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Yeah, street life is as varied as the rest of life. The young folks on the streets of NYC with those begging signs are voluntary poor, typically druggies who will use the $$ to get high. The Times did a story years ago where a reporter went undercover for a week with the begging homeless & all he ran across were pretty much using the money for crack & booze.
I remember years ago there was a young man on my corner every day talking a mile a minute trying to get coins, a really frazzled drug casualty. One day I had a big bag of empties to bring back for deposit $, probably a couple of dollars, & I offered it to him. The store taking in the cans was right across the street from us - "Oh no man, I don't get involved with them bottles & stuff!" "But the store is right there, there's a few dollars worth of stuff here." "No, man..."
Every once in a while I will see some older lady slowly pushing a grocery cart with all her clothes piled in down the sidewalk with a blank expression, some I've even seen with a small potted plant as if they've just been kicked out of their home & have nowhere to go & no one to go to, very sad.
Stossel - The last I paid attention to him was years ago when he was passionately defending price-gouging for water, ice, generators etc., after Katrina. I guess grossly overcharging poor people who lost almost everything for water & are stranded in the hot sun with no home is a good example of the "free market" & "liberty" for him & his ilk. I suppose those Salvation Army chumps are just clueless when you can profit on the misery of the helpless instead.
In our area, the police partner with social services to try and help those that need some help. We had a family trying to live under a bridge in a residential area and all the neighbors worked hard to try and get them some help. They disappeared before their meeting to arrange housing. Left us wondering what was going on. The police explained that this often happens. They do all they can but often the help is refused. It is not a crime to be crazy and want to live on the street. Adults really cannot be forced to go anywhere unless they have done a criminal act or are a danger to others.
ps: It would have bothered me also. I might have called the police nonemergency number or Adult Protective Services.
It is, if kids are involved. Where was CPS?
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