What's Up?

[sailingdog]

What is with all the people crawling out of the wood work trying to get boats, gear, equipment, etc for cheap or free??? NickL, WindRider68, and BigDreamThinWallet are all looking for freebies or had links to sites begging for donations.

Kind of sad and pathetic in many ways, especially considering the hard work and sacrifices most of us have had to make to get to the point where we could go sailing on our own terms. Is there something I'm missing about what they're asking, and the way they're doing it?

[SailinJay]

I think these people do what they do for the same reason that con men do what they do: they have no sense of shame and know that for every 999 persons who are wise to their game, there is always one who will bite, for whatever reason. If you pitch something to enough people, you may get a few persons to buy into your scheme and give you what you want.

You don't have this mindset or world view and therefore you can't fathom how someone can be so brazen as to do something like this.

[sailingdog]

Could be that, but it could also be that they've just got an unjustified sense of entitlement, and are too lazy to actually try and provide for themselves.

[Dewey Benson]

Sail,

It's the latest thing! New new improved images of self worth without effort!
The gimmie club!

Dewey

[sailingdog]

Originally Posted by Dewey Benson

Sail,

It's the latest thing! New new improved images of self worth without effort!
The gimmie club!

Dewey

LOL... good description.

[Gene T]

Pan handler on the street corner, unsolicited phone calls, pump and dump schemes, chain letters, begging for boats............................. What's the difference? It's all spam!

[camaraderie]

Well ...the real estate market is soft now and all those buy your own home with no money people are starting to look at sailboats!

[hellosailor]

What's wrong with looking for freebies, and who is to say that any one of them hasn't worked hard, and simply not been able to make it or keep it? I'm not sure what messages you've read and drawn conclusions from, but the "American Dream" has collapsed and become unattainable for a lot of people in the past decades.

And on the other hand...Go to any "upper middle class" suburb on trash night, and you'll find perfectly good furniture, appliances, computers, and other valuable goods simply stacked on the curb for pickup--because the owners have so much disposable income, that they literally can afford to throw away perfectly good "stuff" that others would gladly pay for.

Want a stereo? Toaster oven burned out and you can't afford the $50 for a new one because you had pneumonia and had no medical insurance? Get it for free on freecycle or craigslist.

Nothing necessarily wrong with it.

[sailingdog]

Yes, but on freecycle and craigslist, people are choosing to give stuff away, and taking it from them is a help to them. Here people are begging for donations...which I find rather pathetic. I don't know about you, but where I grew up, you were expected to work for what you got.

[Dewey Benson]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

What's wrong with looking for freebies

Nothing! these Gimmie's wern't looking, they were begging ( of course they don't think of themselves as the homeless unfortunate hanging in the city park).

One of them loosely stated when pressed "hey! if someone is stupid enough to give me money why shouldnt I have it?". This last couple virtually said "we dont want to wait until were old, we want to do this when we are young so we will let you have a ride in exchange for us working on and cruiseing your boat) I.E.: we don't want to put our noses to the grindstone and earn it for ourselves....GIMME YOUR STUFF!

Oh yeah... case you havent taken the time to figure it out "Tanstaffle" means "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch".

Le shakdown, internet style.

Dewey