This bum boasts he makes $200 an hour panhandling

[Larry1]

Interestingly, the plot of a Sherlock Holmes story involved a man who went off to "work" every day as a beggar and made terrific money doing so.

This bum boasts he makes $200 an hour panhandling

A panhandler outside Grand Central Terminal says he rakes in up to $200 an hour from kind-hearted New Yorkers.

“On a Friday morning, I make $400 in two hours,’’ said Will Andersen, who was with his 9-year-old dog, Rizzo, on East 42nd Street between Vanderbilt and Madison avenues on Tuesday.

http://nypost.com/2015/11/11/this-bum-boasts-he-makes-200-an-hour-panhandling/

This has been getting some publicity in New York City lately. NYC police chief Bill Bratton advised people not to give them money.

NYPD cops fed up with vagrants making life miserable in the city are taking matters into their own hands — by snapping photos of quality-of-life scofflaws and posting them online.

The Sergeants Benevolent Association is spearheading the effort, emailing a letter to members Monday urging them and their families and friends to take pictures to document the decline of the city.

“As you travel about the city of New York, please utilize your smartphones to photograph the homeless lying in our streets, aggressive panhandlers, people urinating in public or engaging in open-air drug activity, and quality-of-life offenses of every type,” says the letter from SBA President Ed Mullins, a major critic of Mayor Bill de Blasio.

http://nypost.com/2015/08/10/cops-are-taking-pictures-of-bums-and-posting-them-online/

For more go here:

http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/01/de-blasios-new-york-prestigious-college-now-home-to-pooping-masturbating-vagrants

[Miquel Westano]

Interestingly, the plot of a Sherlock Holmes story involved a man who went off to "work" every day as a beggar and made terrific money doing so.

http://nypost.com/2015/11/11/this-bum-boasts-he-makes-200-an-hour-panhandling/

This has been getting some publicity in New York City lately. NYC police chief Bill Bratton advised people not to give them money.

http://nypost.com/2015/08/10/cops-are-taking-pictures-of-bums-and-posting-them-online/

For more go here:

http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/01/de-blasios-new-york-prestigious-college-now-home-to-pooping-masturbating-vagrants

Bums should have to provide receipts, be subject to audits and pay taxes.  Every damn penny I get, I have to fight the government to keep.  It is time to tax the hell out of bums.  They are nothing but a complete drain on the economy and public resources. 

Time to tax bums like all other workers.

[Boethius]

Most of those begging for money are dealing with substance abuse.  Taxing them is not going to change a thing, and that tax won't be collected.

[Miquel Westano]

Most of those begging for money are dealing with substance abuse.  Taxing them is not going to change a thing, and that tax won't be collected.

I know it would never get collected.  Around here though more and more panhandlers are like this guy.  Professional bums who stake out corners and change signs whenever the daily take goes down.  I have seen man, woman and teen youth get out of the same car at a corner and all take a different side of the intersection.  I can't believe anyone gives money to them, but they do. 

I know you think I am heartless, but I am not.  I just have no desire to help those who could help themselves.  I have seen panhandlers I know are capable of working.  They are just not willing to because, they make more doing less, begging.

With all the ways the US government hammers it's small businessmen, they have an untapped market with these beggars.  We just have to figure out how to get them taking their donations on debit card machines.

[Boethius]

No one is forcing you to give them money.  If others choose to give them money, that's their choice.

[Miquel Westano]

No one is forcing you to give them money.  If others choose to give them money, that's their choice.

No one forces someone to give con men money when they swindle old people out of their life savings.  So what?  Taking money through deception is stealing.  There may be a slight difference in the degree of deception, between selling old people worthless stock and telling them you are disabled, but it is just a matter of degree.  It is not a difference in whether they are both lying or not.

Surely you don't support perfectly healthy people lying and claiming they are too disabled to work in order  to panhandle as a viable means of employment? 

[Boethius]

If a guy is sitting on the street begging for money, where is the deception?   People who are drug addicts generally do not have the ability to work.

[BillyB]

 A construction worker I knew said his sister used to panhandle. She'd get $300-$500 a day from suckers and the naïve. It's a racket.


My mom once asked a woman who panhandled if she wanted a job. My mom knew a manager of a warehouse. The woman refused saying she had to watch her kids. My mom asked where's her kids at. She said her mom is currently watching them.


If any of you out there feel guilty for not doing enough in this world to help your fellow man, you can give to legitimate churches and charities that put the donations to good use. Giving money to drug addicts and liars hurts them and helps nobody.

[Miquel Westano]

If a guy is sitting on the street begging for money, where is the deception?   People who are drug addicts generally do not have the ability to work.

In this area they pose as disabled veterans, physically disabled people and often pretend to be homeless when they are not.  If their sign said, abled bodied doper who would rather pan handle than work, I'd agree with you.  But they don't put that because they wouldn't get sympathy money like they do from the lies.  That's where the deception is.

[Miquel Westano]

Giving money to drug addicts and liars hurts them and helps nobody.

Amen.

[Larry1]

In this area they pose as disabled veterans, physically disabled people and often pretend to be homeless when they are not.  If their sign said, abled bodied doper who would rather pan handle than work, I'd agree with you.  But they don't put that because they wouldn't get sympathy money like they do from the lies.  That's where the deception is.

That reminds me of this hilarious bit from the movie "Trading Places":

[Boethius]

In this area they pose as disabled veterans, physically disabled people and often pretend to be homeless when they are not.  If their sign said, abled bodied doper who would rather pan handle than work, I'd agree with you.  But they don't put that because they wouldn't get sympathy money like they do from the lies.  That's where the deception is.

According to the WSJ, 12% of the homeless are veterans.


Where I live, the police tell people via the media, and even with flyers, not to give the homeless money, as there are social service resources to deal with them, and they are using that money to buy drugs/alcohol.  People still give them money.  I expect it is the same where you live.