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Comment by sigh400 | Hacker News Reader

Constraints? You mean like not owning a car and the increased insurance premiums from living in a high risk area with no credit to speak of?

Which is why it's complete and utter bullshit.

You sleep in horribly shitty conditions, where noise is a constant problem. You do this day in and day out and with poor nutrition, lack of heating/cooling, and a shitty mattress. All in a attempt to save up for a car, insurance, maintenance costs and gas?

Yet it's just about budgetary constraints. Right you are sir. Right you are.

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Did you read the article? Quoting from it:

> My goal is merely to help bring awareness to the issue

He's not trying to do some kind of "poor simulation," and to accomplish his goal, he doesn't have to. Even by just doing a simple exercise like strictly limiting his food budget for a week, he has brought some light upon the difficulty that many people face.

Yes and clearly they are not the same constraints.

It's ridiculous to think this raises any sort of awareness to the real issues that poverty presents. It's trite and ignorant to think anything otherwise.

I had never heard of 'food deserts' for example. This stunt raised my awareness.

You're wrong.

Charities seem to think that small, one-line ads with a tidbit of information can raise awareness and spur some people into action; I don't see why this couldn't.

Raising awareness is not the same as getting people to even begin to understand the issue, it's just making people realize there is an issue.

Not everyone is aware as you are of the limitations of poverty. I imagine in particular, this CEO's social circle isn't very aware, and if someone of their own social standing says "hey, I actually tried to eat properly on food stamps, and it can't be done", those people will give it more credence.

(A) We're talking about it. Raise awareness? Done. (B) No they are not the same constraints as a whole, but he is choosing to live by a specific set of constraints. That is the entire premise of what he is doing.

Not living by some extreme set of constraints omg I have to give up everything does not diminish what he is trying to accomplish. You're just adding your own parameters to his experiment.

Heating is not a major problem for the poor. Only 12% of the poor were uncomfortably cold for at least 24 hours last winter. (For comparison, 8% of the nation as a whole suffered this problem.)

http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/h150-07.pdf see table 2.1

Similarly, 73% of the poor own a car.

I guess the budgetary constraints the poor face are not as severe as you seem to believe.

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