Not anymore. I once fell into a wiki-hole about hobo symbols.
If I remember right, they were commonly understood in past, but that Hobo culture has since gone extinct.
There is no 'hobo' lifestyle anymore. Homeless people now are mentally ill, or drug addicts.
The need for reasonable healthy people to become nomadic scavengers, no longer exists thanks to modern social safety nets.
There are still some around. Those who disagree with the welfare state and decided to just live as vagabonds. Nowhere near as prevalent though.
True, but they do not number enough to sustain the culture, or keep the symbols in use.
Not true. I went homeless just for kicks a few years ago and met all kinds of awesome, intelligent friendly wanderers.
A lot of them aren't mentally ill druggies, they are just people who like adventure.
I wonder if bums collectively know these meanings.