To the down-on-his-luck fella looking glum while shaking a dirty paper cup at me at a red light at the intersection on Connaught and Bayers Rd, why can’t you work? Really, do you think that the sad cardboard sign you’re holding with your depressing message of despair and the backwards letter “n” for effect is helping your case? If you are physically able to walk and mentally able to read/write you are more than qualified to hold down employment. So while you are outside selling your dignity for what, 10 dollars an hour? I am out working, and I resent the fact that you have the confidence to stand there making an ass out of yourself.
P.S. If you have ever given a donation/contribution to one of these lazy, egomaniacs please consider sending me the money next time. I go to university, work, and would most likely NOT spend it on drugs, piercings, or tattoos. No promises though. —What’s in that Backpack
This article appears in May 19-25, 2011.
Oh would YOU hire him?
Hate to break it to you kiddies, panhandlers are pulling in alot more than $10.00/hr.
a hot young chick works the lights at the windsor/bridge on ramp. she actuaaly asked the cab driver that i was with yesterday, for money. try explaining that to a 4 year old.
One of the regular median panhandlers told me a while back that he can make up to $50/hr working the Windsor St. exchange. He also often stiffs the farebox so I dispute that figure a bit, but definitely way more than $10/hr.
egomaniacs?
Report him. It’s illegal for him to be walking on the median. When you report it, explain that he’s obstructing traffic and endangering himself. The cops DO show up….seen it happen at Windsor Street. I just wish the city would clean up these pieces of human trash and compost them.
=====a hot young chick works the lights at the windsor/bridge on ramp. she actuaaly asked the cab driver that i was with yesterday, for money. try explaining that to a 4 year old.=====
Since when did they start letting 4 year olds drive taxi?!? What the fuck is going on here!!??
she must have been cruising with Rebecca Black…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seUmRXn_1qY
-.-
Just a heads up, as a guy who has both done that job in the past (yeah it’s a job – someone’s gotta be out there to take abuse at the end of the day) and as someone who now gives ten and twenty-dollar kickdowns to panhandlers on the regular, I can tell you that nobody gives a fuck what you think. It’s a shitty way to make a living, it’s a shitty way to spend the afternoon, and it’s shitty that it makes you feel shitty. Fact is, if you don’t learn to have contempt for and trivialize other people’s existence on the first day of begging (and there’s no better people to learn from than the fools who shout “get a job!” while speeding by in their cars) you won’t last long at it. Beggars don’t care what you think.
The trick is that if everyone thought like you “get-a-job” lackwits nobody would be out there. Mull that over – someone is deriving some kind of pleasure from giving someone something for little to no reason. That tiny trickle of pleasure is translated as money in your cup, and there’s the incentive to be out there, and that positive reinforcement beats all the spiteful rage anyone can spit at you. People WANT to give other people money. I do it all the time and even if I hadn’t begged my way across three continents I’d still do it. So next time someone offends you by their very existence in your oh-so-fruitful streets, consider that the next person might be grateful that they’re there.
Just to put a firm base on this wall-o-text: . you can’t tell if someone is disabled by looking at them. Just because they can walk down the median doesn’t necessarily mean they can do anything else – disability isn’t always visible. Stop being a wimp, ask them why they don’t have a job, the answer might surprise you.
Sooo….panhandler provide a public servce, by making us feel good about ourselves….can you say BULLSHIT?
Have you paid taxes on your begging income? No, then fuck off.