Portland Homeless Think Being a Human "Hotspot" is a Great Idea

March 14, 2012

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A wonderful experiment is playing out at the South/Southwest music/culture festival in Austin, Texas. Men living in a homeless shelter have been asked if they want to participate in a marketing idea; to carry 4G wireless Hotspots to aid help attendees communicate in the dead spots around town. The men don a T Shirt identifying themselves a Hotspot, people pay for the use of the internet capability via Paypal and then give the person a couple of bucks for 15 minutes of access. Sweet deal, right?

Some liberals at the S/SW event are horrified that people would be asked to wear a device to sell something. A debate rages on whether thse people are being used and exploited.

Yesterday on the program we sent out our co worker (in the snow by the way) to ask homeless folks if they would be willing to do one of two things,

1) Be willing to be a hotspot for money,
2) Be willing to wear something with logo to sell a product.

The results were overwhelming: to a person they all said yes and yes.  It turns out that people like being paid for doing a job–especially one where they are just standing around and doesn’t require a high skill set. Listen in both the 11am and noon hours to hear her reports.

Somehow attendees not horrified by human phone charger

It’s funny that these well intentioned libs (for the most part) are uncomfortable with using people to sell something. They’re horrified that people are being asked to do something undignified. That they’re being exploited.

Well, maybe they’ve been doing much couch surfing to notice, but people are exploited, used, and asked to do what some might consider undignified every day: Work for money. Are they against modeling? Sales? Taxi driving? Waiting on people? Being a Talk Show Host? A doctor? Nurse? All of those jobs could somehow by someone be construed as undignified.

Get over yourselves. A job is a job and if they didn’t want to do it, they wouldn’t. Or do you think your horror at their profession should be enough to stop them?

Ronald Reagan famously said once, “The best social program is a productive job for anyone who’s willing to work.” Get over yourselves.

Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com