I drove off the interstate south of Lexington, Ky. and always took the same off ramp. In the evenings I saw the same grey breaded, fairly big guy with a sign that said, ‘Vietnam vet, will work for food.’ This was in the late 80’s or very early 90’s, so I thought I would call his bluff. I stopped beside him and said ‘Get in.’
He says, ‘What do you mean?’ I told him I had work for him and would feed him and even throw in a few bucks. He didn’t want any part of this and told me he would lose his spot. I said I see and laughed and rolled on. He did have a good spot.
It’s a well organized profession, that simple. And millions of Americans enable it.