Being in New York, I pass a lot of homeless people. Typically the signs say something sad about their lives: “Laid off and hungry. Please help.”
Sometimes people will get more creative and you’ll see things like “Need money for weed.” I saw this a few weeks ago and thought it was clever. Sure, some people won’t want to give them money. But it’ll appeal to lots of people’s tribal sympathies, especially in a liberal place like New York, where people are pretty likely to be pro-marijuana legalization and anti-paternalism about how poor people spend their money. But it seemed like the convention where the sign has to refer to the homeless person’s life was kind of unnecessary. I decided that if I were panhandling, I’d just go all out on the tribal sympathies thing and have a sign saying “FUCK TRUMP” in really big letters.
Guess what I saw walking up Third Avenue today.