
When bills pile up, young people turn to strangers on Venmo - howard941
https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-venmo-cash-app-twitter-crowdfund-money-20190602-story.html
======
temp-dude-87844
This is pretty common among the coming-of-age generation that has grown up on
the Web. It's more likely to be tried in communities organized around shared
attribute, circumstance, or interest, than just shouting into the ether.
Typically, these are posted on sites where the person has followers in a
similar situation, and are shared on that platform until it slowly propagates
outward. Many people who share the same adverse circumstances can't donate, so
they share the posting instead, spreading it further. Eventually, someone sees
it who is in a position to donate. It's likely that those who donate the most
are on the fringes of the original community, but feel a sense of solidarity
or guilt.

The article mentions a few communities in particular. The unifying dimension
seems to be that some people's real-life safety net is outweighed by their
online one, even if they don't always receive the donations they ask. It's
worth a try.

~~~
PopeDotNinja
Waiting for help to find you probably isn't much of a plan, and you won't know
if you'll get help unless you ask for it. Finding help is hard, as is
swallowing your pride when the help that is offered isn't exactly what you
were hoping for.

------
rangeofmotion
What I don't understand is why people don't band together and simply refuse,
collectively, to pay bills that are well known in the culture to be
unreasonable. In particular, student loans. But also a few other things. My
god, I know so many people who are struggling that it seems like everyone is
struggling. I know people making six figures who are worried about losing
their homes. In fact, I've known so many people who have either lost their
home, almost lost their home, or are worried about losing their home that it
makes up probably a majority of the people I know. Did we forget somewhere
along the line that a home is just a patch of dirt with four walls and roof
thrown on it? Should it really be that precarious of a thing? How many people
do you think go to bed every night worrying about becoming a homeless person?
We've turned into a culture that literally has a market that gambles on
whether or not people will be able to keep their homes! For christ sake! What
kind of sick shit is that? And the whole thing is predicated on people
accepting the idea that they have to pay all their unreasonable bills and
stressing themselves out willingly over the process of paying them. At what
point do people throw their hands up and say "fuck it, this is unreasonable"?

~~~
shados
> In particular, student loans

Only if we're also collectively telling people not to take them in the first
place. The current culture telling everyone to go to expensive private
colleges, then bitching that they're burdened with loans and not pay them, is
pretty toxic.

Its should be a multi step thing. \- Tell people how bad student loans are and
how they shouldn't take them if they don't have a plan to pay them back.

\- Educate people on alternative, like trade schools, apprenticeships, etc.
Stop glorifying bachelor degrees beyond what they are (that should and often
happens even in countries where education is paid by the gov!)

\- Then, yeah, start doing something to reduce debt burden on those who were
affected before the previous two steps were in place.

Otherwise, if we keep pushing for school loans but then tell people not to pay
them, or forgive them, it's basically free education (a good thing) without
actually collectively agreeing on making education free (which is kind of
sketchy)

~~~
eli_gottlieb
>The current culture telling everyone to go to expensive private colleges

"Everyone" doesn't go to expensive private colleges. Of those who continue on
from high-school at all, 75% attend a publicly owned institution, usually
community college.

~~~
yellowapple
Are state colleges not also publicly owned? Those ain't nearly as affordable
as community colleges.

When I was in high school, being railroaded into prioritizing CSU or UC
admission requirements over graduation requirements was the norm even for
students (like me) who had effectively zero chance of getting into one of
those schools immediately after high school (let alone getting a scholarship
or meaningful financial aid or any other way to avoid a predatory student
loan).

~~~
eli_gottlieb
>Are state colleges not also publicly owned? Those ain't nearly as affordable
as community colleges.

They are publicly owned, and can be _made_ affordable by legislatures without
interfering in private organizations.

------
sp332
"millennial culture is just passing around the same $20 to whoever needs it at
the time forever." I see this a lot on my Twitter feed. Recently, a guy with
metabolic issues and chronic pain (whose own GoFundMe was "trending" for a
while) is setting up a charity livestream for someone else's surgery.
[https://twitter.com/docsquiddy/status/1148022827917938695](https://twitter.com/docsquiddy/status/1148022827917938695)

~~~
futureastronaut
I don't think there's such a thing as "millennial culture."

~~~
benj111
I'm sure people who fought in WW2 said that about the boomers, who in turn
said it about the gen Xers. In 20 years time we'll be reminiscing about emoji
and snap chat and hipsters and whatever the kids are doing now.

~~~
futureastronaut
My point was about the usefulness of generational constructs as cultural
boundaries, not "damn kids got no culture!". And according to sibling, I have
"denouncements" to rebut. What a thread.

~~~
benj111
Well culture changes, someone from the 19th century has a different culture to
someone from today. Yes I accept the fact that some arbitrary date isnt that
useful, and some (most?) people wont fit the pattern, but I suppose you could
say that about any stereotype.

Nevertheless it is a useful shorthand for people going through the same life
experiences at the same time.

I say this as someone who's technically a millennial, but old enough to
remember when we were generation Y, doesn't eat Avocado toast, didn't have
particular problems affording a house and don't particularly like
facebook/snapchat/grindr or whatever the kids are on now. So I'm not really a
representative Millennial.

------
randyrand
“There’s no shame in having to do it. Women of color, trans folks, queer folks
— these institutions aren’t built to love us and support us. These
institutions don’t care about our well-being,”

Does anyone else think that stereotyping is getting out of hand?

There are _so_ _so_ many reasons you might need or not need money outside of
your race or sexual orientation and vic-versa. Maybe you have cancer. Maybe
your house burned down. etc. Assuming that a person of a certain identity
group needs financial support seems like a ridiculous assumption.

The amount of focus we put on identity groups these today seems unhealthy.

I understand their point, but it’s just not even close to the first we should
bring up when encouraging people to ask for help.

~~~
maxerickson
Why don't you address the second half of the text you quoted?

Do you think they are wrong about the institutions they are talking about?

~~~
axaxs
No. But those institutions don't care about -anyone-. Prefacing it with
<insert identity of the day here> only weakens their case in my eyes. If you
want my support for a cause, don't exclude me specifically.

------
kbos87
There’s a less palatable side of this. It’s now very common to see people
openly offering to exchange money for sex, at least in the LGBT community.

On Grindr, it’s an everyday occurrence to see people seeking Venmo “donations”
with the implication or overt offer of a meeting in exchange.

I doubt if you asked many of the people who do it they would equate it with
prostitution in the same way I’m guessing the legal system might. It’s often
younger people who are probably exposed to “Venmo culture” elsewhere and
decide to apply it here.

~~~
krageon
Why is that less palatable? It's people deciding to sell something which they
own.

~~~
kjsbfkjbf
Being _forced_ to sell sex for survival is less palatable. Not the same as
flipping an unnecessary TV or lamp.

------
ryanmercer
Their title is... ehhhh, I initially thought "oh a bunch of kids with heavy
student loan debt for their liberal arts degrees are finding out adulating is
hard" but in reality it is:

(paraphrasing) my step-father was arrested for a DUI, can't prove citizenship,
and my mom needs money to drive to another state to visit him in custody (/)

This isn't novel, I've been hit up dozens of times on the street outside of
shows, at gas pumps, in parking lots etc. This is just people hoping to hit a
larger audience by soliciting twitter. You used to find Jains (or at least
similarly dressed individuals) outside of airports begging for money.

And then this...

>Fans of “The Bachelor” sent contestant Becca Kufrin wine money on Venmo after
she was dumped on national television, and more than 3,000 people sent a
23-year-old college student beer money after he held up a sign with his Venmo
handle on the “College GameDay” telecast.

... one is just fans blurring the lines of what is appropriate and the other
is just a guy hoping to get lucky and presumably making at least 3000 dollars
for holding up a sign. What?!

Maybe I should walk around with a sign "Will likely have to work til I die, no
one wants to give a GED holder a decent wage, only need 700k to retire,
@ryancarlmercer", maybe I should stop maintaining an emergency fund and eating
beans 10 meals a week to stretch funds.

~~~
komali2
Well, yea, this is why implementing social welfare and safety nets is far
better done at the government level, where you have accountability and a
justice system.

An attractive person holding a clever, written-in-English sign, at a football
game that cost them 100$ (or whatever) to attend, garners 3000$ for beer. The
ugly, dirty, illiterate homeless person that stands outside of a train station
gets 5$ for food.

Unfairness can exist at the bureaucratic level (shit like judges being tired
and being less lenient towards the evening, or just plain and simple sexism
and racism in the justice system), but it's far better than "marketplace of
begging for welfare."

~~~
0815test
These issues aren't solved with "social welfare and safety nets", that's just
throwing good money after bad. I'm totally fine with a kick-ass safety net for
people who are actually _in poverty_ , aka have trouble funding their basic
needs despite very serious, sometimes strenuous efforts. But someone who is
advertising their Venmo ID online is almost certainly _not_ poor in this
legitimate sense. Spending more money than you earn, and then on vapid things
like social media, etc. has nothing to do with poverty.

~~~
gowld
Social media costs $0. Venmo costs $0. Internet access costs under $50/month,
and is one of the most valuable purchases anyone can make in modern society.

~~~
0815test
The social media account costs $0. If you actually want to play at being a
social media "influencer" online and reaching strangers to a non-trivial
extent, you'll definitely be looking at some real costs.

~~~
chillwaves
How do you figure?

------
slang800
This is hardly unique to young people. People have been panhandling on the
internet for decades. Here's an example from 10 years ago mentioning some of
the sites that people used:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20091101005717/http://www.boston...](https://web.archive.org/web/20091101005717/http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/10/26/homeless_ex_cook_lets_his_fingers_do_the_panhandling_online/)

------
sandworm101
>>> "Children grow up aspiring to be Youtubers. Teenagers rake in thousands of
dollars selling slime,"

No. They are not selling slime. They are selling themselves. Just like any
hollywood starlet, they are marketing their youth and sex appeal. Customers
buy a fantasy, a perceived connection with the attractive or famous person. If
that makes the customer happy then that's great, but don't pretend that just
anyone can start a youtube channel and start getting paid. Being young and
attractive is 99% of the game.

~~~
Phillipharryt
You are aware there are many slime instagram accounts and channels that
involve nothing but footage of their hands manipulating slime? I'm not sure
what part of that involves being young and attractive.

~~~
krageon
Presumably they have attractive and youthful looking hands.

------
neonate
[http://archive.is/dM4pI](http://archive.is/dM4pI)

------
redis_mlc
From what I've read, they turn to their parents first.

~~~
pessimizer
Not everybody has parents with money. Plenty of people have parents who _ask_
for money.

------
rayiner
The way to engender sympathy for millennials is not to mention that they major
in “comparative politics” in the opening sentence.

------
daodedickinson
Prostitution is certainly exploding. Anyone see appropriate reactions to this?
How do we combat the loneliness epidemic that "social" media has caused? So
many people raised on "social" media have no idea how to get to the kind of
real, healthy relationship they want.

~~~
supergauntlet
Don't really follow your logic here, you're conflating prostitution and a
"loneliness epidemic"? Prostitution is as old as civilization itself. Older,
probably. I don't see rising prostitution as indicative of anything other than
'poor people are low on options'

~~~
komali2
Almost certainly older than civilization itself - female chimpanzees will
trade sex for food. Presumably proto-humans did the same.

