List: Things I've Learned as a Bum

1) You can get all of your basic needs met if you are patient and humble.
2) People judge you soley by the way you look (e.g. "You don't _look_ like a bum")
3) The Police don't like homeless people.
4) The most agressive, rude, selfish, pushy, panhandler makes the most money.
5) Things own you, more than you own things.
6) The buddy system is priceless, if you choose a good buddy.
7) People who are not and never have been homeless cannot understand what it is like.
8) Some people prey on the poor/homeless.
9) The world is largely safer than the media makes it out to be.
10) Bums care more about each other and share more with each other than members of the middle and upper classes.
11) Most of the things I knew about Bums previously to being a bum was wrong.
12) It get's easier to be homeless every time you do it. Practice makes perfect.
13) Most people are so busy all the time they never actually get to see or think about their life.
14) All authorities, cops, Doctors, Priests, Actors, Cool Writers, Comedians, Teachers, etc. are just as full of shit as you. Authority is a consensual hallucination.
15) People throw away a lot of food and other perfectly usefull items, rather than take the time to give them to those who need them.
16) The court system is for people with money. Jails, Prison, and Mental Wards are for those without money.
17) Anything edible tastes great if you are hungry enough.
18) Social workers, for the large part, are completely useless.
19) People do not trust the poor.
20) Homeless shelters are degrading, humiliating, dirty, overcrowded, and do not have the capacity to help individuals. After your time is up you are back where you started: On the street.

Story Outline: The Suicide Files

About a young man in a similar world trying to get a license from the government to kill himself. The National Suicide Office makes repeated mistakes with his application, inlcuding sending him an acceptance letter he can't use because the name is mispelled.
When a well-meaning friend mentions the possibility of suiciding without a License the character is appalled at the idea of breaking the law. (E.G. Brazel, sub story perhaps, beauracracy vs. humanity).