Whenever I give money to a beggar, I suspect that I’m really being scammed and that the money will be paying for drugs, so I feel as though maybe I shouldn’t give money as I would hate to be fuelling a drug addiction.
On the other hand, whenever I walk past a beggar and do not give money I feel as though maybe the person is genuinely in need and needs the money to buy food.
If I were to know how much a beggar made, then it would be possible to work out whether I should give money or not.
Welcome to the boards!
In terms of the “beggar”, what do you want him to spend it on? A waterbed and a microwave? Perhaps an nice Ansel Adams print?
How about drugs?
It obviously varies between different people. A beggar can make $17,500 per year if they beg 12 hours a day and manage to get $4 per hour. That’s pretty good considering there’s no rent or taxes to be paid (if they are homeless).
My grandfather always used to tell me about a story that he saw on the news about a guy in New York City who lost his job, so he tried begging. He ended up making enough to sustain his family so he never told his family that he lost his job. If anybody can find a similar news article online, that would be great.
Sorry just re-read your reply and realized that you said ‘want him to spend it on’ and not ‘expect him to spend it on’. I would want the beggar to spend the money on food and a place to stay at night. However it is more likely that the beggar would spend the money on drugs.
What? Are you suggesting that there may be some panhandlers out there who would accept money and not report it to the IRS? :eek: That would be illegal.
Which beggars? Those living on the streets of New York City? Or in Bangladesh?
There is a fictional account of this in Sherlock Holmes: The Man With The Twisted Lip by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Im talking about the type of beggars that live on the streets of New York City.
When I lived in Berkeley, one of my roommates tried repeatedly to hire homeless people to do yard work and maintenance on some of his properties. They were unanimous in laughing at him for the offer. He offered something like $10/hour, which was not worth the effort for them. Note that this was Berkeley, which is notorious for having homeless-by-choice. Some of the panhandlers on Telegraph Ave are even rich suburban kids who drive in to Berkeley on the weekends to play at being street.
Yeah,all those who are using drugs should have to wear a sandwich board proclaiming,“All my begging proceeds go to buying drugs”.
Seriously,I wouldn’t give any panhandlers who look like druggies any money at all. After all,drugs are very expensive nowadays,and I would save that money for my own drugs.
Hang on,that wasn’t serious at all.(Perhaps)
Since there isn’t any way to tell what said beggar will do with your money,you just have to decide for yourself which action will cause you more guilt.
Welcome to the wonderful,and sometimes dangerous,board.
I can tell you about Oslo, Norway (one of the world’s rich country, social democracy), although the articles I link to won’t be intelligble to you.
This reporter sat down and pretended to be a beggar. He earned 350 NOK ($52) an hour.
This follow-up article interviews a Salvation Army representative and discusses the begging situation, suggesting that 100 NOK (approx. $15) an hour is more common among beggars in this city.
This second follow-up interviews a beggar who says he usually earns 50-150 NOK ($7-22). Interestingly he also adds that people are better at giving money to beggars these days, perhaps because they realize it prevents burglary and theft.
By the way, beggars in this city beg in order to fund their drug habit.
IIRC there was a story in Time magazine where they followed around a guy on the NYC cubway. He actually ended up making a pile of money.
The average subway train has 10 cars. Anytime I’ve seen a guy come through, I’d say they make about 2 or 3 bucks. Usually it’s change from 4 or 5 people, and there’s always a person or two that gives up a dollar bill. I’d say they spend about a minute passing through the train car. So you’re talking $20 to $30 bucks, but more realistically $15 or so bucks. Still not bad for 15 minutes of work.
How would you feel about donating to the guys with the signs that say Need Beer?
In my old college town of Ann Arbor, I walked past a couple of police officers talking to some homeless people on the campus Diag. The officers asked the guys how much they made an hour, and they said it was usually around $7-12. That’s really not too bad. Considering that we had homeless icons, like Shakey Jake, who I would often see going to the expensive breakfast places to eat, places that I as a college student only went to once every few months. So I guess a lot just depends on where you are. A college town is going to be populated with a lot of students who are willing to part with a buck or two. Plus you get a ton of foot traffic every hour. Even if everybody just lays down a dime or two, it all adds up when over a thousand people pass you every hour.
I always give to those guys - honest beggars are great - there are ones right outside the beer store who say they need food - if you needed food wouldn’t you beg outside of a burger joint or grocery store.
I usually give to beggars regardless though - when I was a teenager I was homeless.
There is no way, even with panhandling for 100 hours straight I ever got more than 200 in a day. The day I got $200 was the day before Christmas too.
Most days it was between $30 and $60 - enough for a fleabag hotel plus one meal a day and a six pack of the cheapest beer on the market if I was really lucky and if unlucky, and abandoned building to sleep in and a packet of dry iciban noodles.
This was the late 80’s in Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton in Canada - and I can’t imagine people have gotten more generous or compassionate - or that inflation of the dollar has affected what people will give a panhandler.
Whenever I hear stories about beggars who are living it up, claims of beggars making 40K a year or what not - it breaks my heart that people believe that, or like micco’s tale of beggars turning down $10/h - perhaps his friend does not seem trustworthy to the street people - and the word - homeless by choice - do you not think that something must be wrong in someone’s life to prefer the streets to another place. There are so many mentally ill people, alcoholics & drug users who were not completely functional, and abused teenagers on the street, and I am sure many of them come to berkley from elsewhere because it is warmer.
As for the rich suburban kids, I met a few in vancouver who would fit that bill, coming down on weekends, but most of those kids were abused and neglected at home as well, and felt that the streets on the weekend was better than home. There were a few kids who I never learned why they were there - but I can’t vouch that there wasn’t at least one kid who didn’t feel that they had a choice - but I never met anyone ever who was homeless by choice.
I should also add that a student made a documentary of the homeless in Ann Arbor. I saw a bit of it and it was quite well done. Like lexi said, none of the homeless were homeless by choice. Several of them were most likely mentally ill; one was a father and son that were on the streets because they had both lost their jobs and couldn’t find others; another was an alcoholic.
I knew one homeless man who was always in front of the market by my house. In four years of college I saw him in the same spot, always asking for a couple of dollars. Once he asked me for twenty. I finally offered to buy him a meal, and he turned me down saying that he didn’t really need it. This seemed a little odd to me, and implied that he definitely wasn’t going hungry because of his homelessness. Basically it seems like, in Ann Arbor at least, you can make enough to eat and otherwise survive, but who would want that life?
Don’t feel bad about not giving beggars money. More likely than not, it’s going to drugs and/or alcohol.
If you want to help, donate to a homeless shelter.
This is from the “Downtown Baltimore” webpage. It doesn’t sound loaded with citations, but here ya go.
Some of the guys I see at the same intersections each day seem to get about $1 every 2-3 red lights or so, during rush hour. I figure you might get 30 red lights per hour. That’s just estimating though. Figuring that it’s a little less during non-rush hour, I think they have to be making a minimum of $7/hour.
You’re ignoring the money that’s lost when these beggars are robbed or shaken down by street thugs or crooked cops. The homeless can be virtually invisible in the eyes of the law, and in many cases, they’re essentially fair game to anyone looking to have some fun, and possibly make a few bucks, at someone else’s expense.
There were times I turned down meals too, either I had just ate, or being a girl, I was afraid the person offering would want sexual favours in exchange.
Sometimes when I accepted meals, it was leftovers in a doggie bag with bite marks in them too - and being on the streets I was not always healthy and very susceptible to illness.
There are many people who are mentally ill and afraid of being hurt by other people in homeless shelters or teenagers who can not go to a homeless shelter for fear of being sent back to an abusive situation, but there are people who are panhandling to support a drug or alcohol addiction who are not homeless, but this does not make them any less worthy of help, albeit they are in need of help for their addiction not spare change.
We treat addiction like an illness when it involves people we know, and we treat addicts like vermin when they are on the street or begging for help.