Affluent beggars

[Ian]

It figures that these "affluent beggers" (nice name for dirty hippies) are from my city:

http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2006 ... 1local.htm

I see people like this all the time sitting in the same place day in and day out with signs saying "need $$$ for ride home" or "need $$$ for food", etc. Drives me crazy because I know they're raking in good money. It really pisses me off when they have their pets or children sitting there with them. I should really call child services or something.

[Ian]

wtf?

According to Pancoast, begging can be lucrative. He claims the family sometimes makes $300 a day asking for money and has made as much as $800. The family also receives $500 a month in food stamps.

If the two of them sit there for 8 hours, they're getting $18.75 an hour. Even if they sit there 12 hours its still like $12.50. That's a far cry from minimum wage.

[Justin42]

There's a guy in my area who pops up at various busy intersections "playing" the flute. It's in quotes because if you ever roll down your window you can hear the guy is tone deaf and can't play a damn note. You'd think after 10+ years of doing this (yes, I've seen him for at least that long) he would have gotten pretty good, but nope. One of the local radio stations sent someone to talk to him and he says he only does it in the mornings and makes well over $100/day. He just laughed when asked what he thought of the people giving him money, and what they would think if they realised he was doing quite well. (and it's all tax free)

It's awful because there are people out there who really need help, and then these scumbags ruin it for them because it makes honest people question EVERYONE's motives.

[Dartman]

The first people I ever saw like that we were on our way to make a lunch run, we bought extra and gave them some. By the end of the day they had so much food I doubt they could eat it all. Most of the folks I see now are either crackheads or professional beggers, I wont give either any money, pisses me off too. Our city was considering requiring a business license to beg, some sued for harrassment and won so that is the next step. I hope they do it, it not illegal that way but might as well treat it like a business and most would stop doing it after that happens, plus no license you get carted off

[dodecahedron]

someone should sue them for fraud.

[hoxlund]

Even if they sit there 12 hours its still like $12.50.

w00t, sorry best buy i can paid the exact same amount sitting and begging for money

so yes customers go ahead and buy those lightscribe burners, haha, losers

[Ian]

w00t, sorry best buy i can paid the exact same amount sitting and begging for money

You'd actually be taking home more $$$ as a begger since you wouldn't have to pay taxes on it.

Which is yet another reason why these people piss me off. They move to a smaller city (Ashland) so that their kid can go to some special hippie school... one that they're not paying for.

[smartin4]

"I haven't had a job for 7 years" "i've had problems holding jobs"

WTF? This loser can't hold a job, yet he makes more money now than he ever did working, and all that money is tax free??!! Plus they are getting food stamps & some sort of state/federal health insurance.

Why doesn't the IRS investigate them to see how they are able to afford a nice car and a jogging stroller (which, BTW aren't cheap) and pay for a $1000/mo motel with no verifiable income?

"I don't want to work because then I would have to be away from my children"



WAKE UP LADY!!!!!!! Do what most others have to do, one goes to work during the day, the other at night. It's called BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR YOURSELF & YOUR FAMILY!!!!!! Your inabilities to hold down jobs certainly didn't stop you from having 5 children, did it? BTW, your kids are in all day school once they hit 1st grade (K in many districts), ever hear of part-time job?

Do you think my wife wants to work? No, she would rather stay home and take care of my son (instead of us having to pay for child care). These people are not in touch with reality, and someone needs to set them straight.

All these people take away from the people that really need help.

IMO, people like this should be forced to pay some kind of tax on the money they are accepting. They live in a motel for less than $1000/mo, go get a f#$@ing job!!!!

Man, people like this piss me off.

[LoneWolf]

Their rent is only a little shy of my mortgage payment, and yet they make it easily by begging. That's outrageous and disturbing. Not only begging, but living high on the hog for it off the system (free public education and food stamps, since they pay no taxes at all, other than perhaps sales tax). Their free-and-easy confessions about things like LSD use while dating scare me too. You want money? Get a job. It's too hard to be without your kids? Work while they're in school, so that you aren't, and let kids be a planned experience, not the series of "accidents" the news story shows them to be. All of us make it somehow, without shaking down people who worked hard for their money.

I can only hope their blase' attitude about doing the interview hopes local people to recognize them and reduce their income accordingly. They just prove it's better to give to charities that help the homeless with education, work programs, etc. than it is to give to anyone on the street.

P.S. There's an appropriate Chris Rock monologue I'd so like to quote here , but I'd have to sensor it too much. Y'all probably know most of it anyway.

[socheat]

Simply unbelievable.

Slightly off topic, but related to beggers. I was walking to get lunch with a co-worker a week or so ago, and one of the local bums we see hanging around our office semi-regularly asked for some money for food. My co-worker said he didn't have cash, but if he came with us, he'd buy him a sandwich with his debit card. The guy said "Oh, I wanted chinese food. That's ok, thanks anyway."

Yeah. Right. "chinese food"

[LoneWolf]

Simply unbelievable.

Slightly off topic, but related to beggers. I was walking to get lunch with a co-worker a week or so ago, and one of the local bums we see hanging around our office semi-regularly asked for some money for food. My co-worker said he didn't have cash, but if he came with us, he'd buy him a sandwich with his debit card. The guy said "Oh, I wanted chinese food. That's ok, thanks anyway."

Yeah. Right. "chinese food"

Yep. If you count mao-tais as chinese food.

I was going to mention this. It's another reason I don't give money to people who beg. I'll offer to buy food if that's what they're begging for, but most of them don't want food the moment you offer to buy them some rather than give them money for it. And there's plenty of charities that offer food in the areas they beg in. I feel for those who are out of work and homeless; it's too bad the rotten apples are the ones always visible at the top of the barrel.

You could have handed the guy a plastic knife/fork from the place you were going in and tell him you saw a dog in the nearby alley.