But the homeless need your (tax)money!

[derrida]

These kids are a pretty common phenomenon, particularly in some of the trendier districts in NYC.

The summer punk is the suburbanite and/or middle class white kid who decides it'd be a good idea or, at least, punk as fuck to go live on the street for the summer months and beg for change. The kid who wants to taste the "outlaw" life, but do so with the comfort of either an ATM card or daddy's Visa in his or her back pocket.

That they are constantly begging for change yet seem to have an inexhaustible supply of cigarettes makes them easily identifiable. That they claim to be destitute yet have several shiny new piercings makes them even more obvious.

Indeed, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

These kids aren't freeloaders, they're providing a service to the people (usually tourists) who drop a few bills or coins into the proffered Starbucks coffee cups of these urban entrepreneurs; People only give these kids money because it makes them feel good about themselves, and I'd venture to say that it makes them feel even better when the recipient of their benevolent act is a cute, trendy, white kid and not a frightening, middle-aged, and potentially dangerous minority who smells somewhat of urine.