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Comment by will_brown | Hacker News Reader

>It always baffles me how the proponents of the share economy do not see its downside:

They do, that’s why they are behind all these PR/fluff pieces like this one that promotes the “affluent homeless” life style.

You to can live the homeless dream and own two pairs of clothes...working when you want and where you want. Best part is you won’t get any benefits, like health insurance.

It used to be any riff-raff could achieve the homeless lifestyle without even a job, but big tech is classing up the streets. Now everyone thank big tech making homelessness great again...just don’t shit on the sidewalks.

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"It used to be any riff-raff could achieve the homeless lifestyle without even a job, but big tech is classing up the streets. Now everyone thank big tech making homelessness great again...just don’t shit on the sidewalks. "

The upper crust of society was always good at promoting things the lower ranks should do for them. Same with war. The little guys usually have nothing to gain from war but the big guys give them ribbons and "valor" to make it cool to go to war and die for them.

You thought this article was promoting this sad life living in a flophouse?

Yes, after all the article is promoting rental services WeWork (you to can pretend to be an employed tech worker while homeless) and REI rentals (for the millennial homeless who no longer own their own tents but rent them)...both of which are financial sponsors of the publisher.

And just in case you weren’t convinced how great the life is, they throw in a PhD quote promoting these “choices”, odds are the PhD will be homeless soon too and hoping their qoute will get them a job.

Curious how you read anything but promotion into this article?

> Curious how you read anything but promotion into this article?

So for starters, it's clearly a "straight news" piece, so the overall tone is neutral (not promotional), but the subtext is pretty obviously negative:

1) The tragic photo at the top of the piece.

2) Highlights the role of adverse circumstances: "There are two big reasons for this shift: the price of housing and student loan debt." / "But a lot rent and share because they're broke and they need to save money."

3) Ends with this quote focusing on how unsustainable it is: "It's not something that you can do forever, because you do need to have a place that you can genuinely point to and say, this is my home," he says.

1) tragic photo? It’s a promotional photo complete with positive quote from the person how great the life style is.

2) the entire article highlights how this is a lifestyle choice...and you cherry-picked the sole comparative quote acknowledging not all homeless are affluent and homeless by choice.

From the NPR financial sponsors:

>"We're selling joy," he says. "We're selling inspiration when you get out on a trail or go for a bike ride. We're selling the adrenaline buzz at the end of a run, and we're just trying to enable that in any way we possibly can."

3). Right...”you can’t do it forever” we shouldn’t be speaking about homelessness in these terms. Nothing is going to change to make these homeless people not broke and magically be able to go out and buy a home.

Re: #2 -- read more carefully -- I highlighted two separate quotes from different paragraphs in the piece.

And I'll wager the journalist chose that quote about "selling joy" to emphasize how ridiculous it sounds. There's a degree of dramatic irony at work here; you have to understand how to read between the lines.

e.g. here's one of the author's colleagues at NPR retweeting the "Hilarious story from @samsanders" https://twitter.com/pgogoi/status/1120711647323197440

I guarantee you NPR journos do not think everyone should live in "PodShares"

>And I'll wager the journalist chose that quote about "selling joy" to emphasize how ridiculous it sounds... you have to understand how to read between the lines.

The qoute is from their financial sponsor...the “journalist” is not picking quotes, and they are not mocking their sponsors “ridiculous” quotes, they are being paid ...and they are pushing their sponsors brand new rental business.

Sorry, why are you putting the word "journalist" in scare quotes? Is your assertion that Sam Sanders is not a journalist?

I think your interpretation badly misunderstands the relationship between journalists and sources quoted. Every reputable publisher has a strict separation between the advertising/business side of the organization and the editorial side.[0]

[0] https://ethics.journalism.wisc.edu/2012/12/19/breaking-down-...

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