Okay, I'm sure there should be a fabulous solution to homelessness by now, but there's not -- at least not that I'm aware of. Sometimes when I walk down certain streets, I'm hit up for change from several different people, all within the same block -- i simply don't have enough change to go around, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Well, bums should have an alternative -- a second line of fire -- specifically, i'm thinking they could collect email addresses (and visible demographic information) which they can turn around and sell to an email aggregating company -- there's value in having the email address of "a female who is about x years old who lives in x area and appears to make a good amount of money..." etc. Now instead of just stopping at "spare any change?", they can proceed to "spare any change or your email address?"
Of course, there's plenty of room for fraud (people making up email addresses and/or bums making up people to put on a list) so they should probably be paid on a pay per performance basis -- a sizable bounty for a sale or qualified lead. Takes guerilla marketing to a new level...-- JT, Aug 31 2000 Charity Banner Portal http://www.halfbake...anner_20Portal#idea [Scott_D, Aug 31 2000, last modified Oct 04 2004] Business Cards for Bums http://www.halfbake..._20the_20unemployed [blahginger, Aug 31 2000, last modified Oct 04 2004] Give my email address to a bum so he can sign me up for spam? No thanks.-- blahginger, Sep 01 2000 On a related note, I think panhandlers should sign up for a free e-mail address and distribute it to people they'd like to get money from. Then I can give this person money via PayPal when I get home instead of having to dig through my pockets when my hands are full.-- dgeiser13, Sep 01 2000 I work hard for my money. Some of that money pays my ISP fees. None of that money is free to go to some loser who can't kick the rubbing alcohol, or some smelly, scabby, greasy-haired native who's too lazy to fit in to today's society. You think I'll give my email address to a bum?
Get real.
On a related note, a colleague of mine who did a recent study of panhandlers found that they make $50-100 a day on average, tax-free- one panhandler I know personally confirmed this. That's more than most people I know make in a day!
Forget it. I'll stick to my popular, 2-word answer for bums- of which one word is "off".-- BigThor, Sep 06 2000 random, halfbakery