Posted by Laura Glendinning in Politics on June 10, 2009
I guess it started in the 80’s when airtime on cable had to be filled and was cheap to acquire, so why not fill it with pictures of starving children you could help for 29 cents a day?
And hear we are in 2009, assaulted on all sides, hands outreached for “just a little help.” In my area, some begging is conducted as a profession, with clipboards and uniforms. There are beggars for Third World children, pregnant teens, homeless moms, Girl Scout camping trips and dying children who want a trip to Disneyland. Beggars in L.A., I learned from an LA. Times piece (back when it was a newspaper) had pimps – I mean, managers – who drove them to nice neighborhoods, handed them a sign and then collected most of their takings for the day. Gone are the days when an amusing “Will write ad copy for food” sign netted a guy some bucks. Now it’s all about turning those big brown eyes on a trapped human with discretionary income. Get ‘em where they can’t drive around you, turn the channel or change direction.
Get ‘em at the grocery store. Folks gotta eat, right? And why should they enjoy their few moments of discretionary spending, knowing that the ice cream they bought denied someone that last $4 they needed for their kidney transplant?
My Von’s store has a charity of the month for whom they shill $1 donations added on to your bill. Outside, there is usually someone asking for signatures or donations.
The Whole Foods in the heart of L.A. tops it all. I used to go there very early when our daughter was in a “wake at 5 a.m.” stage. We’d get there before the mendicants and then leave, after getting coffee and leisurely strolling the store, just as they were setting up their tables and clocking in to get the morning bagel/coffee crowd.
At the risk of sounding cranky, let me be cranky about this. I really don’t want to combine my grocery shopping with guilt, as the rest of my life is almost completely combined with guilt. Reading the paper? Should be working. Watching tv? Should be reading a story to my child. Going on a bike ride? Better do those dishes when you get back. Shopping for steak, foie gras and vintage champagne? Well shame on you and please give that guy outside the store $2.
I was oh so happy to read this sign at our local Trader Joe’s, a regional food/wine/veggies and vitamins emporium:
“Out of consideration for our customers, Trader Joe’s does not permit solicitation in front of our stores regardless of the issue. Feel free to ignore any solicitors without feeling any guilt whatsoever.”
Oh. how great. . . until I saw a guy setting his table up next to the sign the other morning. I talked to the manager and he sighed sympathetically and said that he can’t really stop them as long as they are licensed. And the guy was licensed. And deaf. And it was his only means of income as he got a percentage of what he took in.
And he was sincerely appreciative when I gave him a dollar.
#1 by El Jefe Maximo on June 10, 2009 - 6:52 pm
But they get you coming, and going. When donations from the check-out line shanghis and the attended donation stations go down enough, the relevant charities will say that worthy causes are underfunded, and the Washington lobbies will go into action; Right Thinking People will be concerned, and an actress or six will testify — and the groups will get their funding, and we'll pay with taxes.