and on a wholly different note

[nyarhotep]

¿could someone explain to my Capitalistic, Luddite ass the morality behind file-sharing copywritten material? the three answers i've heard are: Corporations are evil and kick puppies, therefore i'm justified in ripping them off; copywriting "information" is ludicrous on its face, my actions aren't illegal they're progressive; i don't give a crap,

Comments

[arghreality]

It's true that there are many hardships associated with poverty, but it's my own recent experiences with this area that made me say what I said - I myself have been jobless for a fairly long time, and a big portion of this time I wasn't able to get welfare - a big segment of my friends have also been in this position.

If you can get access to welfare, at least in the UK, you're alright. Life is going to be tough for a while, but you won't starve. In the UK, almost everyone should be granted welfare, although there are many complications depending on whether you're not a UK citizen, and also processing time - I know alot of people who've existed while not on welfare, with no job, and they can do so here *fairly* easily. If you had a family it'd be different, but single people can go skipping for abundant amounts of food. i.e, the supermarkets throw away huge amounts of good-quality food every day, and all it takes is a leisurely walk to the nearest supermarket skip to liberate the bags of discarded food. Me and a friend do that fairly often. We also went into a nearby squat recently (another possibility for non-rent living), and their kitchen was heaped with pineapples, bananas, etc exotic fruit, asparagus, and so on, that they'd salvaged from skips. One in the squat did have a car, but it shows you what's possible.

There's a cafe round the corner that gives away free food - if you're homeless or even poor or a squatter, and on the same road is a christian landlady who allows tenants to live in her apartment house for no money at all.

A friend of mine lived homeless in amsterdam for a long time, and held down a job at the same time. there are hundreds of jobs which are cash-in-hand or informal; he worked in a cafe in the red light district.

I know things may be tougher in the U.S - squatting laws are tougher for sure, I think - but as I don't have the experience of life there, I don't know...