What would a homeless man do with $100,000?

[johnnymk]

Can anyone say the word "Idiot"?

http://onaxos.blogspot.com/

Master of the pop-culture universe, Oprah, had my attention.

On her show was Ted Rodrigue, a homeless man who was given $100,000 by documentary film makers in a little social experiment.

Ted was selected after undergoing thorough medical evaluations, psych-exams, and drug tests to make sure he wouldn't just blow the money away on a year's supply of booze or dope. Ted was also given several counselors throughout the experiment, some for homeless advocacy and some for financial planning purposes.

How did Ted spend the money?

Basically, he blew it at the rate of about $10,000 a week. He bought friends cars, he gave money away to relatives, he bought gifts for several new "girlfriends," and even bought himself a new $35,000 Dodge Ram.

When meeting with the financial planner Ted stated firmly that he has no intentions of working and wishes to not plan ahead as he is only concerned with today.

How is Ted doing today?

Sadly Ted is now $5,000 in debt and says he is more miserable after having had the money than before. He says his inability to "change his life around" by getting steady employment and such was due to his intense dislike for authority. He doesn't like people telling him what to do.

What did Ted learn from this?

When asked this by Oprah, Ted replied that this just confirms what he always felt about society: that they are blood-sucking users. After he gave away all his money to friends, relatives, and girlfriends, not a single one stuck around when the well ran dry, so to speak.

Oprah then turned on the heat: What do you mean that it was "society's" fault? Society gave you $100,000!

Oprah recounts her own story of homeless helping.

Once she passed by a homeless man and told him to meet here at that street corner again the next day. When they met again, Oprah gave him a new suit and told him that she had arranged for him to have a job. The man took the suit and never showed up for the job.

What did the documentary makers learn from this?

You can't solve homelessness by throwing money at the homeless. More often than not people are homeless because of inner demons (drugs, booze, gambling, authority-hating, etc.) that need to be dealt with first.

[Thesifer]

And this is why I don't stop and give a homeless person money. Nor do I believe in donating to most charities. A lot of homeless people ( I would say a large majority ) Are homeless for their own reasons that won't be helped by me. Sadly.

The only people I feel truly sorry for are people that have a medical condition that makes it impossible for them to work, and just ended up being lost in society, although the ones that have that happen that didn't cause it themselves, is a small minority.

[DarkFury]

Well dayuum....

I wish someone would give ME $100K to help me change my life... I sure as hell wouldn't just throw that cash away.

DAYUUUUUUUM!!!!! :2far:


C'mon Oprah... can a Bruh borrow $10 mill for 10 years? Hmmmm? I'll pay ya back. :D

[Napoleon54]

Perhaps the people who Ted gave his money to used it more wisely than he did and turned their lives around. That would be interesting.

[Houdini]

Sadly, a HUGE percentage of homeless people have severe mental illnesses, most commonly schizpophrenia. They are decompensaded as they RARELY have the insight to go to a free mental health clinic or something like that to get antipsychotic meds. If you see someone on the street who is talking to his/herself, looks kinda weird (blank face) etc., that's most likely the case. It's sad, but if the voices - the most common hallucination (visuals are far more rare) are telling them to do stuff, they typically do what the voices say. If the voice tells him/her he doesn't meds or the doc is trying to poison him/her, or that he/she isn't mentally ill, they believe it.

That said, hell, I'd believe it too, if some voice - someone I know or don't know - started telling me what to do. The voices are REAL. So it's hard to treat noncompliant patients.

Also, schizophrenia, untreated or undertreated can lead to job loss. And the vast majority of schizophrenic patients smoke its (in fact, some studies show that smoking cigarettes can be somewhat beneficial to a schizophrenic, unless they are on Zypexa (olanzapine.) So yeah, giving someone money can be very, very tricky. You don't want to enable med non-compliance or give him/her money to drink or do drugs (self medicating when the voices or other symptoms get unbearable) etc.

[Thesifer]

Sadly, a HUGE percentage of homeless people have severe mental illnesses, most commonly schizpophrenia. They are decompensaded as they RARELY have the insight to go to a free mental health clinic or something like that to get antipsychotic meds. If you see someone on the street who is talking to his/herself, looks kinda weird (blank face) etc., that's most likely the case. It's sad, but if the voices - the most common hallucination (visuals are far more rare) are telling them to do stuff, they typically do what the voices say. If the voice tells him/her he doesn't meds or the doc is trying to poison him/her, or that he/she isn't mentally ill, they believe it.

That said, hell, I'd believe it too, if some voice - someone I know or don't know - started telling me what to do. The voices are REAL. So it's hard to treat noncompliant patients.

Also, schizophrenia, untreated or undertreated can lead to job loss. And the vast majority of schizophrenic patients smoke its (in fact, some studies show that smoking cigarettes can be somewhat beneficial to a schizophrenic, unless they are on Zypexa (olanzapine.) So yeah, giving someone money can be very, very tricky. You don't want to enable med non-compliance or give him/her money to drink or do drugs (self medicating when the voices or other symptoms get unbearable) etc.


That doesn't go into this case since they checked him for mental illness and he checked out fine.

[InfiniteNothing]

I hope we aren't trying to come to conclusions about homeless people in general with a sample size of one.

[renovation]

This is a fact-I was given 100 plus grand a couple of years back and did it vanish fast. Paid off a lot of nagging bills, took some vacations, bought some stocks, banked about 1/4-1/3. I was shocked how fast it burned up. In today's life it doesn't go far at all really.

[dougadam]

A fool and his money will soon part:angel:

[mcs328]

Howard Stern I believe did something similar but with 35K or 50K and the guy spent his money on booze and drugs and the other homeless people robbed him. Of course I don't think Howard Stern went as far as Oprah to make sure he was mentally stable and give him advisors.

[ShawnLee]

Well, I saw the show earlier (thank you AFN Korea). Oprah didn't give him the money, it's a show that Showtime produced and it was part of a show she did on financial management.

I wanted to scream at the guy cause I almost KNEW beforehand what was going to happen. Imagine my surprise when he's sitting calmly on Oprah's couch clean-shaven and dressed relatively well. Unfortunately, that didn't mean he'd done well for himself with the cash. Boy, was I hopeful for that moment.

They didn't show too much (since it's a plug for Showtime, and not the actual show), but in the few clips they did show, he bought a random guy a used car and bought a $35,000 one himself. He gave away cash to other homeless guys like it was nothing. He then visited his family (who seemed to be doing fairly well for themselves) and they were worried that he was going to lose it all because he refused to work ("No one can tell me what to do now!").

He admitted that most of the time, he thought about the present and didn't worry about the future. Sad story, but so common.

That's also why I usually don't give cash to homeless guys. There were a good number under the pier at Huntington Beach, and though I've bought sandwiches and Powerade, and spent time with them talking and praying, I won't give them money they'll just drink with. One was really thankful that I fed him instead of letting him drink, and said, "I haven't eaten in hours. I probably would've just gotten another beer though. Thanks for doing this."

[cheapie]

there was a "homeless" dude along a freeway ramp in portland with a sign that read, "i'll bet you can't hit me with a quarter!"

:heh:

[ShawnLee]

there was a "homeless" dude along a freeway ramp in portland with a sign that read, "i'll bet you can't hit me with a quarter!"

:heh:
Haha! That's probably the greatest sign ever!

The one I liked for a while was "I won't lie, I want money for booze."
But then I decided I couldn't support that. But still funny.

[MrGreg]

"Ninjas killed my family. Need money for kung-fu lessons."

It's very rare I give anyone money, but the only time I do is when they make me laugh.

[Airencracken]

Of course there is always the "Why lie? Need Beer money" Signs. I still don't give them cash. :|

[DarkFury]

This is a fact-I was given 100 plus grand a couple of years back and did it vanish fast. Paid off a lot of nagging bills, took some vacations, bought some stocks, banked about 1/4-1/3. I was shocked how fast it burned up. In today's life it doesn't go far at all really.
Yeah.. but think of the hole that $100K+ dug you out of...

Would you life be any different with the extra debt and no savings/investments if you didn't have that cash?


For me... gimmie the money, I'll definitely put it to good use. :D

[ryan_self]

I hope we aren't trying to come to conclusions about homeless people in general with a sample size of one.

Don't worry, I'm not.

I didn't even need the sample size of one.

[ryan_self]

This is a fact-I was given 100 plus grand a couple of years back and did it vanish fast. Paid off a lot of nagging bills, took some vacations, bought some stocks, banked about 1/4-1/3. I was shocked how fast it burned up. In today's life it doesn't go far at all really.

Well, not when you "take some vacations."

[Markel]

With $100,000 (if it was tax free) I would pay off my mortgage balance and still have some cash to enjoy. :)

[ialsohaveadream]

Howard Stern I believe did something similar but with 35K or 50K and the guy spent his money on booze and drugs and the other homeless people robbed him. Of course I don't think Howard Stern went as far as Oprah to make sure he was mentally stable and give him advisors.
I think Howard just gave the guy $10k, knowing that he would most likely blow it. If I remember, the guy ended up using it on prostitutes and drugs, thus contributing to America's fine underground economy.

[Airencracken]

Don't worry, I'm not.

I didn't even need the sample size of one.

Must be nice to be omniscient. :rolleyes:

[InfiniteNothing]

:hihi: Inferring conclusions based on repeated observations is for chumps ;)

[zippyjuan]

Probably the experience of the homeless person with money is that it is only good today. He perhaps often had enough to get him through the day on most days so the concept of having enough to save for another day was out of his realm of experience.

As far as how much is $100,000 to those of us who are fortunate enough to have had more experience with having at least some money, how long would you be able to last with $100,000? Suppose that was the sum of your retirement savings and you had no other income. How many years could you live at your present standard of living? How would you be willing to reduce your expenses to make it last longer? This could be an exercise in what is really important to you and what you will need when you hope to retire.

[Prngr44]

"If a homeless man has a funny sign, he hasn't been homeless for long." - Chris Rock.