Beggars

The Z's don't have much to say today. They are watching the birds outside and wishing to chase them- something they only dream about doing back home too.
There are a large number of people begging for money around the city. It is difficult to say what percentage it is, compared to, say New York City, but it is a large number of people. In any case, it is difficult to ignore them. Most people say to just ignore them. There are statements in books and from some people saying that many of the beggars are controlled by some sort of syndicate who get part of whatever money they are able to get. That would be particularly reprehensible. We have generally tried to ignore the beggars, but sometimes that is extremely difficult to do. About a week ago, Jim was waiting for our car to pick him up after he purchased a transformer to use with one of our 110 volt machines when a beggar came up asking for money. At first, he tried to ignore the guy, but then he saw that the guy had no arms! One arm was missing and the other was missing above the elbow. So, it was not possible to think "go get a job". He got a small amount of money. The fellow's story is unknown. He may have been born that way or he may have been in a horrible accident sometime in the past, but his options seem pretty limited here.
In general, labor is so plentiful that it is cheap here. We see people working very hard every day doing manual labor for very little money. The jobs are often dangerous and when they get seriously hurt the consequences seem dire for the whole family. There may only be one person bringing in money.