COOS BAY, Ore. – A police survey says panhandlers outside Wal-Mart in Coos Bay can make $300 a day. Inside, it takes a clerk a week to make that much. Police say people who have a problem with that needn’t look to the law – asking for money is considered protected free speech. Coos Bay authorities say most panhandlers are not criminals. Coos Bay Police Captain Rodger Craddock says most have lived in the city a long time and they actually have homes. Craddock says, “This is just their chosen profession.” He says most are docile, and that people should report those who are not. Bob More, director of housing and emergency services at South Coast Community Action, says many panhandlers are there for the money – to feed their addictions. He suggested a voucher system involving tickets people could give that are good for a meal or bed in a shelter.
Thats a pretty good salary for a days “work”, and thats tax-free. I wonder if they turn around and spend some at WalMart? Then there are the “honest” panhandlers who will tell you upfront they need money for alcohol. While I kind of like that approach, I still don’t give them anything.
It may have been 1998 or 1999 when a couple of the Sacramento TV stations did an exposé of the many panhandlers we had. I had even called in one of my own after watching the guy dressed in military rags walk down the street to a new toyota camry then drive to a very nice neighborhood of $500k to $1M.. The new shows revealed the same thing, many were not drug addicts but instead were making large sums of cash and not paying taxes. Now we have very few of these professionals.
Worst I saw was a woman standing by her car in the parking lot of a Wendy’s. She had a sign that said she needed money for her to eat and formula for her newborn. On the sign were a dozen pictures of kids.
She walked up as I got out of the car and pleaded her case. I explained there were several churches and agencies that would help her and were in fact open at that time. She told me to “f” off and walked away.
As I was leaving, saw she had just got some money from someone and tore out of the parking lot. Next stop? Surely not the liquor store…
Then had a guy walk up to me while parking my motorcycle. Just needed a few dollars to catch the L (I lived downtown Chicago). He pointed over to the station across the street and pled for money so he wouldn’t get fired. My friend fell for it and gave him the money.
Three hours later while sitting in my garage, he comes the same guy down the alley. Looking for money. And I lived about 4 miles from when we first saw him – in the opposite direction of the station!
BTW – it’s not just Chicago. Been all over and seen similar.
San Francisco is the worst I have ever seen. At least it used to be.
#3. Try Bombay, India. Only place I’ve visited where there are fifth generation beggars, professionals whose families have been at that for over a hundred years.
When I am in the US I drop some Chinese coins in their tin, they look like Quarters. Is that cruel? :LOL:
Cheers
Oh yeah there are plenty beggars with nice two story homes. It’s basically a scam. That’s why I don’t give to beggars. If they are playing an instrument or something i might think otherwise, but other then that nope
So what? Welcome to freedom. I have no problem with someone asking me for money. As long as they’re not aggressive or violent, who cares. You’re under NO obligation to give them money. I just walk by them and ignore them.
Almost no actual homeless people who are just “down on their luck this week” pan handle. They’re too busy working with services/agencies to find shelter, jobs, etc. The folks you see, the same ones day in and day out for weeks/months/years are just doing this for “fun”.
I’ve had the same lady in Seattle’s West Lake bus tunnel station ask me for money because her car is out of gas and she needs to get home to Tacoma…for 4 years on an off. Wow, she’s been stuck looking for gas money for 4 years? LOL
60 Minutes did an expose on this a few years ago. They followed a beggar who went around the corner, got into his new Mercedes and drove home to his fancy house in an upscale neighborhood.
If the Wal-mart clerks demanded a 20% cut of the pan-handler’s action, in exchange for the right to sit out front, the problem would solve itself.
The reason why they don’t have to pay taxes is because it would be considered a gift, and is not income received in exchange for work. Nothing illegal about it as long as an individual gift is less than the threshold.
Holy smokes, WALMART SUCKS if the beggars outside their stores earn five times as much as their workers inside.
I wouldn’t care if it didn’t more than likely take away from people who are actually incapable of getting or holding a job for whatever reason, and rely on panhandling to survive, instead of doing it just because they don’t want to work for the man.
[Message deleted – Violation of Posting Guidelines. – ed.]
This nothing new, this has been going on since at least the 1890s, when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote “THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP” — read it online here: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext99/advsh12h.htm#6
I have mixed feelings about this. Many of the beggars are nuts and belong in an institution. I want those people to be helped. The mentally ill deserve better than a life on the streets. Unfortunately, most beggars are simply lazy boozehounds or dopeheads and don’t want to work. These people are bums. Not “homeless,” bums.
San Francisco is Bum City USA. It has more aggressive bums per capita than any other US city. Click above for some genuine examples. The San Francisco bums are quite creative, I’ll give them that. It’s hard to take them seriously, though, when every other restaurant has a “help wanted” sign posted.
I always give to transients & panhandlers – but what I give is advice: “Get a job”
#6 – If they are playing an instrument or something i might think otherwise, but other then that nope
If they are playing an instrument, then they are street musician, not a beggar… unless they suck, in which case they are loitering. 🙂
We are all aware of the hundreds of scam artists, but they should not be allowed to distract us from the many thousands who really are in trouble and living on the edge of oblivion. That’s why I think its better to give to charitable organizations that offer direct assistance to the homeless rather than putting money directly in their hands.
I still offer coins to the occasional homeless person, but I never give money to panhandlers with signs and sob stories.
The United States is a dangerous country and poverty is fatal.
Whats funny about his whole thing that its try, beggers do make more money than people working at Wal-Mart. I worked for Wal-Mart, and when I first started there I worked over night and there was this guy that I worked with that had a van. This guy had ran into this homeless guy he knew from California and he would let him sleep in the van while we worked. In the morninings we would get off and go have some drinks with this homeless guy, he of course would laugh at us for working at Wal-Mart even said he maid more money on the streets. He even treated us to food and drinks because he left sorry for us, turned out this homeless guy had a wife, kids and house but liked living out in the streets.