I hate this. We don't know what housing arrangements these people have. I'd rather call them either 'panhandlers' or (ideally) 'bums'.
There used to be a guy who rented a dilapidated house at the corner of a busy intersection a few blocks from here. Every day this asshole would move his bicycle and stuff about 50 feet from his porch to the sidewalk. He would sit there all nasty and pitiful with a cardboard sign and his mangy dog. The dog was a brilliant touch and he got lots of handouts.
He's been gone for a while now: Probably retired to Palm Springs.
When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth. - George Bernard Shaw
Posts: 15529 | Location: Virginia | Registered: July 03, 2007
Beats disinfranchised. Seriously, many are sociopathic, some are alcohol and drug addicted, and others are mentally ill. A good number choose that lifestyle as well.
Posts: 17695 | Location: Stuck at home | Registered: January 02, 2015
Many years ago a French friend of the wife's visited and marveled at the amount of what she referred to as beggars on the street. I've always called them bums.
Posts: 4366 | Location: Peoples Republic of Berkeley | Registered: June 12, 2008
Just think of all the cash I could get for doing nothing except standing at the end of an interstate off-ramp with a sob story sign, and tax free, too. Sure, there might be slow days, but as a tradesman on piecework, that happens now.
(Obviously that was sarcasm.)
Posts: 29043 | Location: Johnson City, TN | Registered: April 28, 2012
Originally posted by berto: Many years ago a French friend of the wife's visited and marveled at the amount of what she referred to as beggars on the street. I've always called them bums.
Yep. +1
You can't truly call yourself "peaceful" unless you are capable of great violence. If you're not capable of great violence, you're not peaceful, you're harmless.
NRA Benefactor/Patriot Member
Posts: 2857 | Location: Peoples Republic of North Virginia | Registered: December 04, 2015
Around here we seem to colloquially call them "transients", but realistically there is nothing transient about them. It's a liberal community with no shortage of services (handouts) for them so they generally don't leave.
At work we generally refer to them as bums.
Posts: 5253 | Location: Iowa | Registered: February 24, 2011
I guess no good MFers would be a bit over the top?
quote:
Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL: A good number choose that lifestyle as well.
DING DING DING!!!!
"If you’re a leader, you lead the way. Not just on the easy ones; you take the tough ones too…” – MAJ Richard D. Winters (1918-2011), E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil... Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel." - Isaiah 5:20,24
There may be some good people who have fallen on hard times due to no fault of their own that are out there begging, but I suspect that number is miniscule. Most of these fuckers are alcoholics, drug addicts, criminals, crazy, lazy, hustlers, or any combination thereof. None of these categories are mutually exclusive.
When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth. - George Bernard Shaw
Posts: 15529 | Location: Virginia | Registered: July 03, 2007
Originally posted by Jim Shugart: There may be some good people who have fallen on hard times due to no fault of their own that are out there begging, but I suspect that number is miniscule. Most of these fuckers are alcoholics, drug addicts, criminals, crazy, lazy, hustlers, or any combination thereof. None of these categories are mutually exclusive.
AND, millions of idiots each day give them a dollar or two, which keeps the cycle going.
Can’t stand bums at every corner begging, but what drives me even more crazy is bums with pets. Pets are expensive and if you can’t afford yourself you should probably get rid of Fido.
I remember a few years ago a local reporter did a story on them. He even followed one of the "homeless" guys to his house. I think the guy even had a Facebook page where he had posted a pic of the money he had gotten, and another of him in a Land Rover he had purchased. I understand that some of them do have problems, or have fallen on hard time like someone else has said, but some are in that situation by choice.
Originally posted by Jim Shugart: There may be some good people who have fallen on hard times due to no fault of their own that are out there begging, but I suspect that number is miniscule. Most of these fuckers are alcoholics, drug addicts, criminals, crazy, lazy, hustlers, or any combination thereof. None of these categories are mutually exclusive.
Shugart, you left off Democrat voter.
Unhappy ammo seeker
Posts: 18394 | Location: Kentucky, USA | Registered: February 25, 2001
We once had a young Russian woman staying with us with her eight-year old daughter. When daughter Dasha felt sorry for the panhandlers, her mom said “That’s his job!” Thought that summarized it pretty well.
_________________________ “Remember, remember the fifth of November!"
Posts: 18616 | Location: One hop from Paradise | Registered: July 27, 2004
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, 'Wow! What a Ride! ~Hunter S. Thompson
Posts: 1439 | Location: Florida | Registered: September 06, 2006
