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TS doesn't skip right arm day!
It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.
Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
There is this hysteria in my town over pan handlers lately. Supposedly there is a man and woman who drive a decent car, have a decent home, etc who beg by the highway exit ramps every day - they drive their and spend their "work day" asking for handouts. And have simply told people they do it because they make more money that way then if they were working. So they claim to be homeless when they actually are not, and I've heard of them turning down food/water offers while begging.
There have also been instances of people freaking out because they've been approached at gas stations at night while they're alone by people asking for money and feared for their safety.
So the result of this is a new law... $90 fine for illegally panhandling. Good luck collecting that money! Though I guess that's not really the purpose of the law.
I'm not someone who thinks the poor people are the problem lawmakers should be focusing on, and I do think wealth distribution and minimum wages that people cannot live on are bigger problems then people on welfare, etc. However, I do take issue with people misrepresenting themselves like this.
this is also the case in toronto. There have been some known cases of career pan handlers.
Yea, I remember actually giving a couple bucks to this lady outside the Eaton Centre, who it later turned out drove her Jetta downtown everyday to work her shift, then drive home to a nice house on the mountain in Hamilton with her husband who was an accountant or some shit. People have no shame.
was that the woman who nailed down this mentally disabled act she would put on?
i would have given them applications to the local mcdonalds. giving free handouts only reinforces their beggary.
I wish, I just feel some weird guilt when I see people that hard up. Even as a first generation Canadian whose family came here with nothing, we never had it bad.
yeah, i know what you mean. i live in san francisco, so i see this all the time. i get sick of getting asked for change and cigarettes, and then getting a, "fuck you" if i tell them no.