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Does the lack of payphones in modern society discriminate against the homeless?

VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
How are they supposed to communicate? They don't have any place to plug in a cell phone to charge it.

I am a bit disheartened to see so many pay phones going away. I know that if I am ever stranded somewhere, and my cell phone runs out of juice, I'll be screwed.
 
The homeless generally don't have anyone to call anyway. They are friends with all homeless people, and none of them have cell phones.
 
FallenHero said:
The homeless generally don't have anyone to call anyway. They are friends with all homeless people, and none of them have cell phones.
Click to expand...

LookBehindYou said:
Yeah, not exactly sure who they would be calling. Other homeless? Probably not. Relatives? Probably not.
Click to expand...

These. If you're homeless who could you possibly need to call anyway? Family? If your family wanted to talk to you then they'd probably also be willing to help you, so you wouldn't be homeless. If they don't want to help you then they probably don't want to talk to you either.

Hobos don't need phones. They need a blanket and a cart.
 
Basically the homeless require cell phones for job hunting doctors appoints, food stamp renewals, social worker contacts, casual employment, and lots more.
You do not exist without a phone these days.
Libraries, if you are discrete will not notice cell phone charging.
Some businesses will allow charging on a personal basis.
 
About half of the homeless here have cellphones.....:hmm:

And no,it is due to less demand for them so they pull them of the street.
 
Funny, it never occured to me but yeah payphones seem to be vanishing. There's still some here but way less than before. Problem is, people vandalize them all the time so they cost the phone company more money than worth.
 
Who is a homeless guy going to call? His homeless buddies?

I saw a pay phone a few months ago while getting my car washed. I actually took a picture of it because I hadn't seen one in years.
 
Discriminates against me ... pisses me off when I can't find a payphone, since I have yet to own a personal cell.
 
Homeless all should have cell phones with places to charge them. (shelters perhaps?)
The only way any of them are going to get jobs and NOT be homeless is to apply, get called, and go in for an interview...

You can't get called if you don't have a phone.
 
Not by any definition of discriminate that I know. I doubt there is any anti-homeless motive behind it. It's just a symptom of the evolution of telephone service.

A better question would be "Does the lack of payphones have a disproportionately negative effect on the homeless relative to the rest of society"?
 
VirtualLarry said:
How are they supposed to communicate? They don't have any place to plug in a cell phone to charge it.

I am a bit disheartened to see so many pay phones going away. I know that if I am ever stranded somewhere, and my cell phone runs out of juice, I'll be screwed.
Click to expand...
"stranded somewhere" implies to me that you're in the middle of nowhere - a place where pay phones never existed anyway.
 
I used to hate it when I needed to make a call (it was .10 back then) and all I had was a quarter. Bastards.

The places that still have phones (in bad neighborhoods) usually have signs posted above them saying that the phones are monitored by law enforcement. Saw a few when I was living in Berkeley.

Cell phones killed pay phones for sure, much too expensive to build/maintain/service.
 
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