New begging trend that is about to make me punch somebody in the face-

[Thumpalumpacus]

I used to try to be nice to them, but not any more. Now I go out of my way to be an asshole to them and I enjoy it. Sue me.

You fvckin' troll!

 

[SteveGangi]

You fvckin' troll!

and your point is ....

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

and your point is ....

... is that while there may be no honor among thieves, us trolls have to hang together.

 

[SteveGangi]

... is that while there may be no honor among thieves, us trolls have to hang together.

 

[PeteK]

Just tell them you'd like to talk to them about Jesus for a few hours and then you will buy them gas. Matter of fact, if you want to get rid of most people, just tell them you'd like to talk to them about Jesus!

 

[waboe]

What, so just because i'm new means I can't have an opinion? I can already tell that you're a bright one...

This dipshit is starting to piss me off!

 

[Caleb]

This has never happened to me. I almost feel a little left out.

 

[RedSkwirrell]

I was in 'Vegas two years ago (thankfully I can now say I've seen it and never have to go back!).
It was my first (and only) experience of the godawful place.
So, I was very green about this practice:-
I innocently watched a guy spin some BS on a tourist (no idea where she was from) about how he'd lost his job and needed money for food for his family.
Even green as I was, I watched with some disbelief as he got ten bucks out of her.
With no hint of guilt he walked six feet into the nearest hotel doorway.
He put it in the nearest machine to the door, in full sight of her, then came out and moved on to somebody else.
He'd done it so often that what he was doing simply didn't register on his conscience.
That isn't begging.
It's theft!
And it should be dealt with in the same way.
These people (con artists, not honest folk who need genuine help) should be removed from society by any means necessary.
Even if they don't take your money, they still put a financial burden on the state and cost you money.

People will eventually wise up but then they'll stop helping folks who may really need the help.
It'll cost them as well.

 

[RedSkwirrell]

Sounds good, i'll check it out. Any other good reads?

Always.
http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/gib...nsfer-dvd-video-blu-ray-music-iphone-5-a.html

 

[Chester Drawers]

one time a thing happened to me at a gas station, hey man, me, my wife, hard times spare some more for food etc...ok ok

I bought him a gallon of milk, and I could tell he was so appreciative, sometimes you get a POS scumbag panhandler, but sometimes, when times are really hard for some people, a little bit can bring their spirits up tremendously!

WOW A car that runs on milk!!

You Yanks think of EVERYTHING.

 

[EasyAce]

I was in 'Vegas two years ago (thankfully I can now say I've seen it and never have to go back!).
It was my first (and only) experience of the godawful place.

I like living here. Maybe it's because I don't live in the heart of the city. (I live about 20 minutes away from the Strip or downtown.)

So, I was very green about this practice:-
I innocently watched a guy spin some BS on a tourist (no idea where she was from) about how he'd lost his job and needed money for food for his family.
Even green as I was, I watched with some disbelief as he got ten bucks out of her.
With no hint of guilt he walked six feet into the nearest hotel doorway.
He put it in the nearest machine to the door, in full sight of her, then came out and moved on to somebody else.
He'd done it so often that what he was doing simply didn't register on his conscience.

Even if you don't live in a place like Las Vegas (I imagine Atlantic City has a similar beggary scenario), you can tell, usually, what a beggar's plan might actually be by where he or she hits you up. If it's next to one of the famous hotel-casinos, you can (should?) assume for the 99 percent part that they're looking to feed a slot machine or a video poker machine. If it's next to a place where they could get food, you're pretty safe in assuming, yes, they really do plan to get some food.

That isn't begging.
It's theft!
And it should be dealt with in the same way.

Not exactly, though I do understand what you're thinking and why. Think about it. Whoever that person was, they didn't exactly hold a gun to that poor tourist's head. (I've got news for you---the tourists aren't even close to the only beggary targets in Vegas!) They spun whatever they spun, with whatever words they used to spin it, and the tourist gave willingly enough. Once that tourist gives willingly enough, it's out of his or her hands.

It's not quite the sort of thing by which, say, someone is talking into making a major, legal investment in one enterprise or another and it turns out to be, say, a classic Ponzi scheme, or an illegal tax shelter, or even an honest enterprise that happened, for various reasons not tied to criminal activity, to go belly up, and there would be legal ramifications and restitutions involved.

As a matter of simple human honesty if I had begged for a few dollars to get some food, get some food is just what I'd do, but that's just me, and thank God I've never been so down on my luck that I had to resort to just that to survive hour to hour until I could get back to work. In simpler terms beggary may be discomfiting, and certainly there are cons working it, but so long as the transaction wasn't forced it isn't theft.

(Though you can't help wondering, in the case of the beggar who got a few dollars with the food for family routine, then dropped it into the nearest slot machine . . . well, what would have happened if the beggar hit a maximum jackpot? )

These people (con artists, not honest folk who need genuine help) should be removed from society by any means necessary.
Even if they don't take your money, they still put a financial burden on the state and cost you money.

People will eventually wise up but then they'll stop helping folks who may really need the help.
It'll cost them as well.

I'm reminded of a passage from an old bellettrist, writing in the mid-1930s:

When the Johnstown flood occurred, social power was immediately mobilized and applied with intelligence and vigour. Its abundance, measured by money alone, was so great that when everything was finally put in order, something like a million dollars remained. If such a catastrophe happened now, not only is social power perhaps too depleted for the like exercise, but the general instinct would be to let the State see to it. Not only has social power atrophied to that extent, but the disposition to exercise it in that particular direction has atrophied with it. If the State has made such matters its business, and has confiscated the social power necessary to deal with them, why, let it deal with them. We can get some kind of rough measure of this general atrophy by our own disposition when approached by a beggar. Two years ago we might have been moved to give him something: today we are moved to refer him to the State's relief-agency. The State has said to society, You are either not exercising enough power to meet the emergency, or are exercising it in what I think is an incompetent way, so I shall confiscate your power, and exercise it to suit myself. Hence when a beggar asks us for a quarter, our instinct is to say that the State has already confiscated our quarter for his benefit, and he should go to the State about it.

---Albert Jay Nock, in Our Enemy, the State (1935).