The secret of 80 cents
There’s been a particularly intriguing thing about all the panhandlers that I’ve encountered in the last week. To be precise, on three different occasions, I was asked if I could spare 80 cents for them. They didn’t say, “spare change?” or “help a brother out…” or any other generic panhandling lines. All three of them specifically asked for 80 cents. Could there be anything special about asking for 80 cents? Did they, either through some social experiment or the years of experience, determine that is the amount that people are most likely willing to give up?
Lucretia was with me when one of them asked us for 80 cents, and her theory was that this person already had a dollar, and having 80 more cents would give them one ride on a CTA plus a transfer ($1.50 + 30 cents). There may be something to that, but I’m still not convinced.
If anybody out there has a clue about this, please let me know.
