Okay, this is a pretty random question, but I have a (seemingly) very clear memory of a report on the everning news when I was a kid about beggars in New York or LA or somewhere making 5 and 6 digits (per year) just from standing with a cup on the sidewalk. Did I make that up? If I didn’t, the report would have been on the nightly news with Peter Jennings or on 60 Minutes (or one of the other shows like that with same time spot) sometime in the mid-90s.
I’m just curious.
Thanks…have a good one…
I remember a story on 60 Minutes about a man who plays violin in the New York subway, and gets 6 figures. He went to Juilliard. He is really good.
I sort of doubt that your run-of-the-mill beggar does that well.
Here is an old thread on that same topic:
I’m sure you did hear the story. It’s a wipespread myth, with no truth to it.
I saw a documentary a few years ago, a reporter spent several several days and nights on the streets, sleeping rough, hidden cameras recording what happened. Begging all day, he made a trivial sum of money.
From personal observation, it would appear that some of the “homeless” around here are fairly well off.
I overheard a couple talking on the Golden Gate Transit bus from Santa Rosa to SF, discussing where the good spots were. Roll that around your head for a while. These “homeless” guys are commuting from the suburbs to downtown San Francisco on a bus that costs $7.60 and takes about two hours each way.
Another time, I encountered a fellow directing a handful of scraggly-looking men as to where they should be, and at what times. I wonder how much these guys paid their pimp?
We have some professional beggars here that stand at busy street corners with cardboard signs - they work in shifts. It’s funny when once in a while “homeless veteran” sign guy will grab the wrong sign and become “mom with three small kids” sign guy. One of my friends paid a professional beggar $20 to find out his “secret” and the guy said that 4 of them working a corner usually make $300 a day and spend it on alcohol. Of course he could have just been blowing smoke, but I guess to them it beats working.
My personal impression - not based on any sort of evidence, just a few personal thoughts - is that this story is so widespread because it gives people a very comfortable excuse for not giving money to beggars. I’m not judging anybody’s behavior here - I believe in the concept of property and the owner’s freedom to do with it whatever he wants to -, nor do I guess on the veracity of this claim - it might very well be true that some, or many, beggars do make more off begging than others do working. But I don’t think that’s why so many people spread this story to others.
I occasionally pass by the MGH stop on the Boston red line and there seem to be some people there that also work in shifts – they have a bunch of signs that say something like “Homeless, please help” and I’ve walked by when it seemed as though they were handing off signs to the next shift. But they all look like moderately fit and healthy 20 and 30 somethings so I don’t see how they can actually make much money at it. (I’m sure there are homeless living in the area – I’m just not convinced it’s this crew.)
Yes.
If they make 50 cents a minute. EVERY minute. 10 hours a day. Seven days a week. All year long.
“I think you’d do well with… ‘crazy guy’.”
$5 an hour * 8 hours a day * 5 days a week = $10,400
We have a few spots in town I can think of that just the sheer volume of cars could easily result in $4-$6 an hour in begging. Were talking intersection that the left turn lane probably moves at least 150-200 cars an hour. If you figure even 1% of those cars will throw someone a dollar or two you looking at around $20 a day.
If I wanted to stand on a street corner to beg in my town, I’d be hard pressed to find one empty. I think all the down-on-their-luck homeless Vietnam veterans all came here. :rolleyes:
One of the local DJ’s here decided to do an experiment. He made up a sign that said “I have a job and I don’t need any money” and went to the street corners to stand next to the “unfortunate”. He practically got himself beat up because he was messing up the beggars “schedules” and he was on “their corner”. He probably would have gotten beat up to, if it hadn’t been for all the people in their cars cheering him on. 
Another time, a friend of mine went to a local supermarket for groceries. He noticed the beggar on the corner as he drove into the parking lot. He went in and finished his shopping, and when he got to the checkout stand, the same beggar was in line in front of him with a bottle of wine. The guy dug into his pocket and pulled out a roll of bills that would make Bill Gates envious and peeled a $20 bill off and paid for his wine.
These people have found a scam that works because people are gullible and can’t resist the fake sorrowful looks and cardboard signs. And the police can’t do anything about it unless laws are passed outlawing it.
Personally, I think they should pass laws that make in necessary to buy an expensive permit to stand on a corner with a sign. If caught with no permit, jail for 30 days or $1000 fine. But that’s just me. As it is, when I drive by one of these poor unfortunate souls, I usually suggest, rather strongly, that they should seek employment. But I don’t think they listen.
WRT to the OP, I do remember a 60 Minutes (or similar) story on a guy who was more a con man than a beggar. He would go into the subway station in a suit, and approach businessmen with the line that his wallet was stolen, could they give him $5 to get home? This worked pretty well and the guy claimed to make 6 figures. Funny how a person will give $5 to someone in the same “club” but nada to a homeless person.
Not so fast. It appears to be the case in Denver just this last August.
(The actual survey is no longer on the Denver Post site, but there are plenty of references to its content.)
Uh, 50¢/minute is 30 bucks an hour; 600% more than your $5/hr. $30/hr over the standard manyear of 2080 hrs is $62,400/yr.
Actually, it’s an old con, and relies on the fact that people are much more likely to take notice of people talking to them specifically as opposed to those randomly shouting out. The suit is just his technoique, but there are others. Another one is to take your kid along and say you need a taxi. Works all the time. I fell for it once, too.
The second time in a week, though, I figured it out. 
On the other hand, if they are lepers they are also losing digits… 
Sample size of one: Some years ago, we had several acres of brush that needed clearing. We saw a guy standing on a street corner with a sign saying “will work for food.” We offered him ten bucks an hour, plus food and gatorade to clear the brush with us. He politely declined, saying he made more on the corner. He seemed apologetic, for what it’s worth, and if true, I can’t say I blame him for declining.
I have no idea whether than is generally true or not. All I know is it was true for that guy.
I have trouble believing that this is true.
Mostly because I believe one of the sources of the myth to be Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes story: The Man with the Twisted Lip.
Now this is a good question for Cecil, can a begger make a decent living?
While “homeless” and “beggar” are usually synonymous, they’re not always. Having spoken with a few people begging on the streets, it seems begging beats a minimum wage job, but is certainly not profitable enough to warrant as a serious career choice.
(caveat: money that you make begging is tax-free)
My major source for this information actually made more than I did. I was as graduate student at the time living on a $19k stipend (~$17k or so after taxes), he was reasonably up front about making ~$20k, tax free, a year. It paid his rent (he had an apartment) and fed him. His limp was real, or, at the very least, he pretends to have it all the time (I saw him by where he said he lived once). Apparently his inability to walk kept him from working at most jobs he was qualified to do (e.g. fast food), and he wasn’t educated enough to get a better job. He said he could be collecting disability if he wanted (although I’m don’t entirely believe him on that one) but that he chose to “do something and meet people” with his life rather than sit around.
He told me to “stay in school,” which I found funny, since most people tell grad students to get the hell out of school.