• Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I know in my city I’ve seen a “homeless” guy beg for money, with a cardboard sign. Then goes and gets into his sports car and drives off.

    And that got me thinking. Most people who give, don’t give a dollar. They give a few dollars. So lets just say they get about $40 in an hour.

    That’s $40 untaxed. And there’s nothing stopping them from just doing this all day. Remember, I’m not talking about actual homeless people. I’m talking about scam beggers.

    Imagine doing $40 an hour average, for 10 hours, every day, for doing nothing. Set your own schedule. Never gotta worry about being late. Can’t get fired. Practically zero costs to start this business. You need a piece of cardboard, a marker, and MAYBE a folding chair.

    So yeah. I’d say it’s an industry. An unregulated, scam, borderline illegal industry.

    • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      I know in my city I’ve seen a “homeless” guy beg for money, with a cardboard sign. Then goes and gets into his sports car and drives off.

      Yeah? You’ve seen it? You saw him begging and saw him get in a luxury car and drive away? He parked right beside where he was begging?

      I call bullshit.

      • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Yeah. I saw him begging for 3 weeks. Then one day he walked across the street to the parking lot, and got in a red sports car.

        • Scranulum@feddit.nu
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          3 months ago

          Well, it’s impossible for anyone who owns a red sports car to become homeless, so he must have been lying.

          • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Well, these sports cars usually sell for $100,000+. If he was homeless, he could sell the car, buy a house, and still have anywhere from 5k to 40k leftover depending on the house.

    • interrobang@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 months ago

      This is quite a take.

      The weather, constant UV exposure, car fumes and tire particles, people shouting abuse and throwing shit sounds like awesome self-employment. Remember, if you look at all comfortable you don’t fit the narrative.

      That isn’t even worth $40 an hour and I seriously doubt that figure, people don’t even like making eye contact with folks standing on roadsides and they don’t carry cash.

      Do you have anything supporting this?

    • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      Studies suggest this is an extreme minority, and stories like yours - while yours might be true (and be fair to me here, we’re just two usernames, we don’t know each other’s motives and biases), it’s often used to push reasons to defund homeless shelters and criminalize being poor.

      Even if you have seen a homeless person (or imposter) do something wrong, it might be worth considering that being homeless is very difficult and often caused by pre-existing medical conditions or institutionalized discrimination.