Talk:Begging/Archives/2015

appropriate title/label

Is "begging" the appropriate title/label? The more common modern term is "panhandle" and "begging" is a derogatory term or reference to panhandlers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.54.181.122 (talk) 20:05, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

-- I'd propose deleting the second paragraph in the article about beggars wanting to take minimum wage jobs. It seems to conflict with later accounts in the article such as "In North America, panhandling money is widely reported to support substance abuse and other addictions. For example, outreach workers in downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, surveyed that city's panhandling community and determined that approximately three-quarters use donated money to buy tobacco products while two-thirds buy solvents or alcohol.[20] In Midtown Manhattan, one outreach worker anecdotally commented to the New York Times that substance abuse accounts for 90 percent of panhandling funds." The article appears to be taking a stance on begging from the get go. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 38.110.32.2 (talk) 04:22, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Can you please found something about the history of begging??

Thanks

I got the article started, if anyone can help with the article I'd really appreciate it. During my recent vacation in Chicago I came face to face with begging a few times. It's what led me to get the article started.

• One night I walked about a block from the hotel to the local Walgreens. While I was checking out, a man came up and began asking me for money. The man was getting quite pushy. During the night, a security guard was in the establishment, and the cashier had the security guard remove the man from the store. The guard said it wasn't the first time the man had been a problem, that he was regularly doing this.
• A couple times I was asked if I had any money to spare. I also seen people sitting on the sidewalks asking passerby for donations.
• Another thing that came to mind was that when I was driving near Midway Airport, this man was trying to sell stuff to drivers. He was going up and down in between cars, and darting in and out of traffic. I just remember thinking how incredibly dangerous it was. If I had a cell phone on me, I might have called the police to report it. Not only was the traffic quite heavy, but there were a number of semi trucks on the road. All it would have taken was one wrong move and the man could have been seriously injured or even killed.
• Finally, one time about 15 years ago, a transient came to our farmhouse, and asked if we had any jobs he could do.

I'm sure there's other stories out there on this subject that would be just as interesting, if not more so.

JesseG 04:15, 21 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Believe it or not, not all who beg are homeless or even neccessarily poor and the article should not have made such a claim.

- A very valid point. When I worked in a grocery store a "professional beggar" came in on a daily basis to change his dollar bills in for something larger. He almost always had at least $100. He lived in an apartment, and when it rained he would sometimes call a taxi to take him home.

- The above point is true. There has been at least one major newspaper or news magazine article in the last 20 years that discussed how certain beggars in Washington, DC were actually making a decent living from begging daily, probably more than they could make at a minimum wage job.TheBlinkster (talk) 11:27, 3 May 2015 (UTC)

- Also, along similar lines, historically there has been at least one time in recent history (the 1960s) when large numbers of young people chose to beg as a lifestyle choice, rejecting the idea of a "straight job" although jobs were available, as part of dropping out of society or fostering the idea that people should just share resources. There are articles, documentaries, etc. out there supporting this and I understand it occurred in many countries in North America and Europe. However, this part of history is missing from the article. TheBlinkster (talk) 11:27, 3 May 2015 (UTC)

Comment on Agressive Panhandling merger

"Agressive Panhandling" is/should be about legal restrictions to begging/soliciting around the cities and states (a U.S. specific term?) in present time. "Begging" is/should be about general practices, philosophy, history, and attitudes -historically through present. Therefore, keep them separate as they are. 108.213.76.24 (talk) 13:49, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

• I support a merge. These are phenonmena within the same scope. The information in the AP article should be sprinkled into relevant sections of Begging. AP would just be handled in the section of Begging which deals with legality and restrictions. AadaamS (talk) 14:46, 18 January 2015 (UTC)

• I support a merge for the following reasons: 1) Substantial overlap between the two areas - a panhandler may have both "aggressive" and "non-aggressive" behavior as legally defined, or his or her behavior may be deemed legally "aggressive" in one place and "non-aggressive" elsewhere. 2) When Wikilinking to the pages, the current setup of 2 separate pages puts the linker in a position of having to decide whether the behavior linked is "aggressive" or not, which can be difficult. For example, I'm trying to link to a page regarding a film about 1960s hippies and their behavior would likely fall a little bit in both categories. It's not really two different things. TheBlinkster (talk) 13:10, 3 May 2015 (UTC)