From: Reason (reason@exratio.com)
Date: Sun Aug 05 2001 - 12:54:51 MDT
> Bums in the street would vanish, because begging is a harder way to
> acquire funds, than working a job. Crime would plummet, because in the
Reality disconnect: most panhandlers have made a very educated decision to
remain panhandlers, because they make more money that way than they would in
any job they are qualified to be hired for (== minimum wage or near minimum
wage). A good panhandler can clear $50-80/day in tax-free money in cities in
which there isn't so much competition in the panhandling ecosystem (such as
Houston, TX, or New Orleans, LA, to name two examples in which I've known
people who panhandled). Here in San Francisco, the competition is way more
Darwinian; there's quite an arms race, and any human front to the
pandhandlers that you're likely to see has been subsumed by the tricks and
falsehoods necessary to compete for dollars. As a consequence of that, I
don't know anyone here who does this for a living, so can't speak to the
income.
But anyway, back to the point: most of these people have made a sensible,
informed capitalist decision to do what they do. Don't insult their
intelligence.
Reason
http://www.exratio.com/
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