I assume they work to optimize their panhandling profits. A/B testing various looks, locations, signs, and other tactics to get the most money out of people walking by.
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My truck is old, damaged, unwashed (and seldom driven), so the traffic light beggars mostly self-deny since mine is usually the ugliest vehicle at the light.
Earlier this year it was a holiday weekend, IIRC maybe Easter and it might have been the Saturday afternoon after Good Friday. I pull up and recognize the guy in the median from a few times earlier, but this time I'm going to turn left, and pulled up to the red light first in line with the dude right next to me. There's about half a dozen other cars he approaches, and comes back while the light is still red. With the looks of my truck people figure I couldn't afford a better vehicle and I don't blame them. He says "Well I'm doing pretty good today but not like yesterday, that was $900.00".
No way he was lying to me at that time, he was prouly sharing news of his good fortune that he would never tell anyone else.
That was one choice spot.
I hear about this kind of this semi-regularly. It’s crazy to me that simply asking people for money can put someone in the top ~20% of earners. He probably made more than most people giving him money. It throws the incentives all out of whack for being a productive member of society.
I get more judgemental about the people mostly lucking into wealth. Stuff like the gymbro type that land a VP sales role selling stuff that basically sells itself, or relying on all the hardwork of the other people who built the sales tools. Or the small to medium CEOs who act important when they do very little. For example that guy that set a $70k minimum wage at his company but goes around giving paid speeches about it to enrich himself. Even many of the startup people here - you got lucky and picked a winner while there's plenty of others who worked just as hard on equally good ideas that didn't catch the same lucky break/timing. People asking for money and getting it... does it really matter if it's the guy washing your windshield at the light or trying to start up a company that might not do anything for society?