Beggars making $30,000 to $100,000 a year in the U.S.,What do you think of this?

Then the government should consider taxing begging gains over a certain limit.

I think it’s a mischaracterization of the situation by resentful projecting people looking for outlets for repressed anger and scapegoating.

If it’s true – and the articles that are linked to in that website don’t strike me as being particularly reputable sources – then I’d say “good for them”.

These people have decided to abase themselves for some cash. It’s their career choice. Some people work in offices, some people plow snow, some people mow lawns. Some work long hours for hedge funds. Some people sit in wheelchairs and beg.

I think the news story is pure sensationalism. Outrage for the sake of selling advertising.

And I really doubt it’s true.

Then should they be listed as a legitimate career and the top of the field should be nighted in Canada and given proper recognition?

If it was so profitable why are the contents of my dumpster spread all over my parking lot every morning by people digging out cans. This is just another right-wing lie that they have been spewing forever. Cadillac Welfare Queens to the surfer bro getting lobster with food stamps.

I live four blocks from a homeless shelter. Trust me.. They are real people.

I think it’s just a bullshit rumor.

It is a persistent urban legend. And “stories” get picked up by news outlets every few years that get people indignant, but then are never shown to be legitimate.

An effort two years ago to hire homeless people to do clean up work for $10.37 an hour was derailed by one person who said, “they won’t work, they make $50 an hour panhandling.”

I saw something on one of those shows like 60 minutes about 30 years ago. They were doing an expose on panhandlers or “small changers”. Those riff raff that ask for change for bus fare or gas or a meal. One of the guys that they interviewed was a multimillionaire. He was not shown (face blurred) but he told them that he made his first million small changing in NYC. He said as a kid, he could pick a busy place and make up to about $40/hr. All tax free. After he made his million, then he invested and made it grow. He said he still went out periodically, dressed up in rags and small changed…just for the fun of it.

I live about 200 yards from an expressway overpass. A few people live underneath. They beg from the motorists. It’s a good spot because cars are waiting in about 4 separate queues to get on and off the highway or just passing through.

They CAN make $200 in a day. I talk to them. Right wingers will take that to mean the ARE making $200/day 260 days/year like it’s a great job.

If they consistently made money they wouldn’t be sleeping under a bridge.

Some definitely make decent money. It’s a vast oversimplification of their situation though.

I know I have mentioned this before but I recall going into the underground in London while on vacation. There was a guy wrapped in a sleeping bag on one of the landings, He had a distinctive hat out in front of him and had longish blond hair.

A few hours later when we returned through the station there was a different guy there wrapped in the same sleeping bag with the same distinctive hat in front of him but short, dark hair.

I noticed that and as I was going to say something to my wife about it my son leaned in and asked if I had noticed that was not the same guy there in the morning.

I guess there was a shift change during the time we were away..

I am sure there are scammers out there just as I am sure there are people who are truly in need. It is a shame it is so difficult to tell one from the other.

It’s a very convenient story if you’re looking for a reason to ignore your conscience. And it’s ideal as an explanation in case you have no conscience to begin with.

There are also lots of people near us that hang out near street corners with signs saying they are homeless or out of work and that they need jobs and are looking for help. A local TV station did a piece on them. Most are not homeless, most were looking for drug money. Some leave the corner if it’s slow and go to their car to drive to another corner, pull another sign out of the trunk where they have several and start again.

Sure there are scam artists, druggies and winos mixed in the crowd of beggars as well as the army of homeless people. And if you regularly donate to the needy, you’re bound to be burned eventually. But just as with welfare cheats, food stamp fraudsters or shoplifters, these people are exceptions to the general rule.

I am pretty financially fortunate and have more than I need to get by. I’d rather give the occasional dollar to someone who doesn’t actually need it than withhold my dollars from the people who do.

This is not true. it is fake news.

@stanleybmanly Unfortunately, I think you are mistaken. For every actual homeless person I see, I see at least 3 scammers. However, please don’t think I am heartless or don’t help out. Our church helps collect for and organize a food bank, we go out at least once a month and offer hot meals on the streets of the nearby town and we go up to the town by the military base and help out (feed and clothe) military vets that are homeless. There are an amazing number of them. We do backpack drives when schools start. We have bought tents and sleeping bags to give out to those that need them. But the common thing to all the people that we work with…they aren’t asking for money. They are grateful for the food and shelter and clothing we are offering. And as much as you want to slam us because we are a Christian church and want to believe we are holding them hostage somehow, you are entirely wrong. We are there for spiritualism if they want us, they know we are from a church, but it is not forced or even asked upon them.

For every actual homeless person I see, I see at least 3 scammers.

How do you know that?

Your evidence so far is from decades-old vaguely-remembered TV shows.

@Call_Me_Jay I’m going off personal observation. How do I know the difference? I’ve seen actual homeless people. I’ve talked to them. I’ve interacted with them. I know what a homeless person is. I’ve also seen scammers. Want the litmus test? Okay. My wife used to make up packages for the homeless. They would have food and water, socks, toothbrushes and toothpaste…things like that. She would give them out to any of the people she saw that claimed to be homeless. The scammers would always look at her funny, would be reluctant to take it, and even, in some cases, would throw them away before she was out of sight.
As for the TV show I saw, it wasn’t decades old. It was done last year.
But here’s a question…why the hostility? I’ve made observations and stated them here as such. I’ve stated my opinion. You then come at me with a question and a bogus assumption. Why? Does my opinion somehow offend you? Does it make you uncomfortable?

They may throw away gift packets they didn’t ask for because it’s not useful and they don’t have, you know, homes to store things in.

Goods they don’t need are a burden for homeless people.

I volunteered for years at a food pantry, and we had two kinds of packages to give out – one for the homeless and one for the poor who had a home.

Their needs were different.

Food, water, socks and toothbrushes seem pretty useful to me.

Go hand out bags of uncooked rice and dry beans to people on the street. It’s food. They’ll be thrilled, right?