
If the seller is to get the money then the bar code must be unique to that seller, so it's not the general bar code of the magazine that's getting scanned.
The phone then reports this seller's ID to some central server. Does it also report geolocation data? (Is there any non-free-software app nowadays that doesn't?) How many people get this data? Google and the magazine company (and any government agency that asks for it)?
So smartphone users are being used to report homeless people's movements around the city. Or at the very least, it's open to that type of abuse.
Am I wrong?
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You must live in a nice part of Seattle. I work in the Pioneer Square area, and several of the Real Change sellers in that area and the ID are quite obviously either drunk, high or mentally ill, and pushy to the point of verbal abuse if you try to ignore them.
I do not support Real Change because while it gets the sellers money for a meal and some basic needs, it does not encourage them to go beyond that and get off the street altogether. I want to support organizations that support homeless folks in moving *out* of being homeless, rather than merely making it easier to *be* homeless.
...scanhandling.
Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
I haven't been to Seattle in a while and don't recall seeing a Real Change vendor there, but here in Portland vendors for our local street newspaper, Street Roots rarely harass or even engage passers-by, except for saying hello. They aren't anywhere near as aggressive as people trying to get you to contribute to some charitable org or trying to get you to sign some petition.
I used to do proofreading for Street Roots. They have a really good vendor training and try hard to be ambassadors for people living in poverty or experiencing homelessness. (FYI, not all vendors for these papers are currently homeless, though the vast majority have personal experience with homelessness.) It doesn't do the paper or its constituency any good if people find the vendors annoying or irritating. The best vendors have a lot of repeat customers and cultivate a good relationship with them, just like any business people. Street Roots is also very responsive to problems if they arise.
"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality;..."
"sorry, I have a Windows phone."
Couldn't stand the weather
No one's gonna use this for donating to panhandlers (just to bump into them at the store buying more alcohol...)
The real use for this will be tip jars, purchasing products, mobile micropayments.
You think business is gonna see this technology and just sit on their hands?
Wonder what the public key field is for?
No. It is real. And great news. I'm going to tell all of our local homeless beggars about it and suggest that they should go to Seattle.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Back in '99 I got tired of throwing together yet another web app on crazy schedules, and decided to go busking on the streets of San Francisco for a living. I was hanging out with a feller called Wil Jackson on the corner of Grant & Green. A lot of homeless folks there. I noticed a real sense of community between them - they tried to look out for each other.
It was great fun to wind down and just play tunes for a living. The only problem was, folks in suits would walk past frowning at me (dumb street guy, get a job) A few months later I was back in London, wearing a fine suit and working in the financial district. Fun, challenging work. The only problem was street folks would see me walking past in business attire and frown at me (materialistic suit guy. Get a soul).
If it acquires resources on instantiation like a duck, then its a shared_ptr<Duck>
So, wait, you seriously think there are people out there who would voluntarily choose to sleep outside, often without any protection from the elements?
Isn't that just called camping?
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
You should really take a step back and think about the numbers of Wall Street tycoons and Golden parachute CEOs you are likely to see walking past homeless people.
In all likelihood 99% of those people wearing suits have nothing to do with the activities you described.
Equating suit with "screws people over for a living" is completely stupid.
You must live in a nice part of Seattle. I work in the Pioneer Square area, and several of the Real Change sellers in that area and the ID are quite obviously either drunk, high or mentally ill, and pushy to the point of verbal abuse if you try to ignore them.
I do not support Real Change because while it gets the sellers money for a meal and some basic needs, it does not encourage them to go beyond that and get off the street altogether. I want to support organizations that support homeless folks in moving *out* of being homeless, rather than merely making it easier to *be* homeless.
In New York, and several other cities, we found out that the best way to move folks out of being homeless is to give them a home. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Then worry about the other things. It's difficult or impossible for someone to get a job, health care, treatment for drug abuse or mental diseases like schizophrenia, if he doesn't have a stable place to live. The best way to give them homes was to go to court and order the City and State to give them housing. There were provisions in the City and State constitutions that said it was the job of the government to provide for the poor.
In my understanding, the reason homeless people are selling newspapers is that it's a legal way to panhandle. When poor people were selling items on the street, the cops hassled them. There was a lawsuit that ruled that they could sell books on the street, because books and magazines are protected by the First Amendment.
I wish there were a -1 Bullshit mod. We all love stories of panhandlers really being a scam, because it eases our conscience. I live in Florida and I can tell you that nobody would stand out in this sun if they had an alternative! That doesn't just include panhandlers. Probably landscapers as well. There may be *a* rich panhandler, somewhere. But chances are that the people at street lights really are in need. Directly giving money may not actually help as they often have substance abuse and mental health problems. But if you're going to decline giving at the lights,don't assuage your conscience with a story like this. Find an appropriate charity and donate there. $2/day is $60/month. You can set it up as a recurring donation.