Panhandling $250 to $300 a week

Philadelphia Daily News ^ | Mon, Jun. 24, 2002 | MICHAEL HINKELMAN

[Gaston]

When asked by beggers for money I gladly tell them I will take them to my church where their needs will be met. Only once have I been taken up on my offer, by a woman who's car broke down and was stranded. My church put her and her son up in a motel for the night with meals while her car was repaired.

[LaBradford22]

I really liked this story because it debunks at least two Liberal myths:

MYTH #1: Those who are poor were somehow predestined to be poor. This guy had a good upbringing and still turned out to be a bum.

MYTH #2: You do a person a favor when you give him money for doing absolutely nothing. This guy proves that this is not the case if the money is given voluntarily by an individual, but I would argue that the same is true of money that is given involuntarily with the government as an intermediary.

[wardaddy]

Tull said most of his donors were urban whites.

White folks are soft as putty...the homeboys know a game when it's standing in front of them. I must confess that I even occasionally give 'em some change even if I know for sure they are looking to fix up. If I've got my hands full of carseats and babies and kids...it's just easier than letting my own ego escalate a conflict with a loudmouth dopehead doing the old shuck and jive for some crack or a 40.

What bothers me more is if they come up asking something seemingly innocuous like a smoke or a light or the time...then you better watch them real close.

[gubamyster]

what beer could possibly cost much less than that god awful swill named Budweiser, yech.

Lucky Lager is pretty cheap & you get those great puzzles under the cap!

[VOA]

"You can make a good living panhandling. For somebody who's addicted, why would they
want to do anything else?" Tull said.

At the height of the latest economic boom, an investigative reporter for one of the free
Los Angeles weeklies talked to a number of panhandlers.

They all knew decent jobs were going begging, but panhandling paid better...
and was more fun.

Living in NYC, I can't walk from point A to Point B without some disgusting crackhead
hitting me up for change...

A friend from graduate school got a job working in NYC at pharmaeutical lab.
He told me that he "only had to pass three or four panhandlers/crackheads" each day when he
arrived from his home in New Jersey on the way to work.

It's all relative. This seemed like paradise to him...I suppose because he'd gotten
used to worse growing up in a third-world country before he came to the USA for graduate school.

[martin gibson]

I wonder if he was sitting on a park bench?

[weegee]

It is surprising how many times the same people will experience car problems or need to get a $40 bus ticket at the same intersection in a month's time.

When I was in college, some of these freeloaders would get buzzed into the building and then go door to door (or seek out an open door) to make their speil).

[martin gibson]

[finnman69]

In NYC my biggest gripe are the panhandlers whoa re not obviously smelly, intoxicated, or even homless for that amtter. It's the guys who follow you and your friends a block cracking jokes hoping you will give them some cash just to leave you alone.

I usually tell them flat out "Go Away", or if they still do not listen "F**K OFF!".

[tdadams]

I must confess that I even occasionally give 'em some change even if I know for sure they are looking to fix up.

So, wardaddy, that's the reason we still have all these bums in Nashville. You're encouraging them!

Just kidding.

[NapaCA]

oh my god!

what beer could possibly cost much less than that god awful swill named Budweiser, yech.

Two words... Canadian beer.

[dmz]

ain't that the truth, and now they ruined Fosters by brewing in in Canada (at least what we get here on the east coast)