Homeless Internet Hotspots..

[Raithe]

Homeless as a Wi-Fi Transmitter

 

A marketing agency touched off a wave of criticism and debate when it hired members of the local homeless population to walk around carrying mobile Wi-Fi devices, offering conferencegoers Internet access in exchange for donations

 

For the quirky debate. I can actually see around both sides of some of this debate.

 

 

Still, the whole "My Name is Clarence. I'm Your 4G Hotspot" does kind of amuse me...

 

 

[Rosbjerg]

It's a good idea in my opinion, but they should've paid them more than 20$.. as on of the comments mention the minimum wage is 7.25$ and if they work for more than 3 hours (which I imagine that they do) then they are basically exploiting cheap labor by branding it as an marketing awareness stunt - even if that was not their intent others might get "inspired".

[Gorgon]

A homeless person came up to me on the train today and looked at me intently and said 'hej smukke' (hello handsome). I looked back in amazement and he repeated this statement rather matter of factly. It was only later I realised that what he had said in an undeterminable east european accent was 'har du nogle sm

[Rosbjerg]

haha that's hilarious.. a similar thing happened to me in Kyoto although I think he actually was trying to come on to me.. :D

[LadyCrimson]

Yeah, to me it's dependent on the wage vs. the hours they're actually working. If it's an hour or two, fine. A little money for simple side work that doesn't involve something "dangerous." But if it falls much under min. wage than it seems more like exploitation. Perhaps well-intentioned, but still.

 

I like the quote at the bottom of the article, from someone named Adam Hanft:

[Krookie]

It's not like they tagged them with a wireless modem while they were sleeping under a bridge. They were offered money to complete a pretty simple task (and one that simply required their free time, which I assume they have a lot of).

 

Liberals, man. If you don't help the homeless you're a bad person. If you help the homeless you're a bad person.

[Walsingham]

I'm with Krooklie on this. The moral puritans are insisting on a degree of saintliness in intention and conduct which means good isn't being done.

 

If I were gakking homeless I'd rather have 20 bucks than no bucks.