Panhandling…
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So the woman that handled our paperwork for the car told us an interesting story… 4 weeks ago a guy came into their used dealership sweating and stinking in filthy clothes. He picked out a $8500 used car and gave them $500 in cash to hold it. He then went out to the intersection and began panhandling. He came back in four hours later and paid for the car in cash…
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That would be $33 a minute. Seems unlikely. More than unlikely.
When you shake someone's deep sense of self-worth, leaving a scar in their ego, they will persistently try to diminish you through petty arguments & obsessive captious criticism of your actions, just to soothe the wound.
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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Just telling you what I heard… It’s always possible he had more than the $500 to start with…
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I think everyone's heard a version of that one. It's as old as nightmares and vampires.
Panhandlers are successful con artists by receiving money they didn't earn or deserve. I hate that myself, so this kind of story is good for me, because it vilifies that which I already hate, which is handouts. I can therefore let the parable of the story do my thinking for me, leaving me free to treat every panhandler like the con artists they so obviously are. I can feel righteous about detesting them, turn not helping someone into a virtue (which if you think about it is an amazing feat of rationalization), and double down on my Bootstraps Manifesto, because this is yet another example of how the universe adheres to my worldview.
A certain kind of person loves that story. It's a seminal part of the Conservative Mythos.
Liberals have their own mythology stories, too, which ironically also feature panhandlers. You see a lot of those on LinkedIn, funnily enough, "he was the dog" being a popular parody.
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@copper said in Panhandling…:
@jon-nyc said in Panhandling…:
Seems unlikely.
These are CRT, Ashburn, Loudoun people we're talking about.
They would jump at the chance to drop a few Hamiltons.
Nope. Bought the car in Rockville. These are Bethesda/Potomac people.
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I used to busk for beer money when I was unemployed. We managed to get about 20 pounds an hour when things were going really well. Maybe if I hadn’t brought the sax I’d be a millionaire by now.
I didn’t think my playing was that bad.
I'm no expert, but...
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@doctor-phibes said in Panhandling…:
I used to busk for beer money when I was unemployed.
In college I sold my blood to pay my bar bills.
