I think this is the case at least in NYC... let me lay it down for you.
When I commute to work, every day I see at least 2 folks who claim to be homeless stroll thru the subway, they give a 1 min speech and proceed to stroll on thru and continue onto the next car. I always make an effort to monitor how much change are dumped into their "coffee" cup. Tourists are the most gullible as often I see these folks stuff a dollar bill into that cup sometimes more.
So I did some math, the avg subway has about 10 cars, it takes all but 15-20 mins to get from front to end. And during rush hour another subway is just 5 mins behind, that means these folks go thru at least 2 subways/hour. On avg I see about 1-2 dollars being dumped into the cup and in rare instances a fiver and I've even seen a 10 once. So it's safe to say that these ppl pull in on avg 20 bucks/subway or about 40-50/hour. If you pay careful attention to these people, they take the money out of their cups and put it into their pockets. why? so it looks empy thus giving people reason to be sympathetic in the next car. This is definately over 40k/year.
I can just picture a guy who wakes up in the morning, gets dressed in business attire kisses his wife and kids goodbye, gets into his ferrari drives to his office, puts on his uniform(bum outfit & stench cologne) heads on to the busiest line and starts his day. His job description: Motivational speaker?
edit: I should also mention that during rush hours, you can barely squeeze thru the cars and I'd estimate an avg of 50ish people in each car during off peak on these lines. Also brought to my attention, they can cheat the IRS income reporting hence higher net income & ability to milk the goverments welfare system and other benefits.
Am I being paranoid?
Cliffs:
1. NYC bum strolls thru subways from car to car and gives a heartfelt bum speech
2. Makes avg 2 bucks/car or 20 bucks/subway or about 40-50/hour
3. Worse case scenario = over 50k/year(underestimated)
4. Profits
5. Must read entire post to get a bigger grasp of the idea
When I commute to work, every day I see at least 2 folks who claim to be homeless stroll thru the subway, they give a 1 min speech and proceed to stroll on thru and continue onto the next car. I always make an effort to monitor how much change are dumped into their "coffee" cup. Tourists are the most gullible as often I see these folks stuff a dollar bill into that cup sometimes more.
So I did some math, the avg subway has about 10 cars, it takes all but 15-20 mins to get from front to end. And during rush hour another subway is just 5 mins behind, that means these folks go thru at least 2 subways/hour. On avg I see about 1-2 dollars being dumped into the cup and in rare instances a fiver and I've even seen a 10 once. So it's safe to say that these ppl pull in on avg 20 bucks/subway or about 40-50/hour. If you pay careful attention to these people, they take the money out of their cups and put it into their pockets. why? so it looks empy thus giving people reason to be sympathetic in the next car. This is definately over 40k/year.
I can just picture a guy who wakes up in the morning, gets dressed in business attire kisses his wife and kids goodbye, gets into his ferrari drives to his office, puts on his uniform(bum outfit & stench cologne) heads on to the busiest line and starts his day. His job description: Motivational speaker?
edit: I should also mention that during rush hours, you can barely squeeze thru the cars and I'd estimate an avg of 50ish people in each car during off peak on these lines. Also brought to my attention, they can cheat the IRS income reporting hence higher net income & ability to milk the goverments welfare system and other benefits.
Am I being paranoid?
Cliffs:
1. NYC bum strolls thru subways from car to car and gives a heartfelt bum speech
2. Makes avg 2 bucks/car or 20 bucks/subway or about 40-50/hour
3. Worse case scenario = over 50k/year(underestimated)
4. Profits
5. Must read entire post to get a bigger grasp of the idea
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