They started in Madison, Wisconsin, and have found more sympathetic souls off which to unapologetically leech in the upscale, ultra-liberal southern Oregon town of Ashland, known for its world famous Shakespeare festival. Jason Pancoast and Elizabeth Johnson have got it made. Their kids, essential to the "money for nothing" scam they run, are doing pretty well too.
Pancoast refers to himself and his family as "affluent beggars." "If you’re an affluent beggar you stay in a hotel and eat a continental breakfast," he says.
"It makes it a lot easier to be philosophical about it."...The family has stayed in Ashland since the summer in order for Seth (one of their children) to attend the Waldorf-inspired experimental classes at Willow Wind, part of the Ashland public school system.
"They are a lovely family," says Seth’s teacher, Trisha Mullinnix, who has been working with children for 25 years. "They fill all the needs of the classroom teacher — they are attentive, they come to school on time, they are available to me to talk to them. Seth is loving and happy and well fed and clean. He comes prepared to learn." The family is staying at the Cedarwood Inn in a room with a kitchenette. It costs $243 a week. Johnson and Pancoast are hoping to find something more permanent. According to Pancoast, begging can be lucrative. He claims the family sometimes makes $300 a day asking for money and has made as much as $800. The family also receives $500 a month in food stamps.
But the presence of a well-fed, well-dressed family begging from strangers on the streets does not sit well with some Ashland locals, though none who spoke with the Mail Tribune would allow themselves to be identified.
I'm glad their kids are well fed, and the parents responsive to the school. But they're teaching their kids a rotten lesson in the end, about abusing the perception of need. It says something that no one in the original Medford Mail Tribune story (first link in this post) would allow their full name to be used. Afraid of seeming "not compassionate" enough? Sheesh. This gets to the heart of the matter: enablement borne of liberal guilt. It is the good people of Ashland who are showering the family with an estimated $30,000 to $40,000 a year, even though it's now clear they are also getting food stamps, and more importantly, making no effort to get by on their own.
In this follow-up story from AP, a former mayor and a local housing agency head are quoted by their full names, commenting critically on the family's scam. Apparently, they could qualify for local housing assistance, but only by demonstrating income from a legit job.
It's clear to me that both parents have a bright future in sales; maybe multi-level marketing.
TECHNORATI TAGS: AFFLUENT BEGGARS, ASHLAND, OREGON, JASON PANCOAST, LIBERAL GUILT
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at January 14, 2006 09:26 AM
First of all for being so informed you seem a tad bit naive to suggest that what the paper said we
said was actually representational of our statements concerning our plight . We are offended by your seeming unwillingness to recognize that the colinization of most families on this planet is actually what is the "leech" that feeds this tyranny of rugged individualism
masking the agenda of a global elite dead set on setting up the techno-fascist metaphysical police
state neccesary for it's ultimate goal goal of complete contol over all forms of domesticity.
We believe that within our diaspora from this
spiritually fascist climate we developed the ability to develop perspectives that allowed us to break our socio-economic chains and reinvent our self identification process.And thru having a family on the road we have reclaimated our family's deity from our ancestry who we believe
by practising the way they did put us as individuals in a position of being underlings
and in servitude spiritually to those overlassmen
who represernt the people who have emasculated our families for generations. The parameters of our so called local papers are controlled ststematically by these same folks which is why
the article was framed it was.We have a story
that must really be told even if it's parameters indict the psedo secular civil society we live in
Hopefully in the future we get our oppurtunity.
Wow, he's crazy, too.
Posted by: Sean Gleeson at January 27, 2006 04:11 PMThis is pure comedy.
http://www.affluentbeggars.com
Posted by: lol at January 28, 2006 01:02 AMNothing says "needy" like a $150 stroller.
Posted by: Fausta at January 30, 2006 08:38 AMWow, he has internet access too? I guess that really isn't that hard to come by. This sickens me. He thinks he's free? I really hope people in Ashland read about this and stop dumping money on these worthless POS people. I don't care what they do for their children. While they sit not doing anything and learning big words about philosophies they don't really understand and eating up liberal left wing propoganda they continute to use OTHER people's hard earned money for their life under false premise.
It is not funny, it is not ok, it is disgusting and subhuman in EVERY form. It has been said, "Nice things do not a person make"... this in their case is EXTREMELY TRUE!
I do not wish wrong on any person in the world unless they give me justifiable reason, and after seeing this hard core left wing mooch rant from the person in question I wish all harm and wrong on this person for it is so deserved in more than one way. I pity their children to grow and be so pathetic as this. One that associates affluency with such pathetic servitude to falsitudes.
Blagh. Sickening. They are lucky I don't live in Ashland - as I'm productive enough to have the free time to get them tossed in jail and their children removed from them as should be done. Like I said, they're lucky.
Posted by: adron at February 1, 2006 01:15 PMI live in Medford, OR, about 15 miles from Ashland. After this story was posted in the local paper, there was a huge backlash for this family, as well as every needy person who really needs a little help. Local homeless people are suffering even more due to the lazy, greedy people who take advantage of others.
As far as having them thrown in jail or having their children removed, they technically haven't done anything illegal or that would warrant their children being taken. In fact, they have been investigated by Child Protective Services. The children are always fed well, clothed, go to good schools and have a roof over their heads.