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I read that the average panhandler makes app. $35 a day, but I read this about 9 years ago so it may have gone up. That is better than minimum wage when you take income tax into account, and I bet some would be able to do much better...one of my old friends was able to make $35 in less than an hour by hanging out at a truck stop and asking for a dollar for gas, or change for a phone - but she was female and somewhat attractive.
Beggers do not beg for food - I read an article on street kids, and even without going to shelters one can usually get free food from various fast-food chains who have a policy to give them a taco or something so they will leave. Panhandlers are trying to get money for drugs 99% of the time. If you don't want to support their habit, don't give them money - or buy McDonalds gift certificates to give panhandlers, but they will most likely be refused or discarded.
I have to disagree a bit with the idea that most people on welfare are not making a lifetime career of ripping off the system. Perhaps at any time the majority of people on welfare are doing it temporarily or have some physical or psychiatric problem that prevents them from working, but that sizable minority that stay on it forever are taking more money in the long run than the people who use it to get back on their feet. I know SO many people whose entire families have been receiving checks, housing assistance, or food stamps for years and years - I have bought food stamps before, now they have the Lone Star card which is supposed to cut back on that, but one of my friends recently made some money by letting someone pay him to borrow his card to make about $70 worth of purchases - it pissed him off too, because the lady only gave him $30 and he was supposed to get 50 cents on the dollar.
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