This agrees with my personal experience—that most or all human interaction seems to be permeated by status signaling and other social games. I imagine this is true in most social mammals based on the animal behavior stuff I’ve read. I find this to be a great aid in arguing effectively.
I want to write a longer comment tying this to personal observations on effective communication, persuasion, etc. but I’m at work. Also many readers probably already have a lot of similar (and possibly more cogent) thoughts on the topic.
It’s worth pointing out that where I live (a major east coast city) the vast majority of the homeless population seem to have drug, social and/or mental problems, ranging from obviously but mild to incredibly severe. Of course this data is somewhat anecdotal but I have enough friends who are social workers to feel relatively confident about it. There doesn’t seem to be a large class of people making strategic plans to beg based on expected return.
For reference, I don’t give money to beggars (due to concerns about how that money will be used), but I do try to give food to beggars, and I support tax money being used for public health projects. I guess this exposes me as someone who supports interventionist social policies in some cases.