Deaf Beggars - A Part of Deaf Culture?

Are Deaf beggars a part of Deaf culture just as American hobos were/are seen as symbolic icons of America's failure? Outcasts among outcasts? Perhaps Deaf beggars represent the culmination of years of discriminations preventing them from getting work in the first place? Any kind of work I ask. Do Deaf beggars fare better than hearing beggars when it comes to eliciting sympathy in order to get money? Is this another entitlement scheme which they think is owed to them?

Note my tongue-in-cheek comments. Please calm down.

Now, what is doubly ironic is to see a Deaf person with a steady job (I am assuming here, maybe he's on SSI?) makes an actual bonafide money pitch by suggesting that a Deaf person could sell Deaf cards to pedestrians and passerby on the streets and make gobs of money by implying one could make upward of $700 dollars on a good day. This isn’t selling Deaf cards. This is all about begging using deafness as an excuse. Who is taking advantage of whom here?

Secondly, to suggest that this would be an "opportunity" says that seeking honest work isn’t important but eliciting sympathies in order to generate money is much more important. So much for misplaced work ethics here. Using deafness as a gimmick to solicit sympathy tells a lot about a person’s own work ethic and honesty.

I seriously doubt that selling Deaf cards helped the few Deaf people “get off the streets” and get better jobs or get a good education. Why would a Deaf beggar abandon his money making ways of upward of $700 dollars a day? That's potentially $3500 a week. Or $14,000 a month which translates into $128,000 a year. Is there such a thing as a professional beggar? Ok. A bit of imagination running wild here. So is suggesting that selling Deaf cards be considered as an "opportunity."

Now, there is nothing wrong with being a janitor, dish washer, burger flipper, a cook, a pizza delivery driver, and so on. But to suggest that begging for money would be better than taking an honest job of any kind, even undesirable ones, is simply irresponsible. I doubt putting down “Beggar” on a job resume would get anybody anywhere.

Granted, some Deaf people do consciously choose this path and become a Deaf beggar either because they are stuck between a rock and hard place or because they wanted to in the first place because they think its an easier way to make money. It is not. But the whole story changes whenever people with steady jobs or are well off suggest begging as an acceptable alternative to get money rather than seek an honest job. Any job. Even if it means washing dishes.

Suppose if one has a skill entertaining people on the streets to earn money for their efforts, would that be called "begging"? Not really since exhibiting certain skills and using them to entertain people show good work ethics. Like a violin player that plays on the street. People would toss money into his/her violin case as an appreciation for good music. Or perhaps a guitar player? How about a juggler? Maybe work as a mime though that'd be a bit of a cliche' around here. Maybe a drum player? A chalk artist? Some kind of a skill where one could *earn* the money rather than to chase after pedestrians and basically harass them into reading Deaf cards in the hope of getting some kind of sympathy out of them which translates into money . Grubby money. Better to get a job of some kind than to debase oneself using that tactic.

Selling Deaf cards is really about begging and harrassing people since the goal is to elicit sympathy and guilt as much as possible from passing pedestrians while using deafness as an excuse and a crutch. This kind of “free enterprise opportunity” is simply a euphemism for “begging.” It's about using deafness to elicit sympathy and guilt by taking advantages of people's gullibility. I suppose Deaf beggars would be better off if they get a stem cell transplant that would cure them of their deafness? Then they wouldn’t use their deafness as an excuse the next time.