I was born/raised in a poor-ish place in south asia and you are generally trained by your parents to believe that most of the homeless/panhandlers are 'fakers'. This myth was quickly destroyed once I spoke to like 5 of them including some people that worked for me who panhandled in their free time (even when they had a job!). They would quickly lay the math out for you and it becomes clear very quickly that these folks don't do this by choice.

I think the faker argument is simply a story richer folks tell to themselves and their kids to prevent major cognitive dissonance since otherwise how can you justify the INSANE amount of homeless/panhandlers there? Branding these folks as the out-group makes it easy to turn a blind eye. No-one chooses to live 10x worse than the general population, beg and be looked down upon.