[vision-master]

Put up tent in State forest land.

[Zardoz]

And spell "advice" correctly.

[heroineworshipper]

Forest land in Calif* is heavily patrolled, by helicopter in fact. Was surprised to see hikers getting squaked at from a helicopter to stay on the trail.

[gnm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('heroineworshipper', 'F')orest land in Calif* is heavily patrolled, by helicopter in fact. Was surprised to see hikers getting squaked at from a helicopter to stay on the trail.

[Aaron]

Raid rich guys enclaves?

(I just like writing "enclave")

[Iaato]

I'm in Sarasota right now, and my MIL tells me that they've just bought a fancy new bush-buggy for the county to smoke out the homeless camps in the hinterlands.

We're going down, and the signs of it are everywhere down here.

[Zardoz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('heroineworshipper', 'F')orest land in Calif* is heavily patrolled, by helicopter in fact. Was surprised to see hikers getting squaked at from a helicopter to stay on the trail.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zardoz', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('heroineworshipper', 'F')orest land in Calif* is heavily patrolled, by helicopter in fact. Was surprised to see hikers getting squaked at from a helicopter to stay on the trail.

[I_Like_Plants]

I live in the Prescott AZ area. An old standby out here is, if you're really poor, there's always the state forest. Just move every so many weeks, don't make a mess or do lots of damage, all the commonsense stuff. It's quite a safety valve. And a refuge.

Now, out in Silicon Valley, if I'd stayed out there, the initial plan was to put my stuff in a storage, and gradually work out places to sleep in the bushes, right in the belly of the beast, right in the maw of Suburbia, and change 'em around night to night. If I'd bought this van a friend of mine had, I'd have maybe had a try at living in that. And still keep my stuff safely in a storage unit.

One thing I learned was that I should have been more "distributed" when I was in business. Sleep in a rented room, work out of a storage, vehicle MUST be one that can be lived in. I was doing it all wrong, and when my business failed, it was like a rocket hit dead center - I was out.

But if I'd had a rented room, AND a van, preferably all paid for, AND a storage or even small office with my Ebay biz in it, AND of course one thing I did right was go to using laptop puters only, you can grab 'em and run. But IF I'd been distributed like that, a "hit" on one thing isn't fatal.

Hoboes traveling, coming into a town, would hide or bury their important posessions before going into the town. That's the right kind of thinking. Never have it where one hit and you're dead.

[Pops]

This thread is a great example of why the poor (as well as Open Forum) are screwed.

Certainly there aren’t many rich here and the Bear ain’t gonna gnaw on skinny-bones for long but the best you next-in-liners can come up with are jokes?

Whistling past the graveyard?



My best advice to whatever poor people may be here (if on the off chance this thread means anything) is to consult the 5 Rules and PFTF Index threads.

But mostly put down the mouse and talk to ones parents’ and grandparents and learn how they got by.

[pup55]

What a great forum topic. Plus, I have been around a lot of different types of people, from marginally starving all the way up to the Hoity Toity, and I have a bounty of advice for poor people.

But, we need some more detail. First of all there are the "global poor", which is most of the people on earth, including most of the population of a lot of these idiot countries we have studied lately. They can't help where they were born. There is some beneficial advice we can offer them, though. If you want to confine the conversation to the "OECD Poor", there are plenty of subtypes within this group too, some of which will continue to be poor no matter how much advice you give them.

There are a whole lot of "Nouveau Poor", who are the people who live in a big house full of plasma TV's and a lot of gadgets, but have negative net worth, so technically are poorer than a lot of the urban campers.

There are the "perma-poor", people who were born into poor families, and for a variety of reasons, cultural or otherwise, stay that way, and will not take any advice you give them.

There are the "intentionally poor", that is, people of normal capabilities that choose a low production/low consumption lifestyle. These people are actually, in a sense "wealthy" by the standards of some of the forum dwellers. They should give us some advice.

There are a few other types, who made terrible life choices (dope, unplanned reproduction, other) and ended up with the short end of the stick. A lot of the "EuroPoor" fall into this category.

I am sure we can think of some others.

You also have to think about the relationship between education and intelligence (not at all the same thing), and the corresponding relationship between stupidity and poverty, as well as the relationship between physical attributes, such as skin color, weight, height, and bad dental hygiene on poverty.

Also, I am practically an expert on the fact that there is a really fine line between being highly intelligent, creative, and being a successful risk taker, and being crazy as hell and ending up in mental treatment. A lot of entrepreneurs are like this, and end up with offspring that are over the line the other way.

There are abundant examples of poor people who win the lottery, end up temporarily rich, but blow it all and return to poverty.

Similarly there are people that are "poor" but defer consumption to a sufficient extent that they end up in the end "rich" but never fully appreciate it.

Good topic.

[I_Like_Plants]

Yes, you've really wowed us with your analysis of all the types of poor, thanks for that.

Now, how about some of those precious pearls of wisdom? Don't hold out on us.

[bobaloo]

If you drive the logging roads here in rural Oregon you'll find lots of RV's, campers, etc. pulled off on the side roads with firewood piles, tarp flys and obvious signs of long-term occupancy. This has been building for several years and is getting worse all the time. Theoretically they are supposed to move every 10 days but we've got a lot of woods and few cops or forest service employees.

[PrairieMule]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pup55', '
')
There are a whole lot of "Nouveau Poor", who are the people who live in a big house full of plasma TV's and a lot of gadgets, but have negative net worth, so technically are poorer than a lot of the urban campers.

[I_Like_Plants]

I like Aaron's idea, raid the enclaves of the rich. And I agree, 'enclaves' is a neat word.

Raid their glades and vales.

[pup55]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'p')recious pearls of wisdom

[eastbay]

.... raid the enclaves of the rich.

Now, THAT'S what I'm talking about! It's just a matter of time...

[RedStateGreen]

In all seriousness:

1. Learn to cook.

2. Learn to cook things in their natural form. Beans, rice, wheat, corn.

3. Learn to eat fruits and veggies. Learn to drink water from the tap.

4. Wean yourself off alcohol, tobacco, drugs, crap food, and sodas. All that stuff is high cost with little benefit.

5. Find out where the thrift stores, the bakery thrift stores, the food banks and the homeless shelters are within walking distance (5-10 miles). Donate to them or volunteer if you can. Those places might save your life someday.

6. Pay off your debt! And don't rack up any more.

7. Learn to do something useful with your hands that you can sell or trade. If you have land, start a garden.

8. Sell anything you don't need or use (all those crap knickknacks, TV's, etc are good candidates). With the extra money, see #6 and #10. With the extra time not watching TV, see #7.

9. Get yourself in shape. If you have money for the dentist and doctor, go see them and get checked out. If you have to choose, go to the dentist. A bad tooth can kill you.

10. If you get extra money, spend it on paying off your debt. If you get that done, buy non-perishable foods.

11. If you rent, get on your landlord's good side. Sometimes that's all it takes not to get evicted should you get poorer and have to miss a rent payment.

12. Don't diss the homeless. You might be one of them someday, and having a friend or two might mean the difference between getting a warm place to sleep or freezing to death.

[I_Like_Plants]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pup55', '
')I once had a test run to do in a factory in one of the Asian Dragon nations, in an operation of a famous American company. This factory used a local "subcontractor" who was less bound by western-type safety and labor regulations. To make a long story short, amid nasty chemicals, equipment with the safety features removed, and tropical/humid conditions worked the "crew", consisting of basically indentured servants from Bangladesh. They agreed to work for the factory owner for a year, for no wages, in exchange for passage into the country. The "crew" consisted of a dad, a mom, and a roughly 9 year old kid, who ran the plant. At night, they lived in a "nest" in the corner of the factory.

[I_Like_Plants]

"RedStateGreen" sez:

1. Learn to cook.

Yes!! You can save soooooo much money cooking! Learn to cook!


2. Learn to cook things in their natural form. Beans, rice, wheat, corn.

yep learn to cook "odd" cuts of meat too, look for specials and buy in bulk and freeze if you can.


3. Learn to eat fruits and veggies. Learn to drink water from the tap.

Learn to appreciate the unloved ones too, like Brussels sprouts. Those things are good! You can often dumpter-dive veggies or ask at the market, "for your rabbit".


4. Wean yourself off alcohol, tobacco, drugs, crap food, and sodas. All that stuff is high cost with little benefit.

Eh, I drink soda when I have a cold. I drink alcohol at times, if you can't be perfect don't, but yeah, these things are basically losers in terms of your time, money and energy.

5. Find out where the thrift stores, the bakery thrift stores, the food banks and the homeless shelters are within walking distance (5-10 miles). Donate to them or volunteer if you can. Those places might save your life someday.

Yeah, if I weren't wintered in, I'd have been volunteering at all the places that serve the poor and homeless. I could have used the cheering up.

6. Pay off your debt! And don't rack up any more.

If you at all can, yes! If it means spending time out there with a tin cup yourself, however you can do it, IF you can, do this. IF not, bankruptcy is still in the Constitution.


7. Learn to do something useful with your hands that you can sell or trade. If you have land, start a garden.

Yes, even stuff like chard, dandelions, parsnips, anything, is good to grow. If you plant trees, plant nut trees, carob, etc. If you can play an instrument, if you can draw, if you can make good handicrafts, anything productive you can do. Maybe you can learn to tailor and mend clothes, for when the nearly-free clothes from the 3rd world stop flowing. Maybe you can make shoes.

8. Sell anything you don't need or use (all those crap knickknacks, TV's, etc are good candidates). With the extra money, see #6 and #10. With the extra time not watching TV, see #7.

Yeah, that's a fine line. Don't sell off anything that might be useful. But the usless shit, get rid of it.

9. Get yourself in shape. If you have money for the dentist and doctor, go see them and get checked out. If you have to choose, go to the dentist. A bad tooth can kill you.

And while most dentists will want to sell you a fancy cap and root canal, they will pull a bad tooth much more cheaply. For being in shape, think basic calesthenics, the stuff the Army's always been big on, good old basic stuff.

10. If you get extra money, spend it on paying off your debt. If you get that done, buy non-perishable foods.

You'd be surprised how small a year's supply of oatmeal is!


11. If you rent, get on your landlord's good side. Sometimes that's all it takes not to get evicted should you get poorer and have to miss a rent payment.

Yes, ALWAYS take good care of the landlord's place that you live in, help out in the yard, that sort of thing. My experiences with landlords are in Hawaii and California, places where they're heartless motherfuckers, but most of the country is not like this.


12. Don't diss the homeless. You might be one of them someday, and having a friend or two might mean the difference between getting a warm place to sleep or freezing to death.

When I moved to the Bay Area I got to know a few homeless, and more and more, I'd give them a buck or two and help 'em out with stuff if I could. I kind of told myself it's lucky, but the truth is, that could be me. Or you.