I’m poor and unemployed. My daughter and I live on $319.00/month that the state puts on my EBT card and $615.00/month that she gets from SSI due to the death of my wife. This will change soon I hope. I’ve taken advantage of the Safelink program and have been provided with a free cell phone w/125 min. per month. I use it for job hunting and to stay in touch with my daughter (Her grandmother put her on her plan) and friends. This is not a luxury by any means. So I ask what fellow Dopers think about this Government program.
I think the question for me would be, do you have a regular land-line phone as well as this free cell phone?
If so, then the cell phone’s a colossal waste of taxpayer money or donated money that could be used to feed someone, or give someone shelter. You don’t need a cell phone to do job searches or anything else that you can’t also do with a land line- it’s just a convenience, and I’m not generally in the habit of thinking that public or donated money should be given for conveniences.
(and yes, it’s absolutely a convenience. Until about 1999 or so, almost no one had cell phones and we could find jobs just fine, and communicate with loved ones, etc… with no problems.)
If not, then yes, it seems like a reasonable plan.
The job market is much different now. If an possible employer calls and you’re not home to take the call, there goes your chance.
Frankly, the minor expense of a cell phone compared to getting someone working and paying into the system is a small amount compared to some programs.
Until 1840 or so, almost no one had indoor plumbing, and they managed just fine without fancy convenient flushing toilets.
These days, it’s landlines that are a preposterous waste of money. It makes way more sense if you’re job hunting (and especially if you’re temping) to have a cell phone, since it means you’re reachable without spending the day trapped in your house. Also, cheaper. I got rid of my landline when it got more expensive than my cell phone plan.
Yeah, even if they do have a land-line (and why bother, unless you make more than 125 minutes of calls a month?), if a cell phone makes it more likely that the person will be able to find a job, it’s a convenience that is well worth the expense.
Plus, cell phones generally come with voice mail as well, which makes it even more likely that you’ll be able to hear from potential employers. With a land-line, you’d have to buy an extra voice mail service or an answering machine, if you didn’t want to have to sit by the phone all the time.
The bandwidth used for this free time is very tiny. The phone companies figured out correctly that if they gave away phones and free minutes, they would reap a profit on all the extra minutes that would be sold beyond the free ones. Surely some of the people I see hanging on phones all day long are poor people with these “free” phones. How the heck they pay the bill is still a mystery to me. Those who are poor and have some discipline can use this plan to great advantage.
If the OP drops out of the Safelink program, the saved money won’t go to food or shelter programs. The money for these phones comes from the Universal Service fund. Most of the money in this fund pays subsidies to rural phone carriers.
Google Voice is free and I use that exclusively for my job hunt. That way I can have a complete record of my job call backs and I can forward the Google Voice number to my home phone or I can let Google Voice take a voice mail.
Free broadband for the poor would probably be a lot more expensive than free cell phones.
Personally, I am for the free cellphone program. I’m sure it’s easy to label cell phones as a convenience, but if you want to find a job, you NEED a phone. I would guess there’s not a lot of reason for the poor (or many other people, myself included) to waste money on a landline too. Unless maybe there were other family members who might need to call for emergency assistance, like a child or an elderly relative living at home.
Remember, also, that the truly poor may not be able to *get *a landline. When your credit begins sinking, the phone companies will charge you a sizable deposit to hook you up. Then when you move again (because you get evicted or because the rent goes up) and you have to establish phone service at a new address, they hit you again. And if your credit is bad enough, they simply refuse you as a customer.
I hope, and it’s not snark, that the people who call you are able to leave a voice mail. The agents calling me? They range from “three calls from three different people in the same agency about the same job in two hours” to “one missed call from an ‘unknown’ and no voice message, follow-up email or follow-up SMS”. The immense majority of ‘unknowns’ who call me are agents, either calling from abroad or via skype :smack:
One of the people who is making money off me at my current job wasn’t even smart enough to understand “I’m going to be on the road, so please don’t call before 1pm” - answering her call almost got me a fine and 1/4 of the points off my driver’s license.
There is an organization here in Las Vegas that takes old cell phones and gives them to women and kids in shelters. These don’t supply minutes, but any cell phone can be used to call 911 (no minutes required to make these calls) - so the idea is, they can call if abusing husband or other emergency arises.
Whenever you buy a new cell phone here, they ask if you want to donate your old one to one of these shelters.
As far as giving one with limited minutes, I think it is a great idea. People complain that the poor don’t have jobs and are not trying to find one, but then they complain when you give them a tool to find a job? Make up your mind!
And my guess is, once those people find jobs, they will get a real cell phone plan and begin paying for themselves. So - seems to me like this is an excellent plan and idea.
I think it’s an awesome idea. I have often railed against rude cellphone users, but cellphones are a necessity now. (I just don’t believe you HAVE to have them turned on everywhere, like in movie theatres). But they are eminently useful.
I wasn’t saying that they should get a land line instead of a cell phone, but that IF they already have a land line, then they don’t need a cell phone, because they already have a phone.
Your poll options suck. I disagree that providing cell phones for the poor is a good idea, simply because providing them with landlines is a better and cheaper option. That doesn’t mean I think those in need are a pain in the ass.
Safelink type programs are great, in my opinion.
I’ve alluded in a few threads that I’ve worked with some homeless people. Some of them…not all…really want to get out of their situation, but it’s hard to do find a job when you don’t have a permanent phone number to put on a job application. Safelink provides that.
Sure…some people abuse it…some people don’t deserve it. And some people who do deserve it don’t qualify. But there are people who need it…and can make a better life out of it. Personally, I’m willing to live with a little abuse of the system if it helps an honest person get off the streets and become an active member of “standard” society.
(Obviously, the same goes for some who is poor, unemployed, and has a place to stay…but has to choose between paying rent, buying food, and having a phone number.)
-D/a
I think it is a good program. For many people, their cell phone is their only phone. If you are in a situation where you are moving around a lot (living with relatives, in hotels, in shelters, etc.) having a steady phone number can really help with job hunting, etc. Maybe it’s an aside, but it’s also safer for kids to have one number they can memorize to contact home.
Cell phones can be economical in other ways, as well. For example, if you are driving to the store and forgot your shopping list, it is cheaper to call home and ask rather than turning around and driving back.
Remember, back in the day when “we did just fine” without cell phones, there were pay phones everywhere, and people were more accustomed to working around missed connections, etc.
I just want to point out that I’m among the poor and underemployed, and these past three years every single job have I have had has REQUIRED that I have a cellphone!.
Now, as I am not quite as bad off as the OP I have been able to simply retain the cellphone I had prior to my lay off in 2007 and subsequent tumble from middle to lower class. However, if I had not had a cell phone I would not have had any of those jobs.
That’s on top of potential employers wanting to get ahold of you.
Why do you think it’s better or cheaper? My cell phone plan was cheaper than my landline until I added web access, and I can’t think of a single advantage a landline has over a cell phone, although I’m prepared to be enlightened.
Cell phones are also extremely helpful if you live in a shelter or some other group arrangement. Calls to your cell go directly to you or to voice mail that you control; you don’t have to sweat messages not getting to you through laziness or malice.
Some employers also refuse to hire people who live in local shelters and group homes and know the phone numbers to these facilities. Having a personal cell phone makes it easier to get around this.
So, yeah, I’m in favor of subsidized cell service to help find a job.
A question to extend the discussion. Would you also support subsidized post office boxes for the same reason?