# Bums, Beggars, Vagrants... Am I just stupid? (kinda long)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bums-beggars-vagrants-am-i-just-stupid-kinda-long/76854>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [August 18, 2001, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bums-beggars-vagrants-am-i-just-stupid-kinda-long/76854 "2001-08-18T02:49:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2001, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bums-beggars-vagrants-am-i-just-stupid-kinda-long/76854/21 "2001-08-21T17:18:26Z")

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You want to help? Donate to the United Way, work in a local shelter, but do not give out money. It goes straight into the or the crack dealer or a liquor store. The claim that it is going for food is a joke.

There are homeless in the world that you never see. They are trying to get help and live in a shelter as they get their life together. Then there are the mentally ill, these folks need more help than a few bucks can give them.

Then there are the professional panhandlers. No sympathy. It not a profession, sorry, and being cute doesn’t help. As Chris Rock says “If the homeless guy has a funny sign, he ain’t hungry”. In Philly, some of them couldn’t be bothered to beg more than 1/2 from the local booze store.

The scam artists are the worse, some women have even been known to take a punch or two in the face that look worse than they feel to elicit sympathy with a ‘beaten wife’ story. Scary what folks will do. Other walk around with a gas can for hours elciting donations. I’ve been in some areas where a guy has been trying to get money for a bus ticket to leave…he’s been trying to leave for months.

Perhaps more annoying is the guy who yells for my attention a block away. Sorry bub, I ain’t waiting for you since the foot traffic is light around the fancy restaraunt I live near. You’ve tried me tiwce before, BTW. You speil hasn’t changed. You are a bum, even worse, you are a scam. Get the fuck out of town.

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