I Saw a Homeless Man Watching Netflix
If you needed proof that the homeless are just like us, look no further.
On Saturday night, as I ventured from a subpar Chipotle experience to the movie theater, I walked by a homeless guy with an iPad. Not a Mini, either – he had the real deal. Sitting with his pile of belongings on 2nd Avenue, it appeared that the man was spending his Saturday evening just like many other New Yorkers on a budget – watching Netflix.
To say that I have some questions would be an understatement. Obviously, how did he get an iPad? If he came upon several hundred dollars, did he choose to buy an iPad instead of weeks of food? What internet connection was he using? Does he have a credit card he uses to pay his monthly Netflix bill?
Unfortunately, I’ll never know the answer to most of these questions, but I’m wondering if this man may be a leader of a movement amongst the homeless community. If you have nowhere to be, why not spend your money towards a platform that contains endless hours of content and entertainment? As long as he can scrap together $10 a month (which can’t be that tough in NYC), he’s got his entertainment covered, and everything on top of that can become McDouble money. It’s not a bad idea.
What I am curious about is what happens when this man feels that he’s tapped out on Netflix. Is he going to make the switch over to Hulu? What if, as a native New Yorker, he has heard great things about Billions and wants to catch up? Is he going to stand on the street and peddle for the additional $20 a month fee for the Showtime Hulu add-on? It honestly would make for a nice change-of-pace on homeless signs - “Love Paul Giamatti, Anything Helps” would definitely catch my eye and earn a donation.
By next April, I’m expecting a fleet of homeless armed with iPads and logging into HBO Go every Sunday to catch a new episode of Thrones. So be generous out there, world. Don’t’ think of your $0.50 donation as meaningless because it’s only half of a small fry order, think of it as a portal to Westeros.