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Comment on Moving away from physical currency has been very detrimental to the homeless industry

So apparently around Los Angeles there’s a supposed begging “cartel”, wherein some of the folks who beg at stoplights and freeway off ramps are actually working for an organized ring. The way it was explained was that this group takes the lionshare of their donations and offer protection, food, and safe sleeping areas. I don’t know how true this is, but I’ve heard it from quite a few unrelated people, one of which being a cop, so either there’s some truth to it or it’s a very elaborate hoax to get people to stop giving beggars money.

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dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
That sounds like an urban legend. The Sherlock Holmes story “The Man With the Twisted Lip” includes a wealthy man who had made his money by begging. The “beggar king” trope goes back further than that, and as far as I can tell it’s just a comfortable fiction to excuse society’s failure to care for its most vulnerable members.

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- scytale@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  It does happen in some third world countries. Not sure for LA though.
  
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ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Not even homeless people can escape landlords

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count_dongulus@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
In India, this kind of thing is very common, especially when the beggars are children.

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- 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  One of the story arcs of Slumdog Millionaire.
  
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spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Pretty sure that it is one of those things that does happen rarely, but people tend to assume everyone is doing it as an excuse to dismiss the homeless problem.

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garbagebagel@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
This is insane peak capitalism. Paying “donations” to an organized group to provide food and shelter is literally just recreating what the government should be doing with taxes. If this cartel is real, it’s just illegal socialism.

As long as they’re not hurting anyone, I’m not against it, but that’s just such a batshit crazy concept that that’s where we’re at with the world.

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corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

lionshare

Lion’s hare? That’s weird.

Did you mean “lion’s share”, but couldn’t write?

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- bobs_monkey@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Eh, call it a boneappletea moment. Lion’s share.
  
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