I've been looking into the idea of being homeless for the past day or two. The idea of rotating between and within national parks with what I can carry on my back has great appeal. Medicaid in some states covers preventative, and some restorative medicine along with basic dental coverage. Together these seems sufficient, and they lack work requirements. Even if you die earlier or have your health compromised as you age, you would at least have your youth to have lived.
You'd probably need to have a small amount saved up to buy toiletries and to repair damaged equipment every once in a while. This doesn't seem to be a major issue; by contrast, food seems rather significant. Food Stamps and Welfare both have a work requirement, and I'm not sure I could justify taking from a food bank when I was capable of earning food another way. We always hear how they are in such limited supply after all.
The options then are hunting, foraging, or scavenging dumpsters? Is there anyway to garden reliably without a place to live, and preferably at scale? I have a book on growing local weeds for food, are there places I could grow these without them being disturbed? How much of your daily intake can be reliably gained from foraging and hunting? Is dumpster food tolerable, and how nutritious a diet can be had from it (are fruits and vegetables available)? How much of this is illegal and enforced. I'd prefer to not be routinely harassed by law enforcement. I know this is a lot of questions, so of course don't feel obligated to respond to them all.
Thanks in advance!
There are certain algae that are edible and can be grown with a small amount of electricity and sunlight. I'm not sure how much volume you would need to support yourself but if you're walking all the time it would probably be more than you could carry.
>>2
Yes, this seems very impractical. It's too bad there aren't free Soylent Green dispensers ... then again eating algae all the time also seems rather unappealing anyway.
Dumpster diving is the easiest option for harvesting food. You could also make some money with a youtube channel documenting the life of a homeless nerd. Or you could sell something you make like wire bracelets. You'd only need to invest in a wire coil and a pair of pliers for those.
Many vagabonds work fish canneries for a season to save up about 6k a year, then ride the rails and spangle the rest.
Food banks are no big deal to use, nor is EBT or other aid.
There are traveller friendly permanent resident mailboxes out there.
Most people slave away the only life they'll live.
>>4
My primarily interest is in avoiding long-term work for pay, being self-employed and homeless sounds worse to me than just getting a job. Do you have any experience eating from dumpsters, or have any links do people documenting their experience? I know it's a possibility, but once again I'd probably rather work than be in poor health in my youth due to undernourishment, or poisoning. I'd likely even rather work than eat disgusting things regularly.
Food banks are no big deal to use, nor is EBT or other aid.
EBT and other government aid in the US has a work requirement though doesn't it? Do food banks have enough food for everyone, this last question is simply for my own personal moral grappling. I may get over this if it seems necessary.
>>6
Look up freeganism and dumpster diving.
>>7
I quickly found the following two links, I probably should have searched this more already. I've not found much information on guerilla gardening with intent to harvest, perhaps this is something which is not done. I've ironically got some work to tend to so I'll pause this avenue of research and return sometime in the next few days.
https://freegan.info/what-is-a-freegan/freegan-practices/urban-foraging/diving-and-the-law/
https://freegan.info/what-is-a-freegan/freegan-practices/urban-foraging/health-and-safety-issues/
you can also travel around a circuit of friendly churches and homeless shelters for food and temporary shelter.
Food banks have enough food for everyone. Shame is the last thing to take with you on the road, I'd imagine. Got to get by somehow.
Food banks have enough food for everyone.
That's good, I wasn't so concerned about shame as about my actions directly making someone else go hungry. I suppose I should be just as concerned about removing things from the dumpster then, but it seems there is enough.
>>8
Regarding my initial questions then it seems that dumpster food is tolerable, and it is legal to obtain. Regarding nutrition you clearly can't obtain meat, fish, or eggs and even dairy might be pushing it. This does set you up for some deficiencies which could be resolved by hunting or trapping. Fruits and vegetables are available however.
>>10
Supermarkets throw tons of yogourts (they're perfectly edible past the expiration date). Freegans are also vegans, they don't tell you everything. Meat and fish is also available but I wouldn't touch it.
mmmm dumpster sushi.
That is how sushi is supposed to work traditionally isn't it?
Peanut butter or tinned meats are affordable.
>>11
I think this should contain most of the B vitamins which are difficult to get otherwise and some decent protein, and fats. Perhaps resolving most of the issues. People generally don't meet their daily recommended intake for a number of vitamins, and I seem to recall that multivitamins aren't always effective, so I don't even no where the line of significance is. This is yet another thing I need to look into more. I imagine >>13 doesn't spoil often, but adding to my initial savings for the sake of nutritional supplementation from affordable sources doesn't sound unreasonable.
>>12
It's true the food is bound to not be excellent more often than not, if for no other reason than lack of control over ingredients. Although it wouldn't be entirely impossible to find the ingredients for sushi in the dumpster and fish for the remainder. I still need to look more into the possibility of guerilla gardening with intent to harvest (at minimum a herb garden would be trivial), and hunting/fishing opportunities. I'm honestly already so disappointed with the food here, that it doesn't seem like a significant difference.
I am the hot dog master.
>>15
Is it safe to take wieners in the dumpster? I've heard meat in dumpsters is generally hazardous to health. Have you taken any measures to insure your protection?
>>14
I briefly looked at a cookbook for dumpster divers, it was in the form of a loose association of ingredients that complemented one another, and suggested cooking information for specific ingredients. It didn't give me any sort of dumpster diving enlightenment. I also looked briefly at small game hunting and fishing both of which seemed to indicate that you need licensing and might even have per expedition fees. (not to mention this might be rather time consuming, and eventually constitute work) I've not found or thought of any sane way to grow crops without land.
I'm not sure a life free from work, at the expense of replacing all animal products with yogurt, and effectively having no finished dishes, sounds appealing to me. It may be the seasonal work suggestion of >>5 would be a better suggestion. I thought for a moment that you might be able to go half-way between the homeless and leisure class routes, where you just have enough interest to generate a few grand a year for groceries, but apparently Roth IRAs are counted as assets for medicaid. I suppose you could still do this, but you would need a few thousand more a year to cover medical expenses. That'd be something like 100k-150k in savings, which ain't pocket change. Might as well buy a place to live at that point.
I'm not sure a life free from work, at the expense of replacing all animal products with yogurt, and effectively having no finished dishes, sounds appealing to me.
I think I'm just going to have to return to my original boring plan of shooting for a high paying job living a spartan life to build ~300k in equity to retire on.
i was looking into trainhopping once, and honestly, it's just one of those things where I think you had better be ready for some rapid adaptation to the environment or else you're in a dumb situation. The road has plenty of dangers, but if you're one of the rare few that finds their groove- I think it's probably a better living than most get.
Plus, train punk is a fun look. What it is with some of those bastards being so fashionable when living out of a garbage can I'll never know, but I am obviously missing out on something.
>>19
I like Shiey's channel. He's a cool guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45NK2cPO4xM
>>19,20
What's the point of train hopping as these fellows are. Is it just for fun?
>>21
I think Shiey is just a crazy daredevil but in USA where trains are sluggish, unelectrified and cover thousands of kilometers, some people just use them to travel for free.
>>22
Interesting.
It's dangerous. You slip and there you go.
skim /r/vagabond/
>>25
I looked at this briefly. I see the appeal of living by ones principles no matter what, and even the principles of the riders themselves: e.g. I want to be free to go to the beach and hang out when I want to without working. I understand the linked fellows video less, but I don't really care too much either.
https://old.reddit.com/r/vagabond/comments/o1buie/rvagabond_compendium_of_advices_resources_books/
what reading too much CrimethInc. does to a mf
When I used to talk with Captain Crunch, many many years ago in, I recall he basically lived on the streets with a laptop.
>>28
I was an anarchist when I was a kid, but I don't think I ever read that website.
>>29
Seems like a pretty cool way to be. Although I imagine being homeless in an urban area is a lot less fun than hanging in the woods. This all reminds me of the whole ``digital nomad'' thing as well.
Check out vagrant holidays, the guy bascically manage to sleep anywhere in big cities around the world. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgNqlRGqHdxNRPR6ycynWhw
>>29,30
I also knew someone who used to live in the streets with a laptop. He even had very decent ad revenues from a forum dedicated to metal scrapping.
>>30
They might still have some useful information, although I assume it is mostly outdated by now:
https://archive.org/details/RecipesForDisasterAnAnarchistCookbook
Grow food? Hunt? What are you on about, you just panhandle and buy stale bread and such from supermarkets or go to charity sponsored shit. The problem could be warmth and shelter, often landlords try to rape young people they can throw out into the streets and since the homeless are considered schizos with nobody to tell it's seen as rather riskless to just rob them up for their panhandled cash. Though the police also has big trouble finding someone without an address, by the time you are ambitious enough to be a criminal yourself you are unlikely to still be homeless.
>>33
Rather than saving spare change for stale bread, he can just take those smartasses offering to buy roadside beggars meals up on their offers.
Anyone know how to find rail yards and maps?
>>36 thanks!
All that rail in the US that's only used to transport coal.
We don't even need to build any new infrastructure to have decent mass transit, just send trains on the infrastructure we have.
>>38
iirc ironically the typical excuse for this is safety standards, this is the reason that making passenger rail systems in the US is dramatically more expensive than elsewhere. the US until very recently quite literally refuses to use rather fundamental innovations like tilting trains, and articulated cars. for this reason the centrifugal force made it so that reusing existing tracks was deemed too dangerous because of centrifugal force. my state once considered linking together its three major towns by passenger rail reusing old lines, but came to the conclusion that they would have to rip out too many turns for it to meet safety standards and so abandoned the project. Other safety bugs make US trains dramatically more heavy than trains elsewhere making them use more fuel.
anyway, the US is clearly fine with poisoning everyone, and lack of safety due to the dangers of cars. this is all clearly due to vested interest continuing to make passenger trains nonviable, just as they did when they bribed every politician in the country to rip out the tram systems. admittedly it's also just part of US litigious culture, e.g. if I slip on your train, and you didn't meet every single excessive standard to the letter you will get sued. this in combination with a pile of paper work saying that it's the responsibility of non-disabled people to make everything accessible to disabled people means a whole lot of excessive regulatory burden. (this probably all goes back to the whole means-tested thing which anglos love so much)
>>39
sorry about the english, my brain is slightly melted.