» Conned

street people
never bothered to post before but some of these answers have really got my goat.
just to redress the balance a bit, i busk (badly) in the street for my income right now because i live in an area where the only jobs available are of the middle management/office type and as i combine the two qualities of being highly overqualified for low-end jobs but having no workplace experience since my teens due to being signed off sick for years, i simply cant find any work at all. so i play my guitar in the street with my dog on a bit of string. i often get comments of the "i bet your really rich, bet you live in a palace" type. not to mention the people who kind heartedly buy me dog food (usually tinned food which makes my dog sick) or greggs pasties (im vegan) because if they give me any money i will of course spend it all on crack and starve my dog.not that im ungrateful, its the implicit assumption i object to. so to set the record stright, i live in a 20 year old caravan in a field,not a palace. if i want to keep warm i have to go out and collect wood for my stove, if i want to poo i have to go and dig a hole, and i get a large percentage of my food out of skips. dont get me wrong, i love my lifestyle, my time is my own, its incredibly cheap, environmentally sound, and the world is my backyard but its not an easy ride.
for every smackhead and scam artist there are loads of others like me who struggle to find work in todays competitive job market. the prejudice in some of the QOTW answers to this question would be unacceptable if it was aimed at a racial or religious group of people.
one more thing, would you rather someone asked for your money or went out robbing people? you dont have to give anything to beggars but you dont get a say if you get mugged and lets face it the war on drugs aint gonna be won any time soon, addicts are a fact of modern life. sorry to rant, just couldnt let it lie.
(Wed 24th Oct 2007, 13:39, More)