Boat Bum Panhandlers

[Troubadour52993]

I too was thinking that perhaps the owners had hired a homeless person to wax their boat.

I can't afford to do that, have to do it myself...perhaps I need to get a sign? Full time cruiser or unemployed and homeless, guess it's all what label you want!

[s/v Beth]

Maybe I need a sign "I will work for boattime" but wait, I already do that. How about "Unemployed cruiser- down on his luck. Please help me get back to my boat. Thank you and bless you"

[imagine2frolic]

Begging is a profession, and like any profession. There eager, and enterprising beggars who want to get ahead. Then there are those who just beg long enough to exist.

[imagine2frolic]

The professional beggar is a tax cheat, and a decietful person. The beggar who begs to just exist. Is a lost soul, but there are charities for them. If you give to the charity, and they are honest. The lost soul will most likely recive your money in one way, or another. You can give to them on the street, but you become an enabler.

Enough of saving the world's problems. I need to get back to putting on Imagine's new canvas, and get ready to leave.........i2f

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by imagine2frolic

The professional beggar is a tax cheat, and a decietful person.

Any beggar is a cheat. Anyone, in the western world, with the power to lift an arm has the power to drag themselves to assistance, or even to work. Australians have a word: Bludgers. Its a total insult. I bet you can work out what it means. I've never bludged off my mates.... OK I may have, but would have been told instantly, I KNOW I have never bludged off a stranger.

Mark

[forsailbyowner]

I saw a lady recently setting up for the day. She pulls the a wheel off her shopping cart, then puts a brick underneath it. Of course on the corner facing the road. I wonder how much more she got daily for that gimmick. On a recent stop at jacksonvilles city dock, we were talking to a city worker and she mentioned we lived on our boat. She immediately dug up some pamphlets describing locations of soup kitchens and shelters. Kim and I looked at each other and busted out laughing.

[sww914]

We have a lot of beggars in this town. Pierced tattooed punker hippie kids to the typical old drunk. Sometimes I wonder if they're free. More free than me? I have many many things that I'm required to do each day, week, month, and year that they don't do. Are they more free? Is it worth it? Probably not, but still.
Freedom is what we here on this forum are after I think, freedom and adventure.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by forsailbyowner

On a recent stop at jacksonvilles city dock, we were talking to a city worker and she mentioned we lived on our boat. She immediately dug up some pamphlets describing locations of soup kitchens and shelters. Kim and I looked at each other and busted out laughing.

LOL!

Reminds me of a mate's Father who walked his dog very late every evening (Taupo, NZ) - and started stopping off at a McDonalds for a coffee.

After a week or so of late night visits the manager asked whether he wanted anything to eat - for free!.......turned out the Manager thought he was a down & out Thanked him profusely and declined - but didn't have the heart to tell him that he actually owned a Motel down the road

Nice people the Kiwis

[rover88]

As a real estate appraiser for many I did a lot of work for investors who owned Section 8 housing. Never did I enter one of the government subsidized homes where the renter (who pays about $8 a month and we tax payers make up the rest) did not have nicer furniture, a bigger TV, new computer, cellphones and luxuries and a newish car in the driveway a hard working idiot like me had to put in 55+ hour weeks to afford. Then I stand in line, watch people pay with food stamps and then tote their groceries to a $40,0000 car. Sorta makes one feel like a fool busting his arse and giving 45%+of his income to the government so the freeloaders have a nicer life. Makes your couple with the sign seem a bit amateuristic.

[zeehag]

in laguna beach, they required to be licensed as a business and make over 450 dolla per day ..lol.....

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by zeehag

in laguna beach, they required to be licensed as a business and make over 450 dolla per day ..lol.....

zeehag, can you cite anything supporting your assertion? I'd be interested in reading it.

TaoJones

[SabreKai]

Panhandling to support your cruising. What a marvelous idea!

Just for yuks check out this URL

Upto11.net - Wikipedia Article for Margita Bangova

I first ran into this lady when I started working in downtown Toronto. One of my buddys pointed out the fact that she only twitches when someones looking.

There have been articles about several pan handlers in the Toronto papers. The Shaky Lady is just one of them. There was another one, a young lady who worked some scam for a charitable organization who lived in Hamilton and commuted to Toronto every day in a Mercedes to do her scams. I used to chat with a few of the homeless that hung around Bell Trinity square. One of them, a young fellow, I saw every morning on my walk into work. In the fall he disappeared. Then he was back in the spring. Turns out he went to Phoenix to spend the winter in his condo. He told me he made a good $250-300 a day every day of the week. Never paid a dime in taxes.

So to see a sign like that in a boat, I'd be thinking, scam to support the trip. I'm filing that one away for future reference. It beats smuggling Mexicans into Mexico.

Sabre

[Chief Engineer]

SS "HOPEYCHANGEY"

Originally Posted by rover88

As a real estate appraiser for many I did a lot of work for investors who owned Section 8 housing. Never did I enter one of the government subsidized homes where the renter (who pays about $8 a month and we tax payers make up the rest) did not have nicer furniture, a bigger TV, new computer, cellphones and luxuries and a newish car in the driveway a hard working idiot like me had to put in 55+ hour weeks to afford. Then I stand in line, watch people pay with food stamps and then tote their groceries to a $40,0000 car. Sorta makes one feel like a fool busting his arse and giving 45%+of his income to the government so the freeloaders have a nicer life. Makes your couple with the sign seem a bit amateuristic.

[AK_sailor]

Originally Posted by maxingout

I treat homeless Native Americans in Phoenix, and I haven't met any of them that have money. They are in and out of the homeless shelters depending on the weather. I have noticed a lot of violence against the homeless. I have treated them after they were mugged for the little bit of money that they earned from odd jobs. Being homeless in Phoenix is a high risk situation, and the pay is low to non-existent in the people that I treat.

Anchorage has lots of homeless, many of them Native Alaskans. Most have serious mental or substance abuse issues. A few weeks ago, a homeless man died in a big trash compactor behind a shopping mall. The police think he probably climbed in to stay warm and was crushed when the compactor was turned on. Earlier this year a homeless alcoholic was beaten to death by two teenagers. Anchorage isn't a big town, but we've had 16 found dead since last spring.

I'm a member of a volunteer Search and Rescue team. We are oriented towards wilderness searches, but a few years ago we helped in a major search on the edge of town for two children who disapeared during bitterly cold weather. There is some pretty thick country right on the edge of town, with lots of hiking and running trails. However, for this search were weren't on the trails, we were thrashing through the brush. I was astonished at how many down and out people were living out in the woods, in very skillfully hidden camps. None of the homeless I saw out there had any money. Surviving the winter in Alaska by dumpster diving is pretty rough.

I should mention that the homeless didn't do anything to the kids. They were finally found drowned in a pond near their house, apparently having fallen in and slipped under the ice.

[GordMay]

Speaking of fraudsters, I suppose we might examine the cases of of Bernard Ebbers, Dennis Kozlowski, Kenneth Lay, Bernard Madoff, Sam Israel III, or perhaps Charles Ponzi et al ...