Bums! Freaking Bums!

Six months ago we bought our house...on the Houston side of Katy. It's very close to the busiest intersection in the area. I-10 and Fry if you're familiar with the area. Every single day it's like bum central around there. I find it highly annoying that I see the same people out there day in and day out with the same sign. And how do the homeless always seem to have a sharpie?!
A few of my favorites include a middle aged to older man, seems to be in perfectly good health...chain smoking name brand cigarettes on his way to the middle of the road. Then he whips out his sign he stole from a restaurant that paid a lot of money to have those signs made, and with a black marker wrote: "Stranded, anything will help" I think to myself every time I see him, how are you stranded? You clearly don't have a broken down beater on the side of the road, you've been rocking the same sign/ excuse for months now, and how can you afford your habit. You walk so obviously you live close by. My second favorite is the couple, for a sign they have the white side of a children's folder (spider man) with a long sad story about how they are about to be evicted, lost their jobs, and they even have a couple of pictures of their kids on it. Sad! They take turns, sometimes the girl is out there, some times the man. Pretty much every nice day they are out there. I have respect for the less fortunate that are out there selling the Chron. I get that. Good for them for doing something. I have been slowly getting more and more annoyed by the Bums, it seems there are more of them, more often. What bothers me the most is that they stare at you right into your car window like you're a piece of crap for not rolling down your window and giving them your hard earned dough. I'm a firm believer in helping people out, but when your out there everyday for as often and as long as the recently mentioned bums, you have ample time to find a job. I know it's a really bad economy...people fall on hard times, but I also pass about a zillion places that say "We're hiring" within 3 miles of said intersection. In example: Pizza Hut, the car wash, Jack in the Box.
I try not to be a snob, but we've all seen the dateline or whatever showing the "panhandlers" who make 100G's a year doing just that. The radio station was even talking about a website today that someone put out to support a local bum. http://www.ascendgence.com/pimpthisbum/index.aspx yes that's right, you can pay for "stuff" that he wants to go into a trust fund to get him off the streets...you can watch him on the live cam. How freaking nuts is this? It's going too far. The intersection he works is not too far from where I live.
What brought this on? Why is this white girl getting all crazy over something that happens all day in every city? Well...today I'm at a trashy gas station/ post office mailing off a few packages. I walk out to my car and I'm flagged down by two young enough ladies in a NEW as in a 2008 model Tahoe and the driver says to me "Sweetie, can you do me a favor? See we're trying to buy groceries, and I just lost my job..." I being the nice girl that I am, not wanting to get attacked and dragged to the back of a ghetto gas station and killed, I simply say (the truth) "I don't carry cash, sorry!" and continue on. SERIOUSLY?! Did you not just see the car I'm getting into vs. your brand freaking new really expensive gas guzzling environment killing machine? Sell your car, get out there and turn some tricks, I don't care, but how dare you have the gall to ask me for money!? Trash!