John Stossel has many times in the past taken issue with people he terms “Freeloaders,” even running a segment on ABC’s 20/20 back in 2001 to address the subject. However, in his latest foray into the subject of government welfare, Stossel goes off-topic for Fox Business and directly addresses that the largest recipients of government welfare were not the poor, but in fact the rich, including himself, stating “To be fair, it’s wealthy people who do most of the freeloading: corporate welfare, farm subsidies and I collected federal flood insurance because I had a beach house.”

Another section of the piece was an attack on the homeless, with Stossel proclaiming such things as “I had heard that some people beg for a living and can make big bucks, $80,000 a year in some cases.” Note the key phrase “I had heard” in there. Allegation with little to back it up. Then when it came to his own panhandling in the segment, he claimed “I made at a rate of about $24,000 — tax free. I just did it for a couple hours.” A few hours does not an adequate sample make. If he gained $20 over two and a half hours at a peak traffic point in a strategically placed area, it would indeed be equivalent to getting $24k a year, but what happens when the traffic drops later in the day? To keep up that rate, Stossel would need to continue his $10/hr for 8 hours at a stretch, 7 days a week. Tough to keep up based on generosity alone.