Bums

[kerssens]

[YourFoxyGrandma]

I usually give them whatever's in my pocket. One time I was feeling especially generous and I gave one a $5. I got a big hug. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Rick Diesel]

I just gave money to a bum for the first time ever on Sunday. I was in Vegas on the walkway from the New York, New York to either the MGM or the Excalibur (sorry, to drunk to remember which). I saw a bum with a dog, and gave him $5. I guess I have a soft spot for dogs.

Rick Diesel

[beerbandit]

[ QUOTE ]
If a homeless person.. has a funny sign..
he hasn't been homeless that long
A +REAL+ homeless person, is too hungry, to be funny

[/ QUOTE ]
---chris rock


there are not to many bums where i live but id prefer not to give them cash if possible

i feel that theyd just spend it on booze rather than food/soap?

i know i would -- if im gonna be a bum, atleast im gonna be a drunk bum

cheers

[kerssens]

I've noticed the honesty trend creep into the bums' society..."Why lie? Just want beer/weed" It's getting a bit old to me so I'm withholding money until I see an original gimmick.

[destro]

I'l shoot them a dollar or two but ONLY if they're doing something like singing , playing an instument, etc.. Sometimes if they have a funny sign; I remember giving a kid a buck for www.sparesomechange.com. (http://www.sparesomechange.com.)
The kids that just sit there and beg or clean/dirty your car windows just piss me off.

[One Word Answer]

institutionalize

[spamuell]

[ QUOTE ]

there are not to many bums where i live but id prefer not to give them cash if possible

i feel that theyd just spend it on booze rather than food/soap?

[/ QUOTE ]

Who cares? I feel better knowing that at least I can somehow help numb the pain of living in a puddle.

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
institutionalize

[/ QUOTE ]
novelty worn off already.

[Topflight]

I also gave a bum money once because he had a dog.

[BusterStacks]

I hate bums and hope they die.

[ThaSaltCracka]

I just want to say that if a bum has a sign saying he needs beer or weed money, I don't give him any. A lot of people think its funny, I don't though.

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
I hate bums and hope they die.

[/ QUOTE ]if that were the case, Portland would turn into a town instead of a big city. Half the residents of P-Town are bums.

[BusterStacks]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I hate bums and hope they die.

[/ QUOTE ]if that were the case, Portland would turn into a town instead of a big city. Half the residents of P-Town are bums.

[/ QUOTE ]

You're annoying. That's obviously an exaggeration.

[One Word Answer]

scrooge

[beerbandit]

[ QUOTE ]
pain of living in a puddle.

[/ QUOTE ]

what if its a puddle of puke ---

its difficult for me to understand, it seems impossible that someone is a bum and thats the way it is --- you have to be able to do something or go somewhere that you are able to receive some help, something to get things going again

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I hate bums and hope they die.

[/ QUOTE ]if that were the case, Portland would turn into a town instead of a big city. Half the residents of P-Town are bums.

[/ QUOTE ]

You're annoying. That's obviously an exaggeration.

[/ QUOTE ]

Uh, no its not, its been documented on this site (www.Iamfuckingwithyoulightenup.com)

[YourFoxyGrandma]

Hey man. That link doesn't work.

[Blarg]

I only give money to the ones who look really screwed up, and usually steer all money toward the older ones. The younger ones can get a job. Once you're old and screwed up, you might be too far out to come back.

Too many bums are professionals out here. Sometimes they wear nice clothes. A couple of bums who hang out at my local supermarket have been begging there for like 10 years, and one lives in a building a few over from mine, where he rents an apartment next to a guy I know. He's living just like the rest of us, only in his own style. I can understand that, but I can't respect it, and don't want to help support the lie he gives out to everyone that he's really in need.

A lot of these guys are young jerks, too. When I think of the horrible jobs I've had, and sometimes two at a time, I can't see any reason why these guys can't swallow their pride and go work at McDonalds or something just like everyone else.

Further, a hell of a lot of them are angry and aggressive, and spew out racist crap whenever they don't get free money. To hell with them! They think that just because they're this race of that one, I owe them free money because I'm a white guy? I hope those guys all get struck by lightning. They make the world an uglier place in so many ways every day. They truly contribute nothing to the planet, only take, and try to cause harm.

Two more things -- a lot of these bums are the small time street thugs, too. The same guys who are making the puppy eyes or whatever in the day -- who do you think is smashing the car windows and stealing stereos, sometimes even slashing up the seats for fun, at night? You think they drive in from other neighborhoods to do that? No, it's exactly the same guys milling around with nothing to do but be jerks and feed their drug and laziness habits during the day.

I view giving money to these guys as enabling, exactly like giving drugs to an addict. And face it, with money, that's exactly what you're doing 90% of the time or more. They don't need your support; you can support charities and soup kitchens if you want people to eat. They're not hard to find; try the phone book; ask around. Stop by a Salvation Army place sometime. If you really care, that is, and aren't just appeasing your conscience for your real and imagined sins.

The only ones that I give money to and that I think really benefit from it, like I said, are the older guys and the ones who are obviously mentally ill. The people who definitely can't or won't take care of themselves. I've given money away to runaways before, rarely.

Almost all the rest are just scammers and creeps. And I would be making much better use of my money giving it to charity, and they would be making much better use of their time looking for a job.

[Alobar]

I don't consider it charity, I figure we are bartering, so I make the bum offer me something in return. Usually it's just answering a question or two. like "what is your goal in life?", "you ever been married?". [censored] like that. Unless it's the type of bum that is just mentally screwed up, then I just give them the cash.

I don't buy that whole, "they are just going to spend it on beer or drugs" line, cuz hell, thats what I spend my money on. If a six pack is the only source of happiness the guy has, then why should I cockblock that just because I drink a 6 pack infront of the TV, instead of under an overpass smelling like [censored].

Most of the time tho I try to give bums food. Like if there is one begging for money infront of the store, I wont give him cash on the way in, buy I'll buy a deli sandwhich or something and give it to him on the way out. Heh, I've boughten bums a 6 pack of bud before when I'm going in to buy a shitload of alcohol for a party or something.

If I wasnt worried about getting killed I'd prolly invite the occasional bum over so he could shower and eat a real meal. But the way the world is today, that would just be a stupid idea.

[stabn]

lol /images/graemlins/smile.gif.

I don't know what salt's talking about. If you stay away from burnside it's not so bad /images/graemlins/smile.gif.

[IndieMatty]

Plenty in NYC, And I give them money on a case by case basis.

I almost moved to SF and I found the homeless there unbearable. They are pestering. NYC homeless will ask, and usually give a God Bless either way. Very rare you get a persistant one like out west.

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey man. That link doesn't work.

[/ QUOTE ]
does this one (www.shutthefuckupyouliteralbastard.com) work?

[Monkeyslacks]

I have given money to a bum precisely one time. I was walking to school and a girl in a workboots and a construction hat asked if I had 25 cents for bus fare. She had change in her hand and said she had miscounted her change when she left for work. I gave her a quarter without a second thought.

Two days later I saw her outside the subway in a nurse's outfit asking a guy for subway fare.

[stabn]

Sorry man, that one shows, but i can't [censored] read it. /images/graemlins/frown.gif.


...

[ThaSaltCracka]

that is just a SF thing. Seattle isn't like that, nor is Portland. Although one time I was up on the Ave in Seattle by the UW(an area notorious for dirty drug addict "ave rats" teenagers) and this one dumb broad ask me and my buddy for $20 for a pretty dress so she could wear it to a party. we started laughing and told her to get her drug money elsewhere.

[ThaSaltCracka]

you guys are lame, just read the url at the bottom of your browsers status bar. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[stabn]

Check my winky in the subject line....

[brassnuts]

[ QUOTE ]
there are not to many bums where i live but id prefer not to give them cash if possible

[/ QUOTE ]

Ever gone up to a bum and asked if they accept Visa?

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
there are not to many bums where i live but id prefer not to give them cash if possible

[/ QUOTE ]

Ever gone up to a bum and asked if they accept Visa?

[/ QUOTE ]Yeah I did that once, he then pulled out a knife and asked for my wallet, I don't recommend this.

[YourFoxyGrandma]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Hey man. That link doesn't work.

[/ QUOTE ]
does this <a href="www.shutthefuckupyouliteralbastard.com" target="_blank">one</a> work?

[/ QUOTE ]

Nah man, that one doesn't work either.

[spamuell]

Blarg, I strongly disagree with your post.

[ QUOTE ]
The younger ones can get a job.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's incredibly difficult to get a job if you have no fixed abode for your potential employers to respond to or telephone number for them to call, and arrive at an interview looking and smelling like you have spent the last several weeks sleeping outside.

[ QUOTE ]
Too many bums are professionals out here. Sometimes they wear nice clothes. A couple of bums who hang out at my local supermarket have been begging there for like 10 years, and one lives in a building a few over from mine, where he rents an apartment next to a guy I know. He's living just like the rest of us, only in his own style.

[/ QUOTE ]


The vast majority of people who live on the street are not in situations like this. Do you think they enjoy begging? No one wants to give up their dignity like that if they could just get a job and have more money, more security and more self-esteem.

I find it so hard to believe that someone could live in an apartment and beg for money - how did they get the loan on the apartment? Why do people still give them money? I'm not saying you are lying, I'm just saying that difficulties such as these serve to demonstrate that cases such as these are rare.

[ QUOTE ]
Further, a hell of a lot of them are angry and aggressive, and spew out racist crap whenever they don't get free money.

[/ QUOTE ]

A lot of people who have jobs and homes are angry and aggressive. In my experience, whenever a homeless person has asked me for money and I haven't been able to give it to them, they've always just said something like "thank you anyway, have a nice day". They've never been angry, aggressive or racist to me at all.

[ QUOTE ]
I hope those guys all get struck by lightning. They make the world an uglier place in so many ways

[/ QUOTE ]

Whereas comments like this improve the world?

[ QUOTE ]
Two more things -- a lot of these bums are the small time street thugs, too. The same guys who are making the puppy eyes or whatever in the day -- who do you think is smashing the car windows and stealing stereos, sometimes even slashing up the seats for fun, at night?

[/ QUOTE ]

Firstly, I'd like to see you back this up with some evidence. The fact is that the majority of people who steal car radios have fairly large amounts of money if they don't get caught, and those who get caught more than a couple of times are not likely to be on the street anymore.

Secondly, I'm not saying that no crime is committed by homeless people, of course it is. Crime is committed by people who have places to live as well. Just because some homeless people are criminals does not mean that they all are. Furthermore, if we were to help people get into an economic situation where they would not need to steal in order to eat, the crime rate would drop substantially.

[ QUOTE ]
No, it's exactly the same guys milling around with nothing to do but be jerks and feed their drug and laziness habits during the day.


[/ QUOTE ]

Being homeless is not laziness. It just isn't. You think it's easy to live on the street and beg for scraps of food, while constantly at risk of being attacked and with very little they can do about it if they are? You think people live like this because they can't be bothered to get a job?

[ QUOTE ]
They don't need your support; you can support charities and soup kitchens if you want people to eat. They're not hard to find; try the phone book; ask around. Stop by a Salvation Army place sometime. If you really care, that is, and aren't just appeasing your conscience for your real and imagined sins.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree that charities and organistians such as Salvation Army and Shelter (not sure if you have that in the US) are extremely important. But this doesn't mean that giving money to homeless people is useless because it really is not.

Blarg, I just think that you are wrong in saying that the majority of people who are homeless are intentionally so because of their laziness and reluctance to get a job. This is where our difference of opinion lies and if you could provide sources which demonstrate that the majority of homeless people are scammers then I would be forced to agree with you, but until then I must disagree because it goes against all my knowledge and experience and it just seems nonsensical that that would be the case.

[Sponger15SB]

here is my typical interaction with a homless person:

"oh god bless you good sir can you spare some change"
"no, sorry"
"HEY [censored] YOU SPOILED BRAT!!! [censored] YOU [censored] YOU RICH BABY"

don't give them money, they don't deserve it.

[A_C_Slater]

[ QUOTE ]
here is my typical interaction with a homless person:

"oh god bless you good sir can you spare some change"
"no, sorry"
"HEY [censored] YOU SPOILED BRAT!!! [censored] YOU [censored] YOU RICH BABY"

don't give them money, they don't deserve it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Next time pull out a dollar bill and rip it up in front of their eyes.

[Non_Comformist]

He's right. I worked/live in Portland for a year and my conclusion was it was filled with bums most of which were completely out of their mind. This led to my official request to my employer to carry a weapon to and from work which was received with horror and anger.

[spamuell]

[ QUOTE ]

"oh god bless you good sir can you spare some change"
"no, sorry"
"HEY [censored] YOU SPOILED BRAT!!! [censored] YOU [censored] YOU RICH BABY"

[/ QUOTE ]

Wtf?!

Maybe the US is just completely different but this has never happened to me in London, nor have I heard of it happening to anyone I know.

As I said in my response to Blarg, anyone who I haven't given money to has said something like, "thanks anyway, have a good day."

[RocketManJames]

I've only given money to bums if they saved me money...

The following happened a while back:

I put money in to get a ticket for a local train/subway. I am making my selections and about to confirm my transaction. Suddenly, a bum that I wasn't really paying much attention to yelled out, "Don't do that, you ain't gonna get money back."

I am a bit freaked out at first, but then the bum comes up near me and points at some warnings that explain that what I was about to do was to put extra money onto my ticket, and would not be getting change. He then showed me the correct selections. I gave him a few dollars, for saving me about $10.

I am sure there are enough people that that make the same mistake, which really makes his "spot" prime pickings.

-RMJ

[Alobar]

Im with you on this spam and I live in the US. I've ran into the occasional bum who does this, but 90% of the time its a "god bless you/have a nice day".

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
Quote:
The younger ones can get a job.



It's incredibly difficult to get a job if you have no fixed abode for your potential employers to respond to or telephone number for them to call, and arrive at an interview looking and smelling like you have spent the last several weeks sleeping outside.

[/ QUOTE ]

What I'm saying is that most of them are fakes. They're living indoors just like you. But why should they get jobs if people like you and me will get jobs for them, and then just give them the money?



[ QUOTE ]
The vast majority of people who live on the street are not in situations like this

[/ QUOTE ]

What would you know about the vast majority of them? I've seen a huge number of these guys that do this for a living, for years on end. Being a bum, in my opinion, is not a job. It's not admirable, and it's not something I support, literally or figuratively.

[ QUOTE ]
I find it so hard to believe that someone could live in an apartment and beg for money - how did they get the loan on the apartment?

[/ QUOTE ]

It really doesn't matter what you believe. It certainly has no effect on reality. Have you left home yet? Who needs a loan for an apartment? It's not a mortgage you're paying, it's rent.

By the way, I've roomed with 7 guys in a two-bedroom apartment myself, and not just for a little while, and I've been in similar situations many years running. I've been as poor as you can get for years on end and still live indoors, with no parents to fall back on. Yeah, it sucks. But I never begged once. Did I think about it? Was I near desperate to that -- and worse? The difference is ... I lived in grinding poverty and fought my way out of it exceedingly slowly, which is the way it's really done when you're dirt poor. BUT ... I didn't stoop to begging, not once. And I sure as hell wouldn't do it for years on end. That's just a con job.



[ QUOTE ]
A lot of people who have jobs and homes are angry and aggressive. In my experience, whenever a homeless person has asked me for money and I haven't been able to give it to them, they've always just said something like "thank you anyway, have a nice day". They've never been angry, aggressive or racist to me at all.

[/ QUOTE ]

Lucky you!

[ QUOTE ]
Quote:
I hope those guys all get struck by lightning. They make the world an uglier place in so many ways



Whereas comments like this improve the world?

[/ QUOTE ]

Being honest doesn't do a thing to harm it. I don't remember specifically stating any comment in this thread, much less the one above, was designed to improve the world. You presume too much.


[ QUOTE ]
Firstly, I'd like to see you back this up with some evidence. The fact is that the majority of people who steal car radios have fairly large amounts of money if they don't get caught, and those who get caught more than a couple of times are not likely to be on the street anymore.

[/ QUOTE ]

These guys get caught in your world? That's pretty darn cool!



[ QUOTE ]
Being homeless is not laziness. It just isn't.

[/ QUOTE ]

Begging for money is not being homeless. It just isn't.

[ QUOTE ]
Blarg, I just think that you are wrong in saying that the majority of people who are homeless are intentionally so

[/ QUOTE ]

I never said that. I think you're wrong in automatically assuming that every bum is homeless. The very title of this thread is BUMS, not homeless. We are talking about two different things.

It's just become more fashionable to pretend there's no such thing as a bum anymore. But there is. There always has been, and there always will be, no matter how politically correct we or some of us attempt to be about it. Do some homeless people become bums? Sure. Very sad story indeed. Hardly universal.

I'm talking about where I come from and what I see every day and have seen for decades. My situation is different than that of people who live in Beverly Hills or the suburbs, where everything is so much more theoretical and magical, and everyone has better intentions. If you see bums and gangbangers and such all the time, the idea that people actually choose a lifestyle or set of values you don't share becomes less far fetched. I've lived in lower and lower middle class neighborhoods mostly, but also some middle class ones, in the biggest metropolis in the world. There's more professional bums here than you can shake a stick at. I actually see three or four at once start up at once when I get out of my car at the supermarket or leave to get back in, competing for me. :P In traffic on the way to work, they're milling all through the streets. Usually at the stoplights, grabbing at your windshield wipers in an implied threat to break them off if you don't give them money. When I go grab a burger, they come up to my table and beg; some of them sit down and don't want to leave until you give them money. If I go gas up the car, there are anywhere from two to a dozen of them there.

Let me make it clear to you: I see these guys all the time, every damn day, and they do it for a living. Well-fed, healthy young guys. It's a chosen lifestyle. The ones incapable of getting a job are the exception, not the rule.

Let me make another thing clear: many of these guys are racist bastards.

Let me make it clearer still: some of these guys are violent. Some assault women. Some have assaulted women where I work. Some have assaulted women that I know.

This is not a candy-coated world I live in, and it's not an extraordinary world by any stretch of the imagination either. It's big city life in Los Angeles, that's all. It's not noble, or filled with noble people. I do not try to be one of those noble people either.

I do my best, though. And that doesn't include encouraging people who are trying to play me for a sucker when it works, then scream racist sh** at me when it doesn't, harass and threaten both men and women many times a day, and give nobody a moment's peace. These people are NOT HEROES. They are the people who give real homeless people a very bad name. And they outnumber them, by a very great margin.

A homeless guy wants to get out of his situation; a bum wants to prolong it. I can understand the former; I can both understand and have no respect whatever for the latter, especially as it often goes with many very anti-social personality traits, which not uncommonly bleed over into criminal ones.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
here is my typical interaction with a homless person:

"oh god bless you good sir can you spare some change"
"no, sorry"
"HEY [censored] YOU SPOILED BRAT!!! [censored] YOU [censored] YOU RICH BABY"

don't give them money, they don't deserve it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly. Except they usually call me much worse than that.

Or how about this one -- two teenagers walking back from a Jack in the Box in $80 sneakers and very nice clothes, munching on what's got to be at least 15 bucks worth of fast food(the real homeless can't afford it -- neither can a lot of working people, and one of the poor can). Then they ask me for money. Yeah, right -- you guys look like you're really suffering. And you're smart enough to think that I look like the stupidest sappiest, fool on the planet. Better luck next time, guys.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]

Quote:

"oh god bless you good sir can you spare some change"
"no, sorry"
"HEY [censored] YOU SPOILED BRAT!!! [censored] YOU [censored] YOU RICH BABY"



Wtf?!

Maybe the US is just completely different but this has never happened to me in London, nor have I heard of it happening to anyone I know.

As I said in my response to Blarg, anyone who I haven't given money to has said something like, "thanks anyway, have a good day."


[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think it's probably possible to convey to you just how different it is being a woman in London from being a male in an American big city, especially in lower class or deep city areas.

What you've never even heard of happening to anyone you know happens to almost everyone I know, and with tremendous frequency. We go through more creeps and freaks, and hostile ones, in a day than other people might in a year, or perhaps many years, as seems to be your particular case.

More power to you. But believe it, there's a whole lot of world outside your limited and comparatively highly sheltered experience.

[spamuell]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't think it's probably possible to convey to you just how different it is being a woman in London from being a male in an American big city

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm playing now so I'll reply in a bit but... you think I'm a woman? I'm a male.

Also, although it is not an American city, London does have about about 9 million people in it, so it's not small.

[Blarg]

I thought you had said earlier in a post you were a woman.

Nevertheless, that doesn't change all that much. Londoners are world famous for their politeness -- queuing up in lines for buses, etc., long after that seems to have gone by the wayside everywhere else. There seems to be a big difference in the places we live and how people behave there.

At any rate, the two main issues are, equating bums with homeless people doesn't work, and it's something I never did; and, second, that your experience is extremely different than mine, and in no way negates mine at all. I didn't ever say your experiences with bums or homeless don't happen or somehow don't count, and you're not in a position to do so regarding my own.

[Malcom Reynolds]

I had just gotten back home to Canada for Canada Day, so I was in an extremely good mood. I was at the bus station and a homeless lady was asking me for money. I ended up talking to her for a while, and gave her $20 before I left. When she got it, her eyes lit up and she seemed extremely happy. She almost skipped and hopped as she made her way to the McDonalds.

[daryn]

yeah but... $20 canadian? you cheap bastard that's like $0.63 american.

[Alobar]

[ QUOTE ]
yeah but... $20 canadian? you cheap bastard that's like $0.63 american.

[/ QUOTE ]

not anymore /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[youtalkfunny]

[ QUOTE ]
I am sure there are enough people that that make the same mistake, which really makes his "spot" prime pickings.


[/ QUOTE ]

Ten years ago I was in SF on vacation. I was buying cable car passes from a vending machine near the turntable thing at the end of the line.

A very polite, helpful bum saw me looking for directions on this machine, so he jumped at the chance to walk me through it. I put my $5 bill in, and got back two Susan B Anthony dollars. Why not just give me confederate money? What the hell am I going to do with these two irritating coins that no one wants?

The bum had his hand out. He WAS helpful. And I've got $2 of worthless coins. I handed them over.

Later that weekend, same spot: same bum is BRAWLING with another bum. Don't need to be a detective to imagine why they were fighting.

[MelK]

These guys are self-employed customer service agents. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Cerril]

I think it's funny, but I don't give a bum money then any more than I would one that had a sign saying 'don't give me money'

[Cerril]

I'm pretty terrible. Ninety nine out of one hundred I'll just ignore them or turn them away. Of the remaining times I'll either give what change or occasionally a few dollars if I feel generous and am not repulsed by the gimmick.

If I'm getting some value in return (the entertainment bit), I'll tend to actually try to find some money.

I usually feel worse when I genuinely don't have any money on me then when I'm just saying that, oddly, regardless of my intentions. I think it's probably because it's easier to convince myself that I'd actually like to give the guy a buck or two.

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
I got a big hug. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
One more reason NOT to give them money. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[WDC]

I hope you are visted by three ghosts on Christmas Eve. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[tyfromm]

http://img90.exs.cx/img90/5748/ninjaskilledmyfamily6by.jpg

[BeerMoney]

I say give em a few bucks if you know the money will be going to alcohol.

[The Ocho]

My roommate has a good anti-bum strategy: when my roommate sees a bum approaching him, he asks the bum if he has any spare change. Pretty a-holish, but pretty funny.

[BeerMoney]

One thing that's cool about visiting underprivilidged countries is that you know the people begging really need it.

I was travelling through asia, and the beggers would hold cups in there mouths cause they had no arms to hold it with.. Stuff like that. They taking begging to the extreme.

[daryn]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In risposta di:</font><hr />
My roommate has a good anti-bum strategy: when my roommate sees a bum approaching him, he asks the bum if he has any spare change. Pretty a-holish, but pretty funny.

[/ QUOTE ]


haha, i remember i thought of that one time and thought i was a genius.

[Piz0wn0reD!!!!!!]

I hate "street kids"

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]

One thing that's cool about visiting underprivilidged countries is that you know the people begging really need it.

I was travelling through asia, and the beggers would hold cups in there mouths cause they had no arms to hold it with.. Stuff like that. They taking begging to the extreme.

[/ QUOTE ]
You obviously missed the front page of yesterday's WSJ. The middle column was about a village in China that makes most of its living off of begging. They even train beggars that go to other towns. And most of the beggars make an above average wage. The story msotly centered around this poor crippled girl (twisted spine and tiny twisted legs) that worked for a guy that bought her from her family just to beg for him. He treated her really poorly and even cut her up so she'd be bloody and look even more pathetic to get more money. But she didn't get any of the money. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[El Barto]

[ QUOTE ]

One thing that's cool about visiting underprivilidged countries is that you know the people begging really need it.


[/ QUOTE ]

I had some third world bums email me (Nigeria, I think), I feel better now about sending them money. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[PokerNoob]

There was a story about a guy who would dress up in a business suit, go to the airport and approach other business travellers with a story about a lost or stolen wallet and needing cabfare to make it to a meeting. He would offer to pay it back of course, but most people would just peel off a twenty and tell him to forget it. He pulled down 120K a year doing this.

[Cyrus]

Misleading title. Bye.

/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[heavybody]

I lived in Las Vegas from April 2003 to April 2004 and twice during that time people in nice NEW(2-3 yrs. old ) minivans drove up to me while I was gassing up my ten year old minivan and asked me for money to help feed the kids in the car. I said No Way. The nerve of these people...I mean sell the van if you have to. Just recently I was in a Home Depot parking lot in Salt Lake City when some black guy approaches me and the first words out of his mouth was "don't worry I'm not gonna do anything I just need some money for food" ,gee thanks for not doing anything.I told him to take a hike.

[kerssens]

I have seen a lady park her Lexus at the Ramada Inn and walk over to the 8th St offramp in Bellevue.

[Q8offsuit]

[ QUOTE ]
Im with you on this spam and I live in the US. I've ran into the occasional bum who does this, but 90% of the time its a "god bless you/have a nice day".

[/ QUOTE ]

Where do you live where there are nice, polite bums? I want to move there! /images/graemlins/ooo.gif