And they pay no taxes.

An article was published in the St Petersburg Times (Florida) 2 years ago addressing the panhandling issue. It was interesting to read the comments from the panhandlers themselves, as several were interviewed. It is quite an organized endeavor, with specific locations pre-assigned, special signs created to target certain automobile types, and particular clothing depending on the day of the week, time of the year, etc. These people are excellent at deciphering the psyche of passers-by based on many identifiable marks that most of us disregard. The majority are not homeless; in fact they live quite well. One fellow said that an average week grossed over $800.00, anything less was unacceptable. It's amazing how hard these people work at not working.

Thanks. French defeats me.

Jan

I think we have all forgotten good old fashioned values. This world is all about conmen and confiscating government. It makes me sick. I am afraid to create new things, because someone else will benefit from my work. I stay down here in middle class, at least here I can still enjoy the green grass and natures beauty. I'll work until I die, and I'm OK with that, but I'm gonna try real hard to not work for anyone else again.

check this out:::

http://www.mreinfo.com/us/mre/mres.html

not bad. . I have a bunch in the basement! -- j

In my experience, if you give a man a fish, he can eat today. If you teach a man to fish, he'll drink beer, lie, and complain that he needs a bigger/faster boat.

What is is that saying about fishing, that if you give someone some fish they will eat that day, but if you teach them to fish they will eat tomorrow and the next etc. My apologies to the original version.

Hello Blarman,
We subsidize the indolent and tax the productive. Basic economics: You get more of what you subsidize and less of what you tax.
Regards.
O.A.

Oh! thank you

Meal ready to eat. Military talk

What's an MRE?

this is super, blar;;; Thank You! -- j

laissez-faire; and MREs aren't bad! -- j

and if you want someone to grow dependent,
feed them and subsidize their replication. -- j

I've seen this too. Most of them aren't homeless at all. But they choose to be a public nuisance -- because people pay them to do it.

I can't wait until the streets start to be privatized so these negative-value persons can be kept away permanently.

Good point, Jan

OED: Charity - Help or money given voluntarily to those in need.

QED: If it is not voluntary, it is not charity.

Jan, having fun with letters

Just think of the money you would have to give to truly needy people if you didn't have to pay redistributive taxes! Charity should be individual, not governmental, as I'm sure you know.

Unfortunately, lassaize faire politicians used a rational like that to prevent anyone from aiding the Irish during the potato famine of 1845. I am generally a fan of everything about lassaize faire (except its spelling), but when someone is starving to death - feed them, do not lecture them.

The problem is that we are not handing out MRE's. If that was all that Federal Aid consisted of, we would not have a problem.

Jan

That's been proposed and was determined to be dehumanizing. I guess if you're a full time looter, work would be seen as dehumanizing.

If people don't have any skin in something, it has less value to them and they won't value or take care of it. They'll just expect more.

They used to not exist in the US...thank Jimmy Carter for that one.

Yes, I know. That's one reason what I proposed appeals to me. I believe that government unions are unjustified.

I had a friend of mine complaining of bird poop on his porch. He asked me the best way to get rid of it. I told him the first thing I'd do is get rid of the bird feeder.

Only one problem Ranter...

The government unions would be up in arms at having their turf infringed on two fronts -

1 - Their position is that those jobs be filled by dues paying union members

2. Actual labor being done risks ending whatever project and thereby endangering their own job security.