Sign of the times?

[blueflame]

A guy was begging with a sign

"Need money for beer"

seems like people appreciated his honesty, and people stopped for a laugh with him and dropped some change

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by Matt Herring

The last couple days I've been going into Boston and I noticed something I had never seen before.

The first day there was a guy standing by the side of the road with a sign that said "I am not a drunk or a bum. I hurt my back and lost my job and everything went badly after that...can you spare some change?"

Today, there's a different guy there with a similar sign that said the guy lost his job after an aneurism. Same handwriting...different injury. So I drove about a half mile up the street...and ANOTHER guy with a similar sign is standing there! His sign said he had cancer.

I guessed somebody is paying these guys to stand out there in exchange for money or food or cigarettes or drugs. It was pretty obvious that all of these guys were up to something.

I've read about professional beggars here. It's actually quite a good business. Supposedly, by standing in a good place (tourists, or church on Sunday), you can earn an average monthly wage in less than two weeks. There were a lot of Gypsy and Romanian beggars here in the '90's. Romania was much poorer than Poland then and supposedly quite a few Romanian mansions were "sponsered" by old Polish ladies thinking they're helping some poor woman. Now there are less Romanians, but the Gypsies are still at it. Every saturday at the farmers' market the same lady with dirty kids pulls at my sleeve, the next day she's sitting in front of the church. It's always Gypsy women that beg, never men. I've also read that the 'begging pimps' look for handicapped people to work for them. I guess a guy with an amputated leg, or a woman who was burned, are real tear-jerkers and make lots of money. The women are ALWAYS with babies or children. Supposedly the kids are forced to take sleeping pills or alcohol to make them less active during the 6-10 hours of sitting on a street corner. I once saw a woman holding a plastic doll, slightly darkened with shoe polish to give it a Gypsy complexion.

This is sick, what people will do for money. I understand if someone didn't get lucky, but making a living off of pretending and lying to innocent people? Leave that to the politicians and get off the curb. Going through trash isn't a bad thing, neither is eating someone's leftovers, but there are limits that shouldn't be crossed.

(Sorry about this ranting, but I'm pissed: we spent 5 days in the boonies, sleeping in a tent, and the first thing I saw when I got off the train at midnight in Warsaw was two teenagers with a knife running from a policeman. I wanted to turn around and go straight back to the mountains. I can't live in a large city.)

Originally Posted by blueflame

A guy was begging with a sign

"Need money for beer"

seems like people appreciated his honesty, and people stopped for a laugh with him and dropped some change

Most people don't read beggars' signs. I once saw one which read:
"I'm not poor, I only want more money.
You won't read this anyway.
THANK YOU
for nothing"

As long as someone is willing to give, there will always be someone willing to take.