Exit Ramp Quotes

“I believe that panhandling is not ultimately a result of income poverty—that is, a lack of income cannot be the root cause of panhandling, at least not in any long term sense. This is true because panhandling itself, as I discovered, provides an income that can lift one out of poverty.”
― David P. Spears II, Exit Ramp: A Short Case Study of the Profitability of Panhandling

“The ability to make a competitive wage will, according to economic theory, bring in people to panhandle, taking advantage of the high wage opportunity.”
― David P. Spears II, Exit Ramp: A Short Case Study of the Profitability of Panhandling

“From the start, the premise of this experiment was to treat panhandling like a job and compare it against a real job paying at least minimum wage. Can a panhandler earn more than minimum wage? The answer, from my 80 hours of experience, is a resounding yes! At the end of my twelve days, I had earned an average of $11.10 an hour.”
― David P. Spears II, Exit Ramp: A Short Case Study of the Profitability of Panhandling

“There is no clear, obvious answer as to why men donated a little more often than the women did over the course of my study. The minute gap between each gender’s donation numbers matches the general closeness we find in the greater demographics. Again, the problem of having a small sample rears its ugly statistical head. Men leading the donation numbers could again be nothing more than a statistical fluke.”
― David P. Spears II, Exit Ramp: A Short Case Study of the Profitability of Panhandling

“The number of donations given by each category was surprisingly close. 53% of all monetary donations came from males, and 47% came from females.”
― David P. Spears II, Exit Ramp: A Short Case Study of the Profitability of Panhandling

“If this is true, it implies that there is a certain skill set to panhandling. The fact that my daily average wage consistently improved over the first three days also lends some credence to this possibility.”
― David P. Spears II, Exit Ramp: A Short Case Study of the Profitability of Panhandling

“You know, it’s said that an economist is the only professional who sees something working in practice and then seriously wonders if it works in theory.” –Ronald Reagan”
― David P. Spears II, Exit Ramp: A Short Case Study of the Profitability of Panhandling