| poeTV | Submit | Login   |

Reddit Digg Stumble Facebook

Help keep poeTV running


And please consider not blocking ads here. They help pay for the server. Pennies at a time. Literally.

Comment count is 29
zatojones - 2008-09-15

You Paid For It With Your Money That You Earned


jangbones - 2008-09-15

Stossel and his mustache are very popular among the coveted 65 thru 100 demographic.


buttnutt - 2008-09-15

"Today I'm drinking" being homeless is the best.


dichotic1 - 2008-09-15

I'm homeless.

this video only reminds me of my desperate, hopeless, depressing place in life.

OH SWEET THERE"S PEOPLE ON GARBAGE DAY.


TeenerTot - 2008-09-15

Yay. I've lost even more faith in humanity.


Diogenes - 2008-09-15

See, these people choose to live the carefree and glamour-filled life of a filthy drunken junkie hobo! The problem isn't that companies are paying so little for shit work that begging for food on the street is a viable and more profitable career choice, it's that the homeless aren't forced to choose between starving to death or working for .00/hour.

"We have to turn work away because nobody wants to work."

Pay them more, fuckwits. Hobos who are happy to get two dollars in bus tokens are turning down the jobs you're offering. Isn't Stossel supposed to be all over the Laws of Supply and Demand like a cheap date after a bottle of hobo vodka? Can't he figure out a market solution that doesn't involve "Drive everyone to the brink of starvation"?


Scrotum H. Vainglorious - 2008-09-15

Stossel is a fucking hack.


kingarthur - 2008-09-15

Five stars for the level of true evil that Stossel represents. When I saw this, I thought, "this has to be Stossel". 12 seconds in, my thoughts were confirmed and I stopped the video. There's nothing more you can get from this man that you wouldn't get from a neoconservative pundit or a randroid.

I hate Stossel so much. Sooo fucking much. There's a video of him getting punched in the face by a wrestler on this site. I HIGHLY recommend it.


Rodents of Unusual Size - 2008-09-15

I hate John Stossel and wish he would get caught in the middle of a supernova but he does have a good point here.


Rodents of Unusual Size - 2008-09-15

Not that he isn't deliberately misrepresenting the problem and making it out to be that the majority of homeless are just scam artists instead of people with real issues, of course. That's what makes this so Stossely.


baleen - 2008-09-15



This debate has been going on for a long, long time, and the figures (such as Mr. Tough Love Bootstraps with the "new" shelter) in it are eternal. This is one-sided, shallow reporting with a clear libertarian agenda.

They used to have workhouses for homeless people because Victorian society didn't allow any freeloaders. This didn't exactly improve the lives of people that much, as we know. The truth is, there will always be freeloaders, but who cares? I'm all for novel ways of helping people get off the streets, but Stossel doesn't mention the large amounts of teens from abusive families, people with severe mental disabilities, people that REALLY are just beginning to lose their grip on normal lives (homeless life progresses in ever worsening phases), the women that come from extremely abusive relationships and have children to take care of, or the difficulties that these people face when they actually "sober up" and show up for a job.


Cena_mark - 2008-09-15

Fucking bums. I don't give bums shit. This video makes me feel good about being a heartless Libertarian.


svraz - 2008-09-15

I don't think bums need shit as bums are constantly giving away shit.


baleen - 2008-09-15


KEEP TRYING !


fractured - 2008-09-15

You mean some people choose to be homeless? Give me a break.

I didn't watch the video.


Cena_mark - 2008-09-15

Perhaps they don't choose to be homeless, but they choose to stay homeless.


svraz - 2008-09-15

Perhaps you did not choose to be a douche, but you choose to remain a douche.


simon666 - 2008-09-15

haha cena mark lives nowhere near a big city. most people are homeless because of untreated psychological disorders, who end up becoming drug addicts from self medicating. this is fact, not opinion.


Stog - 2008-09-15

YEAH MAN WHY DON'T THEY JUST PULL THEMSELVES UP BY THEIR BOOTSTRAPS INSTEAD OF BEING DIRTY AND FILTHY


Cena_mark - 2008-09-16

I live in the Atlanta city limits. Nice try. I see them all the time.


Cena_mark - 2008-09-16

If you guys actually lived in the city you'd be as sick of bums as I am. You'd put you're idealistic bullshit aside and tell them to fuck off. But when you only go to the city a few times a year such as yourselves to go to a convention then you have no problem giving bums money.
Sure they might have some problems beyond the ones described in this video, but I have bills of my own to pay.


Caminante Nocturno - 2008-09-15

Thank God John Stossel is there to get his viewers angry about an issue they intend to do nothing about.


Chancho - 2008-09-15

I am so angry at these bums. They ask for money! ARRRR!


sosage - 2008-09-15

Although this is a fairly polar perspective (and...well...it is Stossel), let's not be equally retarded and act outraged when someone points out that they aren't all lovable tramps just lookin for an honest buck. Rehab and similar systems have their "players", I fail to see how the homeless charity system is somehow immune to this.

Also, this sort of "news report" has been done before. Stossel should have dug into the territory Diogenes mentions above...


chumbucket - 2008-09-15

I'm the "yeah I work sometimes, today's my drinking day" guy, or I just wanna be that guy


Ageusiatic - 2008-09-16

I used to think John Stossel was a brilliant journalist, when I was like 12. I remember seeing this report back in the day, and thinking to myself that it was quite sick how a lot of people could just sit on the street and get paid for it.

As I got older, I was told that hobos are for the most part, addicts, mentally ill, veterans, or some combination of the three. When I moved to the city, I found it somewhat true, depending on the city.

In Austin, the homeless people tend to be quite nice. They're not offended if you don't give them change, you can hold a conversation with them, albeit a strange one, and they are the best recyclers around. I've seen them selling good items for low prices, with the forethought to attempt to sell things that someone would actually want to use even if it had been given to them a hobo. Every late spring, and early fall, as the students come and go from their leases, every dumpster near the university is completely full from people moving in and out. The homeless have a field day, scavenging what they can.

In short, Austin takes care of it's homeless. We nearly elected one mayor!

Whereas Austin had a bunch of homeless that you could classify as "Free spirits", as in, they didn't need to be homeless, but they were, and were polite about it.

In Atlanta, things were very, very different. The homeless looked far worse off, and the most notable thing is that every one of them I saw had a prop with them.

One insisted over and over again that he had enrolled in college, while waving the registration papers at me, followed immediately by an elderly woman who kept on mentioning that she'd just gotten out of the hospital, demonstrating that she had the hospital bracelet on her over and over again.

The TL;DR of this is probably that being a hobo is an extension of what people thing of other people being on welfare. Sounds pretty sweet, but most aren't enjoying the situation they're in.


Ageusiatic - 2008-09-16

My placement of "Whereas" was improper- and for it, I have brought shame upon my family.


Dib - 2008-09-16

When I was maybe twelve or so, we had to move and a lot of cleaning+sorting+packaging+transporting was required particularly with the garage. So my mom went out, found one of these guys and invited him to come help out for lunch and some cash, and he did it.

That's it, and I've never doubted that many of them would be entirely willing. Like any other segment of human population you might observe, there are bound to be all types.

Oh yeah, and I nearly forgot the "yay! Now we can feel good about disregarding the status of other humans! Thanks, 20/20!"


dowstroyer666 - 2012-03-19

You only get what you put in... Ah man my life is shit, but i only beg two days a week.


Register or login To Post a Comment







Video content copyright the respective clip/station owners please see hosting site for more information.
Privacy Statement