Tried to Hire a Homeless Man Today

You get two types of homeless people:
1) The genuine homeless person
2) The faker who wants extra money

Its hard to distinguish between the two and I reckon because of this, the genuine homeless guy suffers.
Sad and Cruel world we live in...

Originally posted by baked
reply to post by austingoeshard

 

As a man that has been homeless, I resent that statement. Don't generalize anything. It's prejudice and ignorant.

-B

Wow. On the previous page I just said that Charlie Sheen is our new messiah.
Then I see your picture image thingy and I realized how very smart I am.

That's right. We need to Forget about love.
Think winning.

No offence. I'm qualifying my comments even though I supsect you understand irony.

Originally posted by Kojack
I just look away from homeless people, cause their story tends to make close to no sense at all.

Like this one woman i would see walking through the train cars with her 4 year old daughter... or 7... begging for money to help them get through the day. ACS system in NYC sucks, yes, but damn. they would of had that mother go on welfare or took the child away from her.

majority of the times, its all just simple laziness. there was a clip on tv i saw some time ago of a woman begging on the streets for a while, then calls it a day and walks back to her BMW. you're homeless and driving a BMW...

wtf?

Last year I recall reading (somewhere - ??) that the state of Massachusetts (er, Taxachusetts) had a program that entitled welfare recipients to a $3K+ car so that they could look for employment. Cripes, I once had to walk 2 small kids a mile to get them to daycare (rain or shine), and then I'd walk another 1/4 mile to a low paying job. My reward? Discounted daycare rates, $100.00 a month in food stamps and the satisfaction of knowing I was being a productive citizen. What hurt was seeing the "pro's" work the system and get everything handed to them, while sneering at me for being "stupid."

Seems like a lot of people are forgetting the issue with extreme poverty. Neo-liberalism dominates so much today in thought and practice, and has worked to flush out the streets of street workers in attempts to form a class of wage workers, not, clean up the streets for "better" people, and make it appear as if poverty is being ridden. There seems to be this popular discourse of painting the homeless and street workers as terrible people, which in turn has made the criminalization of poverty much easier to accomplish, which of course is strongly pushed by neo-liberalism, broken window theories, and the negative painting of the other.

The issue itself is representative of something bigger- social inequality- but like most things today we examine the small picture and fail to point a finger and societies framework that is causing the issue.

reply to post by onehuman




as a small businessman working on foreclosed home I understand this beggers position. Right now, I am looking for another contract and I find a lot of ads for property preservation on craigslist right now however ....
they want to pay a contractor between $15-$25 per hour and they want the contractor to carry general liability and error and admissions policy of 1 million dollars which gost about $3200 a year and then pay your truck/auto insurance and all expenses related to doing the job like gas and supplies ....

that is a joke ...you can't make a profit let alone a living to pay your basic needs ......

lawn mowing = $15 a yard to be completed with in 72 hours ...and u get to pay for the gas .....

There were 3 men who used to sit outside of walmart at the entrance with their signs reading "hungry Vet" "Vet out of work" "Vet lost home, need food".

They were making a lot of money and then they were found out. They had been lying all along about being in the military or off to war, and kicked off the property.

A young couple, pretended to be homeless and set up shop making money every day, and they too were offered jobs that they refused to take. Eventually someone followed them home and found out they were living in a nice apt complex with a newer car.

This is not to say that there are no real homeless, but it's definitely the sign of desperate times.

I don't know why anyone would rather stand on a corner and take handouts instead of work.

Originally posted by Aisling


I don't know why anyone would rather stand on a corner and take handouts instead of work.

You're kidding, right?

I will tell you all this, your time is coming. All scores will be settled, all debts paid and many, if not most will find their pleas for mercy falling on deaf ears, and rightfully so. What a generation of devolved humans I find myself surrounded by; is there any wonder this civilization is crumbling? Is there anything redeeming in the hearts of such self important, self serving big shots? How many of you will cry out, how many of you will find yourselves in a nightmare you can not escape...many and most.

I guess we all have our stories. I knew a guy in St. Augustine that called himself Cap'n McNasty. Or at least that was how he signed a map and note that he gave me once. Rather than just beg, he would sell sketches of buildings he drew as well as the occasional characture.

One rainy morning, I looked at him and said how about some breakfast? He looked me over and said that he would miss some customers. To which I said that with the rain, it would be a slow day anyway and that he'd likely lose some art then selling outright. So we headed off to my car and drove to Burger King since they had a special and coffee refills were free. We talked for about 2 hours or so and quite honestly he taught me a lot of things about the lifestyle.

But his main point was always do a little something, even if it was nothing to you. That way the money would flow and even the hard hearted would give if you had something they liked or it looked like you were trying. If nothing else carve some piece of crap out of wood that looks like something. That was when he showed me his for sale pieces. Simple and cartoonish and took him little more than 15-20 minutes to do. Then he showed me his real art. Pencil sketches of great detail that he would spend hours on. Selling his junk art for watercolor or acrylic paints he could pull $100-$300 each that would later be sold for much more by the local galleries and art houses that bought them.

And then he told me something else. Stay off the dugs and booze. Give up the cigarettes if I could. It was the vices that stole your money. He said that would serve me well if I ever gambled just going to LA. I had told him about my wanting to get into films while we had talked. He taught me a few things about survival that I am mindful of to this day.

About a month later he waved me over and treated me to lunch at Scarlett O'Hara's Because he had sold one of his good pieces and know I never had more than $10 on me while working and going to school. Part a repayment of kindness and part having a friendly face to celebrate his good fortune in selling a piece.

Maybe he is there still or maybe he moved on to New Orleans. Maybe he was a bit of a scammer and not truly homeless, but his philosophy was that in earning a dollar you would never drop to that lowest level in your own mind by simply begging.

I would rake your lawn for 20$. People don't like to work hard any more. "NOT GOOD ENOUGH" bla bla blah. I don't ever GIVE homeless people anything. Nobody gives me handouts for working my ass off day in, day out. Why should a homeless person who does nothing all day deserve a free hand out? All people should work for what they get.

reply to post by SparklingNugs


You've hit the nail on the head. It's inequality and injustice. For example, if poverty is related to crime and violence, why are crime rates in Newfounland, Canada very low? It's because there is not a great divide in the classes. When asked why they thought this was the case, (I'm paraphrasing) one Newfie said, what's the sense in stealing from your neighbour when he's in the same boat as you. Their's is a shared experience and a there is sense of community in this "poor" region.

This is not the case in other regions. Where you find the great difference between the rich and the poor, you'll find the greatest crime rates.

I am asking myself, why am I out here raging against the ignorance and prejudice? I guess it's because this isn't a fair fight. And don't kid yourself. It's war between the rich and the poor. It's just that it's a lopped-sided battle. I would lead a rebel army of the homeless if I could. Problem is they wouldn't join.

That's why I'm out there defending them. It's the simple fact that the truly homeless and mentally ill don't have computers. They don't have the luxury of having such stupid opinions. Because opinion and choice are the sole property of those with options. Debate, opinion, and the vote, are luxuries in which the homeless rarely engage.

Maybe we should bring back the debtors prison.
If that were the case, you'd better hope you have the most secure job in the world.
In that scenario, you'd be best to train for a carreer as a prison guard.

I thought most new that panhandling can be a lucrative,if not dishonest way of making a living.
They are called professional panhandlers.

I would have done the same.... i could make 20 dollars standing around. Or i could make my self hungry and tiered. Maybe if you said $50 he would have said yes. Dont look at it as weekly pay, cause its not, your not giving him a big pay check at the end of the week, i bet if you wear he would be at your house every day.

reply to post by flyingfish


Speaking of, there was another member who found this video in a different thread... It didn't really pertain to that thread, but it does to this one.



People just have to go and ruin it for those that actually need it.

I knew where this was going when I read the thread title. The truth is, most of us are exactly where we want to be. Folks "feel sorry" for the homeless, but they don't have to be that way. More often than not, it's a choice. There was a story a few years back about a homeless guy hanging out in front of K-Mart. They offered him a job, a nice discount on a new wardrobe etc. He turned it down.

We can be as nice as we want and be sympathetic to those in need, but there's a difference between being suckered and offering genuine help. There's an old saying, "teach a man to fish...". That applies here. I read a news story a while back about a guy that was taking down $50-60K a year pan handling. He showed up at the same corner every day, right on time. Treated it just like a regular job.

This is not as uncommon as people think. Again, most of us are right where we want to be. You might say, "that's not true, I want to be a millionaire", but you really don't. If you did, you would be doing whatever it would take to get you there instead of what you're doing now. I live in the city as well and sometime I'll slip a homeless guy a $5 bill at the exit ramp. I know it's going to go for booze, drugs or coffee, but that's his call. If he made good choices he wouldn't be homeless to begin with so it's no big surprise.

There was a story here in Toronto, Canada where an entire family (father mother and 8 kids) would all panhandle everyday and put everything into a pot at the end of the day. Apparently they went home to a huge house in the burbs which had been paid for by the scheme.

Originally posted by sabbathcrazy
I would have done the same.... i could make 20 dollars standing around. Or i could make my self hungry and tiered. Maybe if you said $50 he would have said yes. Dont look at it as weekly pay, cause its not, your not giving him a big pay check at the end of the week, i bet if you wear he would be at your house every day.

And I'll bet your'e wrong. There are plenty of jobs this guy could do that would give him a paycheck at the end of every week. If you think there is some kind of honor in saying, "I'd rather stand around and take other peoples' money than sweat a little and earn it", I feel sorry for you and you are part of the problem. Ever heard the expression, "an honest days' work is good for the soul"? There's a lot of truth to that. Taking other peoples' money when you are capable of working is NOT an honest days' work.

John Stossel did a report on that topic, maybe you should look it up. When he begged he averaged $10 an hour.

reply to post by onehuman


You got it right.

No illusions, just reality.

I remember several years ago here in Dallas, there was a bum who was maybe 4' tall. Mean looking little dude. Always panhandling.

One day, a news crew decided to do a covert op on his little butt. After he had put in a weeks worth of work on his corner taking money, he toddled off to his BRAND NEW CHEVY TRUCK and WENT TO SHREVEPORT!

KA CHING BABY! Wheres me some blackjack and booze!!!!!!!

They approached this dirtbag and the sonofagun went medieval on their asses!

No, some of these folks (I'll give it .05%) are folks that had something horrible happen and just "dropped out". Loss of family ect. I can dig that.

The rest?

cannon fodder.

reply to post by flyingfish


Wow.

You found a news report about a pathological liar. That really proves it for me. I'm so glad you simplified everything with that stellar bit of journalism. That news team should get an award for balance and investigative brillance.

And the poor girl. She has such talents. She is obviously manipulative and deceptive. With her skills, her lying and cheat would see her promoted to a top corporate job if she only went to business school. She shouldn't be wasting her time nickel and diming everyone. It's too embarrassing when caught or recognized.

Such a waste. She needs a scholarship, so she can study and get a job in public relations.