[JoesBro]

I see beggars around Siam alot around the sky crossings. It has been cleaned up a lot since when I first started coming to Thailand as I believe they are quite unwelcome there. But there are a lot of people crossing there. If they averaged 5 baht per person, they would need one person every 3.6 minutes to give them 5 baht to earn 1000 baht in a 12 hour day. At 10 baht average that would be one person every 7.2 minutes. So maybe 1000 baht is about right but I've seen foreigners deposit much larger amounts in the cups only to come out of MBK later and see the cup with only a few baht in it. Guess it depends a lot on the location.

When my friends are working at jobs that pay 8-10k per month, they are earning 1/3rd of what these beggars are. Granted their job is a lot more dignified but something is wrong when they have college educations and street beggars 1/3rd their age are earning 3 times what they are.

Begging, like every other money making activity, legal or not, has "tricks of the trade". A skilled beggar will actually put some coins in their cup etc when they start to beg -this is called "bait" -people see the few coins and feel more compelled to give than if the cup is empty -the psychology being they feel guilty if others have given and they have not. Large amounts left in a cup etc would have the opposite affect -the beggar has enough already, so I do not need to give. Buskers use the same trick.