Quote:
Originally Posted by GH85Carrera
They can go to a public library and use a computer for free, and free internet. That might be difficult if you live in a very rural area, but city residents can find a library.
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FYI, public libraries have been closed for over a year.
Jobs (the sort that low income people get) are posted on Craigslist and similar online sites. Communication is by webform, email and increasingly text. Good luck applying, sending your info, getting contacted, etc without web access, email, a phone. How many employers will look at a job app with no phone # and no email?
Same for housing. Would you rent to someone who doesn’t have a phone or email? “Please leave me a message at the public library”. Yeah right.
When you get that minimum wage job, it’s going to be shift work and your hours may change weekly. Which you find out about by email, text, phone. “Please leave me a message at the public library” again?
Do you need to know about any public services or assistance programs? Likely would be helpful, if you’re living on $2,500/mo and maybe raising a kid, whose dad skipped out years ago. No internet, no phone? You won’t know about anything and won’t be able to apply for it anyway.
The world has changed. Internet and cellphone are as vital today as bus tokens and quarters for the payphone were 30 years ago.
Could you, or others on this forum, if cast onto the street with no internet, no phone, no money, figure out how to use the local library and hard work to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps? Probably yes - except in 2020 when the library doors were locked - but that’s because we’re all successful, with a lifetime of education, experience and skills, and frankly I think this group is mostly in the top 5% or 10% of Americans as far as smarts, resourcefulness, and other personal attributes go.
I mean, when the Guardian of Forever sends Kirk and Spock to a slum in New York during the Great Depression, you’re not worried that they’ll end up homeless, you know it’s only a matter of time before they own the joint (“City on The Edge of Forever”).
But we’re talking about Americans who are in the bottom 20-30% in education, skills experience, etc. Will they all be as resourceful and successful as you or hopefully I would be? Not likely. The ones that aren’t - should they just live in their cars or in tents on the street? Because that’s what’s happening, more and more.
The people who are just a rung or two above that, they know how fragile their situation is, and that not having internet and smartphone - at absolute minimum the latter - is one step toward ending up in a tent. You may think those are luxuries that poor people shouldn’t have, but in the real world it’s a lifeline and they will do everything possible to have it.