If You Were Penniless And Alone

[LEAKYSEALS951]

[p911dad]

Stop at the first paragraph. The rest is too hard to imagine. The first paragraph is hard enough! Food, wander into a supermarket and just walk the aisles and open things and munch away. Shelter, find a good spot behind the market and use that as a base. Find a diner that needs help, get a cash job. I worked in a place in college and the dishwashers (Brad and Dewey) saved the good stuff off plates to eat when the place closed - good source of nutrition and and cash. There is high turnover in these places and easy to get ahead. Soon you are getting a check and making it out of the hole. Or, get on drugs and die. Those are the choices at this level.

[look 171]

I though about this on my way home this morning after dropping off my kid as I drove by a couple tents on the side of the road. I can only assume this is much easier if its in N America only because must of us will know how to go about surviving for a bit until we get out feet back on the ground. If this happening in a foreign country then the problem is compounded. If this happens in Russia, Asian, or any African countries then I think I am fooked. Still I think I can grind it out and should come out OK. I always think of the immigrants that came with nothing, a huge language barrier with no real support system. I am not talking about the Hispanics because its much easier for them due to the amount of Spanish speaking folks all over the southwest.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by p911dad

Stop at the first paragraph. The rest is too hard to imagine. The first paragraph is hard enough! Food, wander into a supermarket and just walk the aisles and open things and munch away. Shelter, find a good spot behind the market and use that as a base. Find a diner that needs help, get a cash job. I worked in a place in college and the dishwashers (Brad and Dewey) saved the good stuff off plates to eat when the place closed - good source of nutrition and and cash. There is high turnover in these places and easy to get ahead. Soon you are getting a check and making it out of the hole. Or, get on drugs and die. Those are the choices at this level.

Why get on drugs to begin with?

[Crowbob]

I washed pots and pans in the kitchen of the foreign graduate students dormitory in college and gained some weight.

I learned the food rotation so knew what was for dinner.

Then I got promoted to cleaning bathrooms then again to polishing floors with one those rotating floor polishing machines. That was one of the times I was homeless. Slept in the psych research building for about a week.

[Por_sha911]

They only way I can imagine your story happening is really bad or no parents at all and trying to survive.

Or I decided to illegally cross the border of a sovereign country thinking that they would provide all my needs. At that point, I'd have to ask what bad choices I made to end up in this situation.

[McLovin]

Given the assumptions in the hypothetical, this would be exceedingly easy for most of us here.

We”d have a “normal” life within 30 days.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by McLovin

Given the assumptions in the hypothetical, this would be exceedingly easy for most of us here.

We”d have a “normal” life within 30 days.

Gotta agree with this .... and most here would figure it out.... in totally different ways.... that's what makes PPOT special.

[McLovin]

Heck, assuming everything in the hypothetical, for a lot of us within 2 months our “new lives” would in many ways be easier and more stress free than our current lives.

[sc_rufctr]

What if you're "On The Lam"?

This trailer includes Tommy Lee Jones's famous "Dog House" speech.

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by McLovin

Heck, assuming everything in the hypothetical, for a lot of us within 2 months our “new lives” would in many ways be easier and more stress free than our current lives.

You'd be starting with zero debt.

[McLovin]

And zero responsibility or obligations for anyone else. No children, spouses, parents, relatives, etc.

[Crowbob]

Originally Posted by McLovin

Heck, assuming everything in the hypothetical, for a lot of us within 2 months our “new lives” would in many ways be easier and more stress free than our current lives.

This has been my experience.

Although my life is a stress-free as it gets outside of being penniless and alone.

[McLovin]

And most of us are not spring chickens. Average is probably mid to late 50s. There’s no need to create a future big career, or even do the current job you do now.

There’s no debt, and no financial obligations, other than what’s needed for yourself and yourself alone. In the US, for people like pretty much anyone here, that’s very easy. There’s *zero* issue of “survival.”

And, under the hypo we are the same person. So most of us are near social security age. So Medicare and SS payments not too far away.

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by McLovin

And zero responsibility or obligations for anyone else. No children, spouses, parents, relatives, etc.

Well yea but for me debt always feels like a heavy burden so I avoid it like the plague.

Family/friends/acquaintances not so much but there would be benefits if they were absent.

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This thread is packed full of creative and interesting ideas!

[Alan A]

55 answers and not a single start robbing people to get enough for food and shelter.

Worse case you get caught and get 3 hots and a cot for a day or two before you are out on cashless bail.

[jyl]

Lot of good ideas, I’ve filed some of them away in the “just in case” mental drawer. I especially like the Amazon warehouse idea.

The reason I said you have no “history” is so you can’t just pull up your credentials, print out your CV, order replacement credit cards, that would be too easy. Social Security, I hadn’t thought of that, I think that would make it too easy as well.

[McLovin]

You don’t have the documented “history” but you still have all your knowledge, so eventually you’d be able to use it to make a living.

For example you mentioned a law degree, but you can’t use your bar card.

You’d still be able to get a job at a law firm. It might be as a janitor, or file clerk, etc. Any position would do. Just get in the door. It wouldn’t take long for someone with 25 years of litigation experience to become a top paralegal or “legal assistant” at the firm.

Same would hold true for pretty much any profession or vocation.

If that’s what one wanted to do. With just oneself to support it probably wouldn’t be necessary to work even that hard, esp if SS was available.

[RobFrost]

Originally Posted by Alan A

55 answers and not a single start robbing people to get enough for food and shelter.

Worse case you get caught and get 3 hots and a cot for a day or two before you are out on cashless bail.

Robbing people is already worst case for me. The punishment wouldn't matter to me compared with having robbed people.

Once I got fed and clothed at a church, charity, soup kitchen, bin or hospital, I would find a construction firm for some cash in hand labouring. I can lay bricks, do carpentry etc. A cheap bicycle or moped would be a wise early purchase.

Once I had the cash I'd buy a car to sleep in.

I'd probably buy my own tools or scrounge some unwanted ones off other workers and look to take on my own contracts. Bricklaying is good because few tools are needed.

With any accumulated cash I'd get a phone and then I'd be away. I'd get on a free or cheap trading site like Facebook marketplace and trade in items I can flip for profit on the side such as cars. See what I can pick up for free.

I'd probably join dance classes, yoga or something women like, or join a dating service, meet a woman of means and move in with her.

I don't spend much so I'd like to think I would get in my feet fairly quickly but I'd still look to escalate the income as fast as possible.

I've worked hard to be in a position to retire young, so it would be sickening to have nothing and to have the prospect of working for years ahead. I might look to have kids again because that would give me an irresistible purpose to keep going.

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[WPOZZZ]

Originally Posted by Alan A

55 answers and not a single start robbing people to get enough for food and shelter.

Worse case you get caught and get 3 hots and a cot for a day or two before you are out on cashless bail.

You drop me in the middle of nowhere in the winter, and I'll look for a cop and do a crime to have 3 hots and a cot. Winter for me here is low 60s. Put me in snow and FFFFuuukkkkkk!