Not Raptured - Please Help
May. 22nd, 2011 09:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scott_sanfordIn my city shabbily dressed people can often be seen standing at street corners holding carboard signs, apparently as an alternative to panhandling from pedestrians. For a long time my friends and I have wondered how practical this really is. So I finally ran the experiment.
On Saturday May 21st - the day of the Rapture, as you may remember - I took apart an old pizza box and made up a sign reading Not Raptured - Please Help. Real homeless people probaby don't use Copic markers for this. Dressed in rather less than my best clothes I set out to find an appropriate street corner.
Timeline of the experiment
Chronologically ordered; you can skip this.
My first corner choice was unproductive but educational, as I was able to observe a professional sign holder at work nearby. He collected at least two handouts over twenty minutes with an uninteresting sign; people smiled at my joke sign but gave nothing.
Moving on, I found another spot where I could be on the driver's side of the street; this also had a professional working another corner, but the geometry was such that I couldn't observe him as easily so I can't say how much attention he was getting. This was a fun site that got me many smiles, and the first camera phone shot.
It didn't yield any money however. Discovering that the bum from my very first corner had disappeared, I thought I'd try his spot, but I hardly had time to set up before he returned, irate and ready to defend his territory. Not having any interest in tangling with the local wildlife, I moved on.
Eventually I found a promising looking site near a freeway off-ramp where I could also watch two other entrepeneurs. One guy was standing on a median holding a sign to folks coming off the freeway while another man was washing windshields for (or at) motorists on another street. This let me observe others while holding my sign, so I set up shop. This was a good corner for traffic in both directions, so I took the unused site of the three candidates, on Broadway going towards downtown. It paid off too, with my first donation; I got some quarters from a nice guy in an SUV. Hooray!
Working this site let me show off my sign but probably wouldn't pay for a professional. The windshield-washer packed it in not long after I got there. I tried his site but liked the traffic on Broadway better. This had good population density.
About 5:00 the guy working the off-ramp got picked up (by a guy in a PT Cruiser. Relevant?). It wasn't at all clear if he'd had any luck there but I decided to give it a try. Less than 15 minutes later I was given a dollar bill - actual paper money! This turned out to be the only worthwhile site tried the whole day, and a good demonstration of why sign holders don't move around once they find a location. The stoplight timing also kept a better (for me) percentage of the drivers halted nearby.
I held out for only 90 minutes at this site and packed it in at 6:30, on the grounds that it was getting late relative to the rest of my schedule. However, this was by far the most productive of the locations I tried.
Note that I spent much more time moving around than an experienced sign holder would do. The professionals do not move once they find an acceptable site. Time in transit is time not spent holding the sign (a real opportunity cost, there), and probably have a good idea which corners are suitable for their purposes. I, coming in de novo, had to explore the area and figure out what to look for from first principles.
Public reaction
Do people read the signs? Apparently so! I got a lot of reactions to Not Raptured - Please Help through the day, with people grinning back at me, laughing, waving, and so on. At least three people pointed cameras at me through the day. I might already be on some humor website.
I also smiled and waved to people as I caught their attention. This may be out of character for a sign holder; most seem to simply stand in place listlessly. How this affected my take I can't guess.
Women are more likely to make eye contact, smile, and/or wave than men. I don't know if this is an absolute that women are more expressive or if it's relative to the circumstance. I'm a reasonably presentable guy but I certainly don't have women falling all over me normally, and I can't imagine that 'holds sign beside road' is what most women are looking for. (Whole libraries could be written about women making Disasterous Romantic Choices. What do I know?) Then again, by the standards of sign holding bums I'm freaking Fabio, so it might have been obvious that I was a guy out doing something humorous.
I suspected there might be verbal abuse or some such reaction, but the public response was strongly positive. Of course, I had a humorous sign rather than a 'Help I am [broke|homeless|sober] give money' sign, which certainly helped - I'm not at all sure how it affected donations. Does an explict request for money improve the odds? I won't try that. During the afteroon I realized that I could enjoy doing this in the fashion of a busker - I'd give away the entertainment of my joke to anyone who passed by, and any who wanted to give a reciprocal gift were welcome to do so. A begging sign would not be nearly so much fun.
Economics
This is not a great way to make money. But...
The number of people who are seen holding signs at street corners suggests that it can't be all that useless an activity. From an economics standpoint, I think two considerations hold. First, that sign holding has almost no opportunity cost; if you were going to do nothing productive with your day anyhow, you might as well stand around with a piece of cardboard. Secondly, it's quite reasonable if you have little or no use for cash beyond the purchase of beer. Those of us who enjoy luxuries such as internet access and running water may feel differently.
Even given a productive location won't yield the kind of money you'd make out in Real Life. If you're smart enough, sane enough, and detoxified enough to flip burgers, you're better off doing that. (Let me note that there are folks who don't meet those criteria - and those factors tend to cluster. We have stupid crazy drunk people in the world.) This is probably the only time I'll suggest anyone get a McJob, but there you go.
Location, location, location
This is critical. Most corners aren't worth looking at, and marginal sites pay much less than optimal ones. The territoriality of the professional sign holder is fully justified. When the difference between corners is the difference between having one beer and getting completely drunk (and your life revolves around alcohol), there are strong rewards for winning this competition.
A really good experiment will reveal something the performer didn't expect, and I got a few lessons. It's useful to be on the driver's side of the street, for obvious reasons - therefore one-way streets are to be preferred for the sign-holding transient. Conventional two-way streets do not reward this behaviour nearly as much. Busy one-way streets eventually intersect other busy streets - and where traffic must stop for a fairly long light cycle the sign holder has time to collect donations.
The loot
Does it pay? Very marginally. The take:
Cash donations: $5.37
Other donations: lottery ticket (winner, $1)
food (shrimp & chips from Fred Meyer)
meal coupon (from Sisters of the Road)
Note that I got $1.45 from every other site combined; the $3.92 and non-cash donations were from the highway offramp site, in 90 minutes of standing. The difference between optimal and marginal sites is huge.
Conclusion
God, I'm glad I don't do this for real. But as an experiment and performance art? It was a hoot!
Actually, I kept finding myself with a big 'Darn right it's a joke' smirk on my face, which probably didn't help my contributions any. But standing listlessly with a boring sign would not have been nearly as much fun.
I've got to try this again. Taken seriously it would be horrible, but as a game and experiment it's fun. Now that I've tried it once I'm sure I can do better than last time. The weather forecast is uncertain; if it rains hard today I'll pack it in and next weekend try Will Hold CARDBOARD SIGN For Money...
On Saturday May 21st - the day of the Rapture, as you may remember - I took apart an old pizza box and made up a sign reading Not Raptured - Please Help. Real homeless people probaby don't use Copic markers for this. Dressed in rather less than my best clothes I set out to find an appropriate street corner.
Timeline of the experiment
Chronologically ordered; you can skip this.
My first corner choice was unproductive but educational, as I was able to observe a professional sign holder at work nearby. He collected at least two handouts over twenty minutes with an uninteresting sign; people smiled at my joke sign but gave nothing.
Moving on, I found another spot where I could be on the driver's side of the street; this also had a professional working another corner, but the geometry was such that I couldn't observe him as easily so I can't say how much attention he was getting. This was a fun site that got me many smiles, and the first camera phone shot.
It didn't yield any money however. Discovering that the bum from my very first corner had disappeared, I thought I'd try his spot, but I hardly had time to set up before he returned, irate and ready to defend his territory. Not having any interest in tangling with the local wildlife, I moved on.
Eventually I found a promising looking site near a freeway off-ramp where I could also watch two other entrepeneurs. One guy was standing on a median holding a sign to folks coming off the freeway while another man was washing windshields for (or at) motorists on another street. This let me observe others while holding my sign, so I set up shop. This was a good corner for traffic in both directions, so I took the unused site of the three candidates, on Broadway going towards downtown. It paid off too, with my first donation; I got some quarters from a nice guy in an SUV. Hooray!
Working this site let me show off my sign but probably wouldn't pay for a professional. The windshield-washer packed it in not long after I got there. I tried his site but liked the traffic on Broadway better. This had good population density.
About 5:00 the guy working the off-ramp got picked up (by a guy in a PT Cruiser. Relevant?). It wasn't at all clear if he'd had any luck there but I decided to give it a try. Less than 15 minutes later I was given a dollar bill - actual paper money! This turned out to be the only worthwhile site tried the whole day, and a good demonstration of why sign holders don't move around once they find a location. The stoplight timing also kept a better (for me) percentage of the drivers halted nearby.
I held out for only 90 minutes at this site and packed it in at 6:30, on the grounds that it was getting late relative to the rest of my schedule. However, this was by far the most productive of the locations I tried.
Note that I spent much more time moving around than an experienced sign holder would do. The professionals do not move once they find an acceptable site. Time in transit is time not spent holding the sign (a real opportunity cost, there), and probably have a good idea which corners are suitable for their purposes. I, coming in de novo, had to explore the area and figure out what to look for from first principles.
Public reaction
Do people read the signs? Apparently so! I got a lot of reactions to Not Raptured - Please Help through the day, with people grinning back at me, laughing, waving, and so on. At least three people pointed cameras at me through the day. I might already be on some humor website.
I also smiled and waved to people as I caught their attention. This may be out of character for a sign holder; most seem to simply stand in place listlessly. How this affected my take I can't guess.
Women are more likely to make eye contact, smile, and/or wave than men. I don't know if this is an absolute that women are more expressive or if it's relative to the circumstance. I'm a reasonably presentable guy but I certainly don't have women falling all over me normally, and I can't imagine that 'holds sign beside road' is what most women are looking for. (Whole libraries could be written about women making Disasterous Romantic Choices. What do I know?) Then again, by the standards of sign holding bums I'm freaking Fabio, so it might have been obvious that I was a guy out doing something humorous.
I suspected there might be verbal abuse or some such reaction, but the public response was strongly positive. Of course, I had a humorous sign rather than a 'Help I am [broke|homeless|sober] give money' sign, which certainly helped - I'm not at all sure how it affected donations. Does an explict request for money improve the odds? I won't try that. During the afteroon I realized that I could enjoy doing this in the fashion of a busker - I'd give away the entertainment of my joke to anyone who passed by, and any who wanted to give a reciprocal gift were welcome to do so. A begging sign would not be nearly so much fun.
Economics
This is not a great way to make money. But...
The number of people who are seen holding signs at street corners suggests that it can't be all that useless an activity. From an economics standpoint, I think two considerations hold. First, that sign holding has almost no opportunity cost; if you were going to do nothing productive with your day anyhow, you might as well stand around with a piece of cardboard. Secondly, it's quite reasonable if you have little or no use for cash beyond the purchase of beer. Those of us who enjoy luxuries such as internet access and running water may feel differently.
Even given a productive location won't yield the kind of money you'd make out in Real Life. If you're smart enough, sane enough, and detoxified enough to flip burgers, you're better off doing that. (Let me note that there are folks who don't meet those criteria - and those factors tend to cluster. We have stupid crazy drunk people in the world.) This is probably the only time I'll suggest anyone get a McJob, but there you go.
Location, location, location
This is critical. Most corners aren't worth looking at, and marginal sites pay much less than optimal ones. The territoriality of the professional sign holder is fully justified. When the difference between corners is the difference between having one beer and getting completely drunk (and your life revolves around alcohol), there are strong rewards for winning this competition.
A really good experiment will reveal something the performer didn't expect, and I got a few lessons. It's useful to be on the driver's side of the street, for obvious reasons - therefore one-way streets are to be preferred for the sign-holding transient. Conventional two-way streets do not reward this behaviour nearly as much. Busy one-way streets eventually intersect other busy streets - and where traffic must stop for a fairly long light cycle the sign holder has time to collect donations.
The loot
Does it pay? Very marginally. The take:
Cash donations: $5.37
Other donations: lottery ticket (winner, $1)
food (shrimp & chips from Fred Meyer)
meal coupon (from Sisters of the Road)
Note that I got $1.45 from every other site combined; the $3.92 and non-cash donations were from the highway offramp site, in 90 minutes of standing. The difference between optimal and marginal sites is huge.
Conclusion
God, I'm glad I don't do this for real. But as an experiment and performance art? It was a hoot!
Actually, I kept finding myself with a big 'Darn right it's a joke' smirk on my face, which probably didn't help my contributions any. But standing listlessly with a boring sign would not have been nearly as much fun.
I've got to try this again. Taken seriously it would be horrible, but as a game and experiment it's fun. Now that I've tried it once I'm sure I can do better than last time. The weather forecast is uncertain; if it rains hard today I'll pack it in and next weekend try Will Hold CARDBOARD SIGN For Money...
