Homeless People / Beggers

Yep. I'm noticing more homeless people and more beggars in a lot of places. Some of the beggars, like you mention, appear fairly well dressed too. They seem like aggressive hustlers. Some of them even seem like they could be successful salespeople if they could get their shit together and actually wanted a job. I think the increase in both homeless people and beggars has a lot to do with drugs. Between meth, the increased popularity of heroin in recent years, etc., I think a lot of peoples' lives have gone down the tubes. Bad trend.

During the last 2 months on my way to Follies, there is a beggar at the bottom of the I-85 off ramp to Clairmont Rd. every time. I suspect that it is the colder weather.

How was Asheville ??? Lol

I can't say I've noticed a difference but mwlaybe there are people who are not homeless but want cash for the holidays

What is going on a lot down here in South FL is people walking up to someone's door and stealing packages left buy UPS/Fedex

@ Papi I see a lot of homeless types standing at intersections and off ramps up here. Most of the homes in my area are in gated communities or large estate type places that have butlers and grounds people so not so much stealing deliveries around here.

Papi - some people have been getting even by putting out boxes full of dog shit.

upi.com

" but I am constaly getting harassed by homeless people or people looking for handouts lately. "

Democrats depend on those people looking for handouts.

As if we didn't have enough dealing with strippers harassing us for our $$$

:)

I used to be one of those homeless people but it wasn't because of drugs it was a life choice to experience it...I learned a lot

Yep I'd agree it's probably drugs too. There's an epidemic brewing with heroin and meth. I was in a liquor store a few weeks ago and the store owner was singing the blues, he said "he'll you can buy heroin cheaper than an average bottle of whiskey so people are doing that now."

That's insane that drug use has gotten so bad and it is so inexpensive that it's hurting liquor store sales.

In the US this really started in the 1980's, when Reagan became President. There were specific policy changes which through lots of very low income people out on to the street.

But over all it goes back much further, to the beginnings of Capitalism in the 1600's.

And then the first welfare payments were established to try and cut down on the number of panhandlers. Welfare has always been intended to regulate the poor:

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With each one of Dougster's Boom and Bust cycles, more and more people are thrown into the very most tenuous of employment. So they say that more than 1/2 of the population is only 2 pay checks away from defaulting on rent of mortgage.

Once Reagan took us off of Keynesianism, the economic system which had worked very well for 40 years, we started to become more and more like a 3rd world country. And it gets worse every year.

peoplestribune.org

Here in Santa Clara County it is said that we have the 4th largest homeless population in the entire country, and the official counts are a gross undercount, and the numbers are growing, and the largest component is homeless working families.

SJG

Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad youtube.com

SJG points out homeless people which is a valid point, BUT the people that have harassed me the most in the past month are clearly not homeless.

^^^^ Might you care to specify, how you know they are not homeless? And what do they want, money?

And what kind of places is this happening in, front of super markets? Downtown in big cities?

SJG

I think it's about 50-50% that I could have ended up a homeless person, but for some very good luck avoided that.

If it wasn't for the money homeless would probably be a good life. I used to think of just taking a $120k or so and a year and traveling around the country. Kind of regret I don't do it a while. Maybe one day...

Yes OP! Glad Im not the only one. Jesus they are everywhere. You cant even eat in a taco bell anymore without getting asked for some change. I may start carrying around a nickel and two pennies on purpose just to give change.

Two interesting takes:

1. Panhandlers have been hitting up strippers too. One stripper bought beggar a large sub at a nearby Subway in lieu of just handing over $.

2. Some have gotten more creative. One ruse on a crowded night in one club was to wave at cars coming in, directing one to parking spot, and then coming up to car and asking for money. Of course I knew that parking was free so I said no dice. I made sure to inform mgr/bouncer when I entered club so that other patrons wouldn't get conned. My civic duty for the night....

I resonate with those words Dougster

"I think it's about 50-50% that I could have ended up a homeless person, but for some very good luck avoided that."

Good luck as in being born into a family that gives a shit about your education and future?

What I read is that if Trump took his inheritance and invested in index funds, he'd be worth $12B, adjusted for inflation. Savvy business man, no? Wealth begets wealth.

I think these homeless people are just lazy. You could take any homeless heroin or meth addict and train them for a career in quantitative finance. All those jobs going unfilled. Lazy fucks...

I haven't noticed a shift in numbers of homeless people. I suspect that it's either perception or localized.

RandomMember, brilliant idea to train homeless addicts as quants! ;)

In my neighborhood the police shoot the homeless.

I think it's distraught Hillary supporters who are descending into a drug and alcohol fueled despair. They lost the election, they lost the recount, and Hillary lost more voters in the electoral college fiasco than Trump did. Once the whole Russian hacking excuse is put to rest there will be more of them.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Trump, since he refuses to divest his businesses, especially the D.C. hotel. He seems determined not to budge on this issue and the Democrats, and even some Republicans, are not going to let that go. This could blow up. Also, he's not even in office yet and he's already fucking up foreign policy, with China, the Middle East, etc. I just hope his big mouth doesn't draw us into another war. I think there's realistically a 25% chance he gets impeached due to his stubbornness about divesting his business interests or due to some other foolish actions.

^^^ Trump refused to submit his taxes and he was elected, anyway. It's probably impossible, in any practical sense, for him to divest all his business interests and eliminate conflict of interests. That's what we voted for as a country. You're right about the threat of his temperament getting us into an unnecessary war. We have the rest of congress to mitigate any recklessness in domestic policy; with foreign policy the President can do a lot damage on his own.

Nobody cares about Trump's taxes, his foreign policy, his domestic policy, or his conflicts of interest except the politicians. Trump was elected as a cult of personality; much as Obama was. People liked his anti-establishment persona. They didn't care about any actual issues.

We'll see how many homeless there are in 4 years.

Since this beggar discussion has a political drift to it i'll add my 2 cents. Beggars are and have been common in the Northern Ohio, cities that have historically been run into the ground by democratic administrations. I am often approached by them and often i can smell the alcohol on them or see by their glazed eyes and mannerisms that they're on something and all they're looking for is their next drink or fix so I just blow them off. I don't work to support a stranger's habits.

"I don't work to support a strangers habits".

OSU, are you absolutely certain that you've never tipped, or bought dances/VIPS from a stripper who has a habit ? Or is supporting a BF who does ?

In my organization no one will need money and they will have full saturation of pussy. Yiu can't be extreme underground political activists without toda la noche the night before.

Minnow, you have a point regarding that but it is different. That's a 2 way street as i'm actually buying a service from a women that appeals to my senses and getting something in return as opposed to just handing money over to a drunk or drugged out guy in the street. You don't see a difference?

Seems that you guys have a terrible inferiority complex how does a post about panhandlers and bums become a left right thing. SMH

LMFAO

I have noticed more panhandlers near me, too, mainly on the freeway off ramps in Cleveland. I saw the same millennial girl for 3 days in a row. She didn't look homeless, but who knows what her story was.

Most of the young people out on the street today, their chances at anything like a normal life was destroyed by their parents, long before the child reached adolescence. And of the older people, I believe it is the same way, but just people are not able to see it.

SJG

You talk about those in poverty and the homeless, if their parent(s) had wanted them to do well, they would be doing so. But in fact their parents used them, shamed and humiliated them, destroyed their instincts and inclinations, and all in the name of the "self-reliance ethic", in the name of social conformity.

SJG

SJG, is that post directed at me or someone else? I am still trying to figure all of this out.

^^^^ I don't know what you make you think it is directed at you, or against any specific individual.

Our society squeezes many people out because:

1. Slow economy.

2. Our economic system is completely unworkable, so the last thing we need is another boom and bust cycle.

3. Because the middle-class family exists to exploit children. Then Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, The Recovery Movement, Evangelical Religion, and most Gov't Social Service Programs exist to convince the survivors that the fault is all theirs.

SJG

I'm involved in local politics and with community groups which serve the homeless and the poor.

In this mix is something I consider to be a menace, the Evangelical Christians, always there trying to convince the homeless that they suffer from their own deficiencies.

I am always telling them, "If someone has been treated with dignity and respect, and allowed to develop and apply their abilities, then it is very unlikely that they would have any serious problem with drugs or alcohol, or have any real difficulties in pursuing a suitable career. You have to look to the parents, if you want to understand how someone's life can be shattered."

SJG

Robert Reich explains Authoritarianism, Trump's threat to Democracy youtube.com

Yanis Varoufakis Explains Greece's Financial Crisis (Pt. 1)
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Yanis Varoufakis and Dave Rubin Talk Greece's Financial Crisis (Full Interview) youtube.com

Counts himself as a Libertarian Marxist.

One of the last chapters of this talks about such: amazon.com

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en.wikipedia.org

TJ Street farm4.staticflickr.com

adelitasbartijuanamexico.com

adelitasbartijuanamexico.com

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Lloyd lives in his $2 million dollar house and doesn't help any homeless people, just another talking head shit head who doesn't walk the walk/

ime, how do you know? u r right

back to the original topic, in the burbs where I live I see vans pull into a shopping center and drop of a woman and a small kid or two. They have some sign about being homeless, just got to town and need a hand, etc. etc. I followed one of these vans and saw him drop of another two women with kids at two other shopping centers. they set up with the same signs.

Totally organized gypsy-type scam.

I also see an alarming number of panhandlers working within restaurants. They will walk up to a table and not say anything but display a small sign begging for money or even place a card on the table in front of you.

Lots of people are completely locked out of the labor market. And this is only going to be increasing.

Welfare money is intended to regulate the poor, not to provide for their needs. But we need to have it. So Citizenship Pay would seem to be the only answer.

And like I've been trying to say, if someone has been treated with dignity and respect and allowed to develop and apply their abilities, then the chances that they will be one of those shut out are much lower. So if you see people who's lives have fallen apart, look to their parents and hold the parents financially accountable. The US is just about the only industrialized country which allows one to disinherit their child. We must change this, because it legitimates child abuse.

Capitalism has always depended upon having scapegoats. We used to get these in the immigrants and racial minorities who did low wage labor and slave labor.

But today there is far less need for any kind of labor. So today Capitalism gets its scapegoats directly from the middle-class family. And most middle-class child abuse involves doctors of one type or another. So the scapegoating involves the fallacies of mental illness, or things like Autism, Aspergers, ADHD, or Eating Disorders. What this is, is the resurgence of the bogus sciences of Social Darwinism and Eugenics.

We must put these doctors out of action. Crimes Against Humanity prosecution would be best. Other counties have the laws which will facilitate such prosecution. And then we must hold the parents financially accountable, as this is the only language they will ever understand.

SJG

Brian Eno youtube.com

TJ School Girls losangelespress.org

I like the looks of them, but I would prefer them in higher heels and overall a more slutty look.

Yes, the poor chose to be poor. They don't take the responsibility to plan ahead for success and always blame external events for their misfortunes. The poor are always looking for scapegoats to their problems, and never want to put any effort into bettering their lives.

The poor are the people whom our society use as scapegoats. It is absurd.

We should be showing people how it is financial types like Dougster, and morons like Gassagain, who are the real parasites.

And this is why it is so important to get the poor to stand up for themselves, and to use ANY MEANS NECESSARY!

SJG

Brian Eno youtube.com

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TJ School Girls losangelespress.org

Yeah, I've seen the card thing sometimes at an intersection and sometimes at a Starbucks.

At a Starbucks I hang out at I used to see this young guy (early/mid 20s) pull up to one of the doors, leave his car running, head inside and ask people for "gas $$$", seems he did it on a regular basis b/c I saw him at least on 5 different occasions if not more and I was not at that Starbucks every day (maybe 2 or 3x per week) - I also saw him doing the same thing 2 businesses over at a Chipotle - and the guy was brash, he would not even ask in a humble way.

Never seen the card thing, but approached by a beggar who claims he needed only $60 for a bus ticket back home. A month later see him again and his story was the same, I said "how long does it take for you to get $60 for a bus ticket?" He was confused until I told him he used that line on me a month ago, and he walked away from me.

The homeless/beggar population has been on steroids for around the last decade. The real shocker is: in the past, most seemed to be old or disabled, and now I see alot of able-bodied, young people begging.

I remember twenty years ago, you'd see bums here and there, but now they are everywhere. Driving to work, I come in contact with about twenty-five at twenty-five different intersections.

Are there really this many drug addicts and mentally ill people out there?

If only we could have had candidates like these on the ballot. And we also need this quality of activists working on behalf of the poor and marginalized, those shut out of our economy, and those being targeted by Eugenics and Social Darwinism.

"Over the next months and years, we will be called upon to intensify our demands for social justice, to become more militant in our defense of vulnerable populations. Those who still defend the supremacy of white, male, hetero patriarchy had better watch out. The next 1,459 days of the Trump administration will be 1,459 days of resistance—resistance on the ground, resistance in the classrooms, resistance on the job, resistance in our art and in our music. This is just the beginning. And in the words of the inimitable Ella Baker, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes."

Angela Davis, at the Women’s March on Washington, Saturday Jan 21st, 2017, drawing 3 times as many people as the Trump inauguration.

democracynow.org

"Today is not a concert. It is not a parade, and it is not a party. Today is an act of resistance. Now, some of you came here to protest one man. I didn’t come here for that. I came here to address those of you who say you are of good conscience. To those of you who experience a feeling of being powerless, disparaged, victimized, antagonized, threatened and abused, to those of you who for the first time felt the pain that my people have felt since they were brought here with chains shackled on our legs, today I say to you, welcome to my world. Welcome to our world. I stand here as a black woman, the descendent of slaves. My ancestors literally nursed our slave masters. Through the blood and tears of my people, we built this country. America cannot be great without me, you and all of us who are here today. Today you may be feeling aggrieved, but know that this country has been hostile to its people for a long time. For some of you, it is new. For some of us, it is not so new at all. Today I am marching for black and brown lives, for Sandra Bland, for Philando Castile, for Tamir Rice, for Aiyana Stanley-Jones, for Eric Garner, for Michael Brown, for Trayvon Martin and for those nine people who were shot at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. We have a chance, brothers and sisters, to get this thing right. We can do it, if women rise up and take this nation back!"

Tamika Mallory

"Hello, future. I am so proud to stand here as a woman, an African-American woman. My grandmother was a sharecropper. She picked cotton in Aberdeen, Mississippi. My mother was a janitor. And I am a descendant of them, and I am here in their honor to help us move forward and fem the future. I just want to say—I want to remind you that it was woman that gave you Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was woman that gave you Malcolm X. And according to the Bible, it was a woman that gave you Jesus. Don’t you ever forget it. And we must remind them, those who are abusing their power. That is what I am here today to march against: the abuse of power. I want to say to the LGBTQ community, my fellow brothers and sisters; to immigrants, my fellow brothers and sisters; to women: Continue to embrace the things that make you unique, even if it makes others uncomfortable. You are enough. And whenever you feel in doubt, whenever you want to give up, you must always remember to choose freedom over fear."

Janelle Monáe

SJG

Led Zeppelin, Stairway To Heaven, live youtube.com