Easy pickings or hard profession? begging as an economic activity

Abstract

[A]s to outlandish and strange beggars they ought not to be borne with … for all the great rogueries … are done by these. (Martin Luther, Liber Vagatorum, 1528)

[T]he beggar who suns himself by the side of the highway, possesses that security which kings are fighting for. (Adam Smith, A theory of moral sentiments, 1757)

A beggar, looked at realistically, is simply a businessman, getting his living, like other businessmen, in the way that comes to hand. He has not, more than most modern people, sold his honour; he has merely made the mistake of choosing a trade at which it is impossible to grow rich. (George Orwell, Down and out in Paris and London, 1933)

“When I was a kid I run away from the children’s home, ‘cos I didn’t like it, and er, didn’t have no money, so I had to beg for food and stuff like that, and er, then I got into drugs, like, so I had to start begging for drugs; ‘cos … when I got like old enough the DHSS didn’t want to know me [or] give me money ‘cos I was homeless…. I’ve been on the streets since I was about 13…. I hate it … it’s not nice waking up in the morning cold and all that…. [A]ll my rights have been tooken away from me really … ‘cos of the way people treat you. Like, they sort of sweep you under the carpet.” (A 36-year-old London beggar, 1997)