Our Mayor here has proposed this $10,000 fine for aggressive panhandling at bus stops or at stop lights approaching cars. He is copying another city that already has this law.
Well that will put the panhandlers in jail for quite awhile out of everybody’s sight because they can’t pay that fine.
Here in big fat rich oil sands Alberta we have very poor facilities for the homeless where they prefer to sleep out side rather than at the small hostels.
if your mayor actually wanted to stop panhandling at intersections, he’d give drivers a free shot zone where they’d get a free shot (shotgun) at the panhandlers…
You know panhandlers are not all poor. Most are but, there are those that make a nice neat living by looking homeless.Say you make $50 aday panhandling, thats $1500 Give or take a month. All unrecorded and tax free. For 8 hours a day you would need to haul in a minum of 6.25 an hour. or $2 every 15 minutes. Gads! In a big bustling city you could make a killing if you are in the right places at the right times. It would take planning and maps but, heck with alot of brain work and minimum leg and back work, a person could do quite nicely, all tax free.
Hmm, could be why Gov’t.s are getting pissy with them. That is a lot of tax free money running around loose and unaccounted for. Hmm, start a college for panhandlers. Figure out the curriculum and you could advertise on TV.
Want to be a successful Panhandler? Come to our college and in just a few short weeks you will be have a Bachelors degree in panhandling. You can have a highly lucrative career in this fast growing profession.
We will show you how to choose where to beg , when to beg and how to beg. All other panhandlers will envy your success. For a small fee and an extra week we can even get you licensed.
Why do I see this as a real thing? that is depressing.
[quote=“Kriswest”]
You know panhandlers are not all poor. Most are but, there are those that make a nice neat living by looking homeless.Say you make $50 aday panhandling, thats $1500 Give or take a month. All unrecorded and tax free. For 8 hours a day you would need to haul in a minum of 6.25 an hour. or $2 every 15 minutes. Gads! In a big bustling city you could make a killing if you are in the right places at the right times. It would take planning and maps but, heck with alot of brain work and minimum leg and back work, a person could do quite nicely, all tax free.
ct101
Last winter I was buying them coffee at Mcdonalds after they’d been out all nite sleeping in doorways or where ever and heard their stories,they make very little money here but people do buy them meals.
Finally one nite they got shot in the face with a paint gun and one of them lost an eye. They were accused by these guys of breaking into their shiney new trucks in the area when it’ s really the drug addicts doing it.
There are more poverty level panhandlers then others I said that. It just seems to me that if it was planned and calculated you could make a nice living doing it. I have seen beggers check the mail and walk into decent homes or drive off in nice cars. All of this after recognizing them from an earlier encounter where they were begging. Thats when I did some calculations some years ago. Tax free begging done right can be profitable.
I suppose as a Calgarian I’ve got a piece to say. In general my living place seems irrelevant. I kind of drifted here.
I’d say Calgary is a good example of the rich-poor clash in western society. I think it’s the leader in national homelessness- it’s also stinking rich.
I don’t sympathize with panhandlers nor the Calgarian poor. The bulk of them are ex-oilriggers with drug addictions. You get big money working in a herd mentality for 6 months, not careful what you do off the job, get fired and never see that kind of money again. So you whittle your days looking for a quick fix and an easy place to stay.
Calgary’s open government mentality seems: “Get everyone working now!” They’ll fund anything to get you out there. A mentality I have yet to really appreciate.
I have little problems with the city and look forward to future societies that sidestep modern problems all together, and focus on their own self-sufficiency and new adaptation of philosophy.
Free enterprise does not at all bring about more a humanistic society, globalization for instance has enriched the big corporations & made the poor poorer. Yes, we need a new philosophy in our society.
ct101