Beggars make more than you think. (I contemplate a career change)

An article on how American beggars are coining it in the States got me thinking about the merits of life on the streets.

Sure, compared to the sunny beaches of Malibu, cold and rainy London is not prime real estate for beggars. But once I heard how much these guys coin in on an average day, I can’t deny that I wasn’t tempted to go out and get a mangy dog, filthy blanket to sit on and cardboard with a badly-spelled , heart-wrenching message like: “No job, no food, 5 kids, useles husband” or “Plese give spare change, my dog is also hungry. God bles.”

But back to the facts. In a report commissioned in the American state of Washington, it was found that street beggars or “panhandlers” in the US can earn between $30 to $40 an hour (that’s about £28!)

This hourly ‘wage’ is twice the hourly wage of the average American worker, which is about $19 an hour.

The study also found that most street beggars are not actually homeless. However, they do frequently suffer from substance abuse problems, often have criminal records and rarely have (traditional) employment.

So while no-one can dispute the fact that life on the streets can be very hairy, it can’t be too bad if you spend your day just sitting around holding your cardboard message, bringing in roughly £224 on an average 8-hour day, and then going home to a well-deserved dose of drugs.

Not to mention the fantastic tan you get to show off to us office slaves, and the never-ending supply of new and interesting  people you get to meet.

Instead of feeling sorry for these beggars for having no job, I can’t help but wonder if they don’t feel sorry for us slaving away, day after day…

Peaches Geldof – not so sweet?

OK, so if you are born with famous papers,in the limelight most of your life, and have a name like Peaches Honeyblossom Michelle Charlotte Angel Vanessa Geldof, there are bound to be some problems. Right? Oh yes!

Well, seems she has them, right down to the speculation that she’s on drugs. You’d think, that after her mum died of a drug overdose, she’d be really against them? Aparrently not.

They say  that where there’s smoke there’s fire, so I’m guessing the drugs thing may be right, after all 50 tabloids can’t be wrong.

Where is her Dad in all of this ? Is he too busy saving the third world from poverty that he’s missing saving his child from possible grave consequences of her  actions? Maybe it’s tough love, maybe he’s letting her run the course and he’ll mop up the mess in the end. I don’t know what the answer is when you have a child off the rails – so to speak – but I know that no action is a tough thing for a parent.

I think Peaches should also become a relaxed Bingo player – she’ll have much more fun, and we don’t need drugs to do it!