Certainly from a point of sentiment and my personal observation - the overall premise of this story is true. However, this article fails miserable in making the very easy case. Out of the gate the writer gives a fair warning that they are going to provide a weak argument for a good case - by describing the proceeds of panhandling as earnings. The writer uses anecdotes that (possibly after massive editing) seem almost inane. The article begins with the cheeseburger anecdote and ... More »

This is an interesting and well researched story of social values across the income spectrum, using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It combines statistics and anecdotal stories. Informative . I would have liked a link to the data itself. (The BLS says they track neither poverty or income.) The submitted reader comments are interesting, indicating disbelief and dissing the poor as leeches on society. Perhaps many of the rich are the leeches.

This is good quality journalism. It is concise, incisive, to-the-point, and informative. More importantly, it kept this reader reading to the conclusion.

Superficial. There really are no real statistics on this.