It takes some doing to turn heads amid the media circus that is South by Southwest, but marketing firm BBH just that by transforming homeless guys into walking 4G WiFi hotspots. Promoters say the stunt is meant to bring the plight of the homeless to light, but there are also questions about whether or not the contractors are being exploited.
CNNMoney reports marketing firm BBH is paying its homeless contractors to stay equipped with WiFi hotspot gear outside an Austin convention center, wearing shirts that tell passers by how to log on for a suggested donation of $2 per 15 minutes.
Some are deriding the project for making a spectacle of a downtrodden portion of the populace. The firm claims to be doing right by its contractors financially, insisting it’s letting its contractors keep all the proceeds. Said one of the participants, “They’re giving us the opportunity to work. You’re providing a service for the public. It’s like an individual business.”
Turning the homeless into 4G hotspots [CNNMoney]
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$2 for 15min? More than a burger flipper makes.
That’s $8/hour if you have one person continuously connected at all times. Then the price goes up as you get multiple people at a time.
They don’t get the $$. It is a donation to the homeless shelter.
, said the person who didn’t read the article.
Protesting against this is the worst kind of liberal BS. (There is conservative BS that is just as bad if not worse). These people have decided for the homeless folks who are voluntarily participating in this and reaping financial rewards for doing so, that it should not be allowed because it is “exploiting” them. What incredibly stupid BS. Yes ,t rusting someone with your expensive (relatively) electronic devices and allowing them to take 100% of the profits generated by them, on a 100% volunteer basis, thereby allowing them to earn money for food and other life necessities is exploitation.
It’s the same way porn “exploits” women…even though they volunteer to do it.
White Knighting at it’s best.
Why do women make more than men in porn?
Because men will do it for free – and very few will pay to see them do it.
I generally agree, although you’re making a huge assumption about the ability of people in these situations (homeless wi-fi stations and porno actors) to really give free and informed consent.
Slippery slopes and all that.
what slippery slope? The only slippery slope I see is allowing know-nothing bleeding hearts to get between people and a paycheck due to their own sensibilities.
Let me guess, you also have no problem with the “Bum Fights” videos.
how do you stretch that far. In a Bum fight video people get hurt, no one is being hurt in this situation.
In both cases they are consenting to perform an act for a paycheck, no?
You don’t know that. When you use someone for a marketing stunt, it’s rare that there isn’t some kind of down side to it.
The slippery slope that involves free and informed consent. If you can’t see situations where people might engage in work that can be exploitative (ie pornography or homeless selling their likeness or bodies) because they are driven by coercion, addiction or mental illness, then you’re either lacking human empathy or willfully ignoring the facts of the matter.
Regardless, your statement about “bleeding hearts” says more about your opinions that you realize.
1. You have no way of knowing how much anyone realizes. I used the term bleeding hearts intentionally and specifically in this case because it is accurate and appropriate to the situation.
2. The homeless people involved have given a free consent and would have to be at least partially informed so that they would be able to collect the money being digitally deposited in their name. If they do have a mental deficiency they are still not being harmed in the least by this situation.
And you know this because of your extensive research into the psychology of sex workers?
I’d better see a W-9 from every one of these transient motherfuckers.
According to Marxism, by hiring a worker and paying them a wage in return for them to provide you with a service, you are EXPLOITING the worker.
Using the Liberal outrage, McDonalds is “exploiting” the workers… Bank of America is “exploiting” the bank tellers. Goldman Sachs is “exploiting” the stock brokers and analysts.
Giving homeless people a temporary job is a good thing. Hopefully they’ll use the money to improve their station in life and not go out and buy booze and drugs and continue their destitution.
Then again, there may be no hope for them. The reason the rich get richer and the poor get poorer is because the rich continue doing what made them rich whereas the poor continue doing what made/keeps them poor.
(Actually, Liberal BS is worse than Conservative BS. At best, Conservative BS is based on hippocracy, e.g., being “anti-gay” but soliciting gay sex in a public mens’ room. Whereas Liberal BS is based on lies and illogic, e.g., “From everyone according to their ability. To everyone according to their need.”)
They’re making a spectacle of a downtrodden portion of the populace?
“They’re giving us the opportunity to work. You’re providing a service for the public. It’s like an individual business”
“HELP! We’re being oppressed!”
I came here to see the violence inherent in the system. Get with it.
No. You came here for an argument.
Bloody peasant.
Some are deriding the project for making a spectacle of a downtrodden portion of the populace.
Yeah, the homeless should just stay invisible.
Anyway, I’m off to be exploited by my employer. Providing a service in exchange for money. It’s exploitation of women, I tell you!
I exploit my own woman at home.
You win today.
$2 for 15 minutes?
Did minimum wage go up?
And can I get that prorated?
Yeah I heard an interview with the founder of this project this morning on the radio, and I totally fail to see how this is exploitative.
For shame – allowing someone the ability to pull themselves up by the boostraps and get into a better situation.
They should do to the homeless what Rudy did in NYC – move them somewhere else and make the problem disapear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBSgpHQO-J4
What about the homeless? Always walking around the city, why don’t we strap something to them?
And pay them for it. You forgot about that part.
I make no judgement, just noting that there is nothing new under the sun, and nothing you hear that has not already been on Seinfeld or Curb.
Those who are deriding this project can feel free to go and pay the homeless to do nothing at all if they’d like.
Are they being exploited? maybe, but they are volunteering to do so.
Do you have to be homeless for this? Hell, I’d chill out where ever they need me to for a few hours during the weekend for extra cash. Do they need people at the beach, Charleston Harbor or local hotspots?
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
Build a man a fire and he’ll be warm for the day. Light a man on fire and he’ll be warm the rest of his life
How’s this any different from a guy standing outside a business wearing a silly costume or sign? I see no issue with it.
This! If anything, this is more dignified than a man dancing around in a Lady Liberty costume with a sign touting tax prep services!
What’s to stop them from selling the hotspot? $50 now sure sounds better than $2/hr.
Well, unless you get 5 people using it, and it’s $2 per 15 min (not hour), so $8 an hour, per person. So they COULD get $16, $32, $64 per hour depending on how many people use it.
And how many people give the suggestion donation. Some (most?) people likely won’t pay anything.
We won’t know until this has been run for a day. I want to see how this turns out, so I can decide if I have a little more hope in humanity or if I’ve found yet another opportunity to say, “I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.”
Can you smell me now?
BBH violated the basic rule of dealing with homeless – pretend they don’t exist and they are being criticized for it.
I use homeless people to do my web searches for me. I have them go to the library and print out the results for a few shots of cheap vodka. Since I don’t have a printer, it saves me money and I feel like I’m doing something for the community.
i have no problems with individuals choosing to do humbling work…the exploitation is that they are not guaranteed pay for their time. It’s essentially them begging for change still. They should be paid a fair or minimum hourly wage and any commission on top is theirs as well. That’s the problem. I wonder if they are entitled to file against BBH for not providing minimum wage?
I take it back. BBH Labs has clarified that there is/was a guarantee of $50 per day minimum with wi-fi sales added on top. No problem here. plus they worked side by side with Front Steps Shelter regarding paying individuals for work.
http://bbh-labs.com/homeless-hotspots-a-charitable-experiment-at-sxswi
The chances of me reading a homeless persons shirt to find out about this are ZERO. Avoid all eye contact, don’t look in the general direction. Carry on.
Kramer and Newman did it first on Seinfeld with rickshaw rides by the homeless.