Wasn't there some guy who set themselves a challenge where they were going to make a living without using any of their money?
I believe he had to stop after 3 months because of health concerns.
They see being poor as entertainment.
this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2024
2260 points (98.5% liked)
Microblog Memes
5832 readers
1571 users here now
A place to share screenshots of Microblog posts, whether from Mastodon, tumblr, ~~Twitter~~ X, KBin, Threads or elsewhere.
Created as an evolution of White People Twitter and other tweet-capture subreddits.
Rules:
- Please put at least one word relevant to the post in the post title.
- Be nice.
- No advertising, brand promotion or guerilla marketing.
- Posters are encouraged to link to the toot or tweet etc in the description of posts.
Related communities:
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
It didn't end that quick, but he stopped after 9 months due to health concerns. The goal was to earn $1 million in a year, he had earned $62k.
And IIRC, he only did so through siphoning off the value of free facebook/craigslist furniture.
It sucks that the only reporting on this is shitty tabloids.
Don't forget he accepted charity in the form of free housing and donations that were likely only available to him through existing connections.
Also this:
Despite failing to make the million dollars he had aimed for, Black says it was still a successful experiment after demonstrating how it was possible to rebuild his life through the power of determination.
So this dipshit learned nothing. He failed, and would probably have died in the gutter, but instead he pulled the ripcord and bailed on poverty in a way that isn't available to 99% of humans on earth.
He had knowledge and connections to the upper echelons and he couldn't make it, and when health concerns arose he went back to his money because it sucks to be working poor and in need of medical assistance.
He also didn’t have the stress that would come from actual failure with no money.
Bankruptcy, homelessness and real poverty fuck up your ability to succeed in a vastly underrated way.
Exactly. The calculus for taking risks is vastly different when there's a safety net. You can treat it as a game and go all in.
On the other hand if there's even a small chance of losing housing or getting in legal trouble or your family being destitute you take no risks - if you are a person with a sense of responsibility that is.
load more comments
(2 replies)
His father got cancer during the experiment. He considered ending it then, but he continued with the experiment.
Imagine having that sort of choice. He didn't have to skip work to take his dad to appointments. He didn't have to eat ramen to afford chemo. It was only when his own health was at risk that he pulled the plug.
Imagine a world where everybody had that sort of safety net. Just like, "Nope, shit's too hard."
load more comments
(10 replies)
Right, those 62k he did earn would have been gone and him probably homeless as soon as his health issues got worse. It's a reality for a lot of Americans. Also those 62k he earned were thanks to all the education and experience he was able to get thanks to his privilege. Most people aren't fortunate enough to have his level of education and experience to help them even get to 62k. I make 25 percent less than that and still feel fortunate of where I got to since I came from absolutely nothing.
Yea, he flipped free furniture off of Facebook. Only a rich asshole would come up with an idea like that
"If I can be a parasite, you can too*"
* just ignore that I didn't again become a millionaire like I said I would. And just ignore all the experience and schooling I started with that others don't.
This video was such absolute bull crap lol. He randomly found some dude on like his SECOND night homeless that let him stay in a spare room for free.
Then he flipped free stuff on Craigslist and Facebook for cash which is... fine I guess. A little sleazy but whatever. Magically found transportation and the ability to store and haul this stuff all over town but never explained any of that.
Then he majestically found someone to cosign and provide initial payments to rent like a four bedroom house that he sublet to 3 other tenants... So he found some random guy to COSIGN for him which is crazy knowing how much liability that puts on you while ALSO finding a landlord that is allowing a guy with no job, no income, no credit, no prior residences, and no money to not only rent from him with a random co signer but also allowing him to sublet to three other random ass people the landlord will never even meet. This is possible... But EXTREMELY unlikely. Also, the fact that this dude tries to do a homeless challenge by immediately becoming a landlord is pretty funny ngl. Also it's worth noting that his final number ($64k or whatever) was revenue not profit. He said himself he was making about 50% profit so he made closer to around $30k on the year.
And on top of all that, the fact that he cites health issues as this unforeseen unfortunate issue that got in the way of his inevitable success is kinda rich. That's... kinda the deal with poverty. You fall on hard times. Health often falls apart. Unexpected expenses destroy you. It can and often does completely tear your world apart. Thems the breaks man lol. Dude just experienced life a little and quit.
It sounds like he wasn't using his money directly but might have used his ability to access his money to build "credit" with others.
Used his existing social credit too. All his random business successes during those 9 months were from "I know a guy that might want in on this" kind of crap.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Ah, so despite having tons of advantages, they were able to find themselves right smack dab at an average income. Nice.
load more comments
(20 replies)
*chose to stop
*because of high health care prices
And as far as I know they have not used any of their privilege to do anything to change that situation for others who don't have that choice.
It's because the problem was being poor.
So...stop being poor.
It's easy. He just proved it!
(Massive /s but sadly, for the privileged guy, not sarcasm)
load more comments
(1 replies)
imagine the privilege to just quit being homeless for health concerns while a lot of people go homeless because of health complications. so he ended where homeless people frequently start. fuck that guy.
load more comments
(1 replies)
He made $62k and called that a success. Why not then use said $62k to fix his health issues? Wouldn’t that be much more realistic in terms of unplanned medical costs setting back a lot of Americans?
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
They would still have all the advantages of the business connections they made as a billionaire, and would still have a massive advantage over everyone else.
Run the experiment.
But many of their connections would be poor as well. Do you think people actually care what Elon or Bezos think? They're not geniuses, they just have money. Compare them to Steve Jobs or Warren Buffett, who actually knew what they were doing.
No one seriously asks Bezos or Elon for advice because they were just lucky. Their companies succeed despite them, not because of them. Like the guy who started Uber (forgot his name). Nobody listens to them.
Compare them to Steve Jobs or Warren Buffett, who actually knew what they were doing.
Steve Jobs, the man who thought he could beat pancreatic cancer with a juice cleanse?
The guy who wanted to build fanless computers. Forcing designers to turn down the fans on laptops, having them cook but silent.
Yeah, that guy was a true genius. /s
He was great with words though.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Well, being super smart in one field doesn't necessarily mean you have common sense. You could be the greatest physicist in the world but still think lizard people control everything.
TBF Woz was the brains behind Apple. Jobs was just a good salesperson.
load more comments
(6 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(4 replies)
Or would their connections who weren't billionaires just exploit them so they could take the top spot?
load more comments
(1 replies)
Take the money away and the connections are worthless. They have business connection because of money.
load more comments
(4 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
It's also not one or two billion, it's multiple hundreds of billion owned by one person. I don't think you can overstress the difference in scale between millions, hundred millions, billions, and hundred billions.
There used to be taxes assessed by total asset valuation that focused more on wealthy individuals because they don't earn as much from income it's mostly assets increasing in value like property or ownership shares, that was stopped when they introduced the income tax that mostly targets low and middle class people who almost exclusively earn by income.
Loopholes like offshore accounts used to dodge income taxes by higher earners should be illegal, but the whole system is backwards forcing the least prosperous to shoulder the largest tax burden instead of the wealthiest who benefit from society the most.
load more comments
(22 replies)
If that were to happen, my cream would rise to the top.
Who do I vote for to make this happen?
Or is that French shortening device the only way at this point?
Vote in favor of the union at your workplace
load more comments
(1 replies)
Alternatively just take their shit because billionaires shouldn't exist.
A millionaire tried doing this and gave up
I guess it only works for billionaires. Millionaires can't do it: https://www.snopes.com/news/2024/04/29/millionaire-made-himself-homeless/
load more comments
(25 replies)
Billionaires hold a tiny percentage of their wealth in money, so taking all their money away wouldn't even make them stop being a billionaire.
Let's remove their control of all that wealth, then. If they're so good, they'll soon be in control of more.
load more comments
(26 replies)
load more comments
(4 replies)
This was tested...sort of. He didn't give away his money he just supposedly didn't make use of it essentially hitting the road as a fake homeless and making money by selling stuff he bought on facebook market.
The fellow was a millionaire not a billionaire and I think he went from nothing to ~50k in nearly a year. He called it off early because he was basically destroying his health.
Yeah, with friends housing him and hiring him 🤡
Not to mention that actually poor people don't have a cheat code to get them out when their health suffers. Which then makes them less able to keep working at maximum mental and physical capacity.
So this was nothing but a demonstration that nepotism and money is what one really needs.
He could also take higher risks, since he knew that there was a security net to catch him. Much easier to make high risk/reward decisions, if the risk (e.g. going broke) isn't actually real. He presumably also had an above average education and many other benefits. This is also why many rich people might end up building successful businesses. The average person might get one shot and either makes it or goes broke. The rich person can roll the dice multiple times (and might have learned something from the last try).
Also disregarding everything even, if he had succeded: That would still only have been a sample size of one. I doubt anyone is saying that you can't under any circumstances pull yourself out of poverty, but on average the cards are just stacked against you in many ways.
Also i doubt that reselling second hand stuff is a viable business model for a larger group. Like sure in a large city a few people might be able to carve out a niche for themself, but the more people do it or the smaller the market, the less it works.
load more comments
(2 replies)
view more: next ›