[toupsie]

Living in NYC, I can't walk from point A to Point B without some disgusting crackhead hitting me up for change...even when point B is two blocks away from point A. The NYC bums rake in the big coin from tourists. So if you visit the Big Apple, please keep your change to yourself!!! Because at night, these guys a peeing 'a 40 oz.' in the street and screaming racist comments at the tops of their lungs

[Warren]

He outta be busted for failure to pay taxes.

[Bonaparte]

I once read about a school in NYC that trained people to be professional panhandlers. A very expensive program that taught acting skills, psychology, make-up, costume, etc. These people made a lot more money than the guy in the article. Many of them didn't even need the money. They just liked the idea of hoodwinking others while getting something for nothing.

[rockprof]

I never give money to panhandlers since most of them use it to buy alcohol or drugs and you're not helping them by handing them money - you're hurting them!

I do give money to the local Salvation Army and my church since I know these organizations give food and clothing to people down on their luck.

[riri]

hmmmm...what are the chances this peice of ____ will use again..and soon? He still looks at his former lifestyle as pretty good, except for the stress ofcourse...he "loves using"...How many people like this are out there walking around? Scary.

[flying Elvis]

I wonder if he is related to Jethro Tull? ;)

[Conservababe]

Here in my small town, the panhanders sit on the road shoulders near a stop light. They hold signs saying "I will work for food".

Once, a guy I worked with gave a man five dollars. He is really soft hearted. He drove on to a convience store to buy gas and pick up twelve pack of beer. When he got in line to pay, guess who was in front of him. Yes, the panhandler with a twelve pack of Bud. My friend had a much less expensive beer in hand.

He says that he is now cured of his soft hearted notions now.

[Mr. Jeeves]

"I love using...I been doing this for 16 years, and it's been, you know, like a pretty nice thing..."

Unusual candor. I suppose it's too much to hope that the San Francisco Chronicle will reprint this article?

[weegee]

Got their own kingdom now!

[weegee]

I guess that the last fundraising campaign at DUh didn't go so well:

[tdadams]

I seriously detest panhandlers. Anytime I'm approached by these guys, I refuse to give them money, but offer to buy them a sandwich. In ten years of living in the city, I've only had one panhandler take me up on the sandwich offer. I happily obliged.

[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.

[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.

[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!".