Begging exists worldwide, and in some places, it is even deemed a profession. When I was a kid in the 1960's, there weren't many beggars, but that was about to change. After the economic shocks of the 1970s, as well as the drug epidemic (particularly crack), begging exploded. Other factors included the baby boomer generation coming of age and some of them having no real working skills or the desire to obtain them. Then again, there is the mental health angle (related to drug abuse of course) when we decided to close mental health hospitals (which were a safe haven for mentally ill people who would otherwise be homeless) and treat the mentally ill with pharmaceuticals on an outpatient basis. It worked our real swell, let me tellya!
So starting in the late 1970s, you started to see people with signs saying, "Homeless, please help!" and good-natured folks would give them "spare change." Of course, some of these homeless were drug addicts and the money handed to them was spent on more drugs, not food for non-existent children or rent payments on non-existent apartments, despite what their cardboard signs said.
Homeless "shelters" started to spring up, replacing the mental hospitals of yore. But instead of a controlled environment caring and treating the mentally ill, many became a bedlam (pardon the pun) of drug addicts and crazy folks. The people working at these shelters were often ill-equipped and under-funded to deal with the situation. It was - and is - a real mess.
But as an ancillary effect, some folks realized you could make good money at begging. I can give you several examples, from the media and personal experience. In a 1970s edition of New York magazine, an article appeared written by a man who became an unintended beggar. He lost his job in Manhatten and dispirited, he walked back to Grand Central Station to get a train home. He realized he was short on cash for the fare, and wondered what to do. He gathered up his courage and asked a passer-by if they had a few dollars to spare, telling his story of woe. "Yea, sure," the guy replied, cutting him off in mid-spiel and handing him five dollars. It was a revelation. He spent a couple more hours at the terminal, doing the same thing, and by the time he got on the train, he had a couple hundred bucks in his pocket.
Encouraged, he went back the next day, not telling his wife he was fired. He made enough to pay the bills and his wife didn't figure it out for a few months. It was only when she tried to call him at work, did the charade crumble. But what was interesting was how much money he made, in a short period of time, begging.
And a lot of other people figured this out as well. When my brother was spending a decade living in Manhattan working on his PhD in puppetry, I would go visit him. It amazed me how, at every store and subway station, there was a young, able-bodied youth, shaking a paper cup, asking for spare change. My brother, being a bit of a bleeding heart, tossed money at every beggar. "He's wearing nicer clothes than we are!" I protested. But my brother demurred, "He wouldn't be begging if he didn't need the money."
Since then, I have run into a number of what I call upscale beggars. These are people who beg for a living - often a comfortable one - not because they are destitute. At the corner of Wisconsin and M streets in Georgetown (DC), I was accosted by a young man wearing an izod shirt, nicely pressed chinos, and shiny loafers. He had nicely coiffed hair and a fancy watch as well. He asked me for five dollars and I said, "dude, you're wearing nicer clothes than I have! I can't spare five bucks!" And then he aggressively cursed me out and made threatening motions. I quickly crossed the street.
That was another trend - aggressive begging. Like squirrels invading your bird feeder, beggars adapt to new conditions and try different tactics. They find the best places to beg, the best angles to use, the best props as well - signs, dogs, babies, whatever. The funniest one (until it started to get used so much it was passe) was the sign, "I won't lie, I just need beer money!" Funny how you can cross the continent by plane and see the exact same sign being used by a beggar on the opposite coast. They have a union, I guess.
( I have heard that some of these Beggars are part of a cult which sends them out to beg for money on the streets. This may explain why they use uniform tactics and techniques to extract money from tourists and the like.)
On that same intersection in Georgetown was a lady in a wheelchair who was there nearly every day, with a cardboard sign (written in sharpie) saying, "destitute, please help!" Again, the signs - they all look alike as if they got sign tips from Beggars Weekly magazine or something. One might have sympathy for her, but Mark (who was working across the street) reported that every morning, she would be dropped off by a private custom handicapped van (NOT a taxi or public transport) and picked up by said same every evening. She also had an expensive electric wheelchair as well. One wonders how destitute she really was. And being in a wheelchair does not mean you cannot hold a job, either. But begging can be more lucrative.
At Crystal City in Arlington, we had a lady who stood at the intersection holding a sign that read, "just evicted, please help! three kids!" Problem was, she was "just evicted" for better part of a decade. She also did Patent searches at the public search room - everyone knew her. But as she admitted, the begging was a better gig, particularly at certain times of the day. The busy intersection at Route 1 and 23rd street saw hundreds of cars per hour, perhaps over a thousand. If one in 50 gives you a dollar, you are making a far better wage than working an ordinary job. The Burger King down the street was paying $8 at the time (in the 1990s) and begging could net you $20 an hour - if not more - totally tax-free.
At a coffee shop across the street from a drug rehab clinic (now closed) on King Street in Alexandria, there was a guy who weighed at least 300 lbs, who had a sign reading, "Hungry! Please help!" It was almost comical, except that he screamed "I'm hungry, dammit!" at everyone passing by and made everyone feel uncomfortable. The coffee shop owner was not amused and eventually it went out of business. Begging is not a victimless crime.
Closer to my new home, I ran into a lady at a gas station a few years back, or should I say, she nearly ran into me. I was pumping gas into my Nissan pickup truck and she came roaring up in a late-model Lexus. She rolled down the window and said, "Sir, can you help a lady in need?" She had on very nice clothes and had an expensive hair style (with extensions) was was wearing nice jewelry. This was not a homeless crack addict. I told her I had no cash, and she drove off - but not far. She drove to each pump at the station, asking people pumping gas for money. Incredibly, some actually walked over (she wasn't about to get out of the car!) and handed her a few dollars. Drive-by begging!
But that may have been an example of what I call "opportunistic begging." People who are not destitute or who are not full-time "professional" beggars, will routinely put their hand out, even if they don't really need the money, just to see if someone would give it to them. If they score enough cash to pay for lunch that day, well, they figure they are ahead of the "game." Usually you can spot the opportunist beggar as they are too well-dressed and coiffed to really be destitute or homeless.
Then there are the "story" beggar - usually with a prop. I recounted before the young man I met at a home improvement store, carrying a gas can and spinning a tale of how he would be AWOL from Fort Belvoir if he didn't get back to the base soon. But as fate would have it, he ran out of gas. Could he have five bucks for gas? I had no cash, but I saw the next guy he approached give him the money. When I came out of the store, he was still at it, and I saw someone else give him five bucks as well. Clearly his "story" was bullshit - he wasn't even in the military.
Similarly, I used to get guys coming to the back door of my office, asking for $7.38 (always such an exact amount!) to get their alternator fixed as they had to get to work on time. My secretary almost gave one such guy the money until I stopped her. "It's my money!" she said, to which I replied, "It's my office, and if you start handing out money to beggars, we will get more of them!" And indeed, the same guy returned months later with the same sob story. When I said, "Hey, weren't you here back in March with the broken alternator?" he looked sheepish and left.
I noted before how the buglight effect can make it hard to be compassionate. Mark tried to hand out bags of leftover bakery items from the store he managed. Before long, there was a line of homeless people on the loading dock every afternoon, and Mark's boss wasn't very happy with that. Not only that, as the numbers increased, they got more aggressive, and if there were no leftovers to hand out, well, fights would start. Paying customers as well as residential neighbors were none-too-pleased with the situation, either. What started as a nice gesture turned into a nightmare.
Aggressive begging became a problem by the 1980s. I remember driving my Chevy Van into New York City back then, and being accosted by "squeegie boys" who would jump onto your car at a stoplight and "clean" your windshield uninvited, with dirty water, and then demand money.. Many New Yorkers back then would hand them a dollar to not clean their windshield. If you didn't pay, they'd give your fender a swift kick. Fun stuff!
I am not a heartless person, but handing out money acts as an attractant, and apparently word "gets around" somehow (Beggars Monthly, again). Seriously, back in the day, Hobos would put marks on your fence or a wall or somewhere they knew to look, with coded symbols saying whether you were an easy "mark" or to not bother. Maybe they still do the same today. Perhaps there is an "app" for it. Begging isn't as uncomplicated as it looks.
I did have a guy, who was admittedly an alcoholic, who came to my office and offered to wash our windows. He had a bucket and squeegy and all the supplies and actually did a good job. I didn't mind giving him money as he was at least making an effort to work. He kept a book with a "schedule" of clients to visit every month. It is like the older man I saw in New Orleans who was trash-picking scrap metal. He never begged, he recycled. Meanwhile, young men and women, 1/3 his age, are playing the cardboard sign game, even as every business in the French Quarter has a "help wanted" sign out front.
The most recent example of this (and the motivation for writing this) happened near the local hospital. I went for physical therapy for my shoulder (tendinitis caused by Cipro/Avalox) and since I was nearly an hour early, I visited the local upscale bakery for an egg sandwich and coffee (over ten bucks! Never doing that again!). There was a guy there sort of standing in line but not standing in line. I went to order as he was on the phone, having a loud conversation.
I sat down to eat my breakfast and he asked me a question from across the room in a soft-talker voice (another beggar strategy to get people's attention). I cupped my hand to my ear (I am hard of hearing as well) and he started his "story" of how he needed $58 (specific amount!) or he was going to be evicted from his motel room. He didn't directly ask me for money (more on that, later) but wanted to know if there was a church or charity in town that would help him out, as he was new to the area. I suggested a few places, but he didn't seem to care much. Without asking directly, he sort of implied that maybe I would give him the money.
Once again, this beggar was dressed in nice clothes, nicely coiffed, and had a fairly new iPhone that was far and away more expensive than my ancient Galaxy 7, which I had bought used, years ago, for $99. He left the building and I mentioned the interaction to the staff. "He asked you for money?" the cashier said. "Not directly," I replied, "but he seemed to hint at it" The cashier said that he came in almost every day, with some sob story and asking for free food. And being nice people, they often gave him a leftover this or that - which of course, meant that he came back again and again.
The cook heard all this and came out of the kitchen and said, "Shoot! I know this guy! I went to school with him, right here this town!" Apparently, this was his M.O. - to score a free meal, and while he was there, to hit up the customers for some cash. Ironically, on the front door was a sign saying, "Cashier Wanted! Now Hiring!" If he needed $58 he could have earned that in a day, particularly with tips. But that would involve work, of course.
What is interesting to me is that begging culture is now part of the American landscape. We didn't have this back in 1965, not even in larger cities. Sure, you might see a "bum" down in the Bowery or something, but not on the scale we have today. Maybe it is the factors I mentioned above - drugs, mental illness, the economy, or perhaps a breakdown in society.
Or perhaps, for some people, it is just easier than working. You prowl around looking for opportunities and playing on people's sympathies (or fears) and score more money - tax free - that those "suckers" who are working at "jobs." There used to be some shame associated with begging and that is no longer the case. You don't have to hit rock-bottom to become a beggar anymore, it seems. You can even be an upscale beggar.
And there is something wrong about that.
But like the squirrels at the bird feeder, when you stop putting out the seed, they seem to disappear overnight. Yet some folks seem to get some joy out of handing out money. I recounted before how at a stoplight in Virginia on my commute home, this bitch in a fur coat, driving a Jaguar convertible, held up traffic (during rush hour) so she could hand a homeless crack addict a $20 bill. She might as well as handed him a ceremonial bullet to kill himself with. And of course, holding up traffic was part of the deal, so that everyone could see how generous she was to the less fortunate and of course, how important she was as well. It was status-seeking behavior, which always leads to trouble.
Of course, not everyone is a bitch like her. Others just want to be decent people and cannot distinguish between those in need and those merely scamming. My brother, as an impoverished student, was handing out cash to beggars, and when I pointed out that some did not appear to be "in need" replied to the effect that if he handed out money to all of them, well, some of it might help a person who really needed it. Not a very efficient method of charity!
The point is, people stop begging, whether they are "needy" or not, when begging yields no real return. Beggars have honed their craft well - finding the best intersections and locations where they maximize profit and minimize risk. A good intersection should have a high traffic volume of fairly affluent people - preferably tourists. Some beggars actually "snowbird" between vacation destinations - Key West in the Winter, Provincetown in the Summer. If you play your cards right, sometimes local authorities will pay your bus fare, just to get you to leave town.
Speaking of which, beggars also know places not to go. Wealthy neighborhoods are usually a poor choice as they will get hassled by the Police. In tourist towns, a beggar quickly learns that obstructing a business can lead to an encounter with the Police as well - unless a local restaurateur is foolish enough to offer free food to a beggar to get them to leave.
In that regard, I thought this latest upscale beggar had an interesting angle - not directly asking for money, but telling a tale of woe and hoping a customer would take pity on him. He can claim with a straight face that he was not begging, but at the same time, he was.... well.... begging.
Upscale Beggars!
