Disturbing scene in Santa Monica, CA

[Alan Mendelson]

I just came back from having my wife's auto serviced at a repair shop in Santa Monica, California. Santa Monica is a very wealthy area and it also has a large population of homeless persons.

While the car was being serviced, I walked two blocks down Santa Monica Boulevard, past several high end auto dealerships including an Audi dealership into a well known fast food restaurant. There were several homeless persons asking for handouts.

I entered the restuarant and I ordered a few items and sat down. There were also down-and-out sitting inside, some sipping on cups of water because they could not afford to purchase anything.

I finished my meal. I picked up the tray and started to turn in my seat to locate a trash container. The trash container was behind me, and what I saw really distrubed me.

I saw a homeless person picking through the trash contain inside the restaurant picking our leftovers. And then the man picked out a used cup and I watched him take the used soft drink cup to the soft drink dispenser and fill it.

As I sat there waiting for him to finish, I looked out the window and saw another homeless man going through the outside trash container finding plastic bottles and cans. He smashed them on the ground and put them into a plastic bag. He will recycle them for a few cents each.

I think the whole situation is very sad.

[Rob.Singer]

These are people who have exhausted their super-extended, hyper-valued California unemployment benefits, and as such have long ago been unmotivated to actually go out and find a job. So how do they react? By continuing to go out and look for handouts and freebies of any kind.

When I see these slugs anywhere, I either ignore them or mock them. That's all these lazy assess deserve.

[Alan Mendelson]

I think many if not most of these homeless people have mental disorders that keeps them on the street and prevents them from trying to straighten out their lives or improve them. They all have the same characteristics. Not one of them appears to be "newly unemployed." They appear to be long term unemployed and to be content with what they do. And that is also very sad.

On the ride home from work yesterday I spotted two entrepreneurial panhandlers. Why were they entrepreneurial? Because they got into a yelling match over who had first dibs on a particularly lucrative freeway off ramp.

[redietz]

Out of curiosity, Rob, if the only place that would hire you was a McDonald's, would you work there?

[Alan Mendelson]

Interesting question, redietz. I regret that as a kid I never worked at a fast food restaurant. I think there are important skills that can be learned when you take orders, work a cash register, make eye contact with a customer, discuss ordering options, menu choices, etc. And I had to learn skills like that on my own years later over a period of time when I could have had a crash course working at a fast food restaurant.

[Rob.Singer]

Out of curiosity, Rob, if the only place that would hire you was a McDonald's, would you work there?

Of course I would, and at any age if I needed a job to support myself and/or my family. That's how I was brought up....in a "no one's gonna give it to you" mentality. But the slugs of today--all they want are their "entitlements" to continue to flow. I have no use for these people whether they beg on the streets or are young people who just suck off the system Obama provides for them because he's so minority-sympathetic.