Marketing Agency Uses Homeless As Wi-Fi Hotspots

An anonymous reader writes "Marketing agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) has launched a controversial charity scheme at this year's South by Southwest festival, in which homeless people are being used to provide Wi-Fi hotspots. The project, Homeless Hotspots, seeks to address people's need for a high-speed data connection at the festival in Austin, Texas, by issuing the homeless with T-shirts that say 'I am a 4G hotspot.' Passers-by may then pay what they wish either in cash or by PayPal to get online 4G networks via the Wi-Fi device that a homeless person is carrying and the proceeds go to the Front Steps Homeless shelter in Austin."

Re:What!?

[stating_the_obvious]

The homeless person doesn't keep the money for the same reason that the cashier at McDonald's doesn't get to keep the money... The profits will be donated to a homeless shelter in Austin.

Re:Ah yes,

[MickyTheIdiot]

Most likely they take the money through a browser at the time of login.

At least that's the way I would do it.

(and IF this is sarcasm then you're right on that the first thing the right-winger would say is "smelly," and if you ARE a right-winger then you sure showed your true colors)

More info..

[Anonymous Coward]

Suggest you guys check out the actual blog post, answers a lot of the questions asked.

http://bbh-labs.com/homeless-hotspots-a-charitable-experiment-at-sxswi

It's the insanity of our tax and labor system

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not just taxes as Luckyo suggested, but also labor laws. Suddenly minimum wage comes into the picture as well. So you have minimum wage, FICA compliance (is the homeless man an employee or "self-employed") and similar nonsense. Pretty soon, a homeless guy who might have been content to just make a few bucks and pass a few bucks on to his homeless shelter is getting to experience the joys most of us go through every year with the IRS.

This is one of the reasons why minimum wage laws hurt the poor. As noble as creating a society that is intolerant of wage exploitation is, drafting laws that cover edge cases is at least as hard as doing software that does that. However, unlike software, failure to properly plan for edge cases like this means parties may be fined or jailed.

Mental Disability Stigma

[Anonymous Coward]

The assumption that someone who is unable to work due to being mentally ill would be unable to "spend money the right way" is disgusting. Most mentally ill are capable in many aspects of their lives, some just have certain limitations that keep them from working. (eg. PTSD, extreme phobias) Assuming that, just because they are mental ill in some fashion, they will not try and keep food on the table/roof over head is just.. wrong. Would you assume someone who had an arm or leg removed would fall in to the same category? What about a pregnant woman? The stigma associated with mental illness is terrible and, like most, largely inaccurate. Yes, you will have some people that are unable to "work within the structure," but don't assume that unable is the same as unwilling.

Re:What!?

[tmosley]

Anonymous Coward thinks it is "easy" to start a business, and that having an LLC somehow shields a company from losses to theft, rather than being a vehicle for minimizing losses to lawsuits.

Yes, surely he is right. No-one would dare to walk away with the property of an LLC, and even if they did, the LLC fairy would swing on down and make it all better with a wave of it's magic wand.

Re:What!?

[canajin56]

The "MiFi Manager" that keeps ALL of the money is the homeless person carrying it, so that's the source of confusion I assume. Either that or Slashdot misrepresented TFA on purpose to get more angry posts in the comment section. The marketing agency does not get a single cent. The charity also doesn't get money unless you ALSO donate to the charity's paypal donations account, which is separate. In no event does the marketing agency get your money.

Re:What!?

[tmosley]

Yes, losses to theft are tax deductible. They are for all businesses. But what is the tax rate in your country? Unless you are posting from North Korea, I'm betting it is less than 100%, meaning you lose money in the transaction. Of course, if ALL of your equipment walks away, then you don't have any taxes on gains to offset, so you just plain lose everything.