I am asking because I know people from both sides:
- People who discourage it: usually talk about how the beggars might spend their money on, how they might be lying, How donating to them will encourage them to keep begging and how they should be looking for a job instead (My commentary: finding a job is impossible for them this days, matter of fact there is literally hundreds, if not thousands of articles online talking about how hard and impossible it had become).
- People who encourage it: to be honest here, they usually talk only about religious reasons.
(Note: I know that the overview about both sides are highly unbalanced, but I preferred to keep it limited to my personal experiences rather than expanding it from myself, as I intentionally not looking for theories and objective logic, rather I am looking at people reasons and opinions as this is highly subjective matter.)
Anyone got any thoughts about this?
I give them a fiver and ask them if they need anything else. Saying ‘they might buy something wrong’ is a slippery slope to ‘people shouldn’t get benefits because they might buy beer.’ And I have heard right wing politicians literally say the latter.
I want them to get that fucking beer man. Being homeless sucks. A beer makes it suck less.
“Don’t give that guy money, he’ll just use it to buy drugs”
I’m just going to use it to buy chocolate, fuck does it matter if it’s his addict or mine? At least I still have a house to eat my chocolate in.
People don’t typically eat enough chocolate to die. Where as many “beggars” use the $ to buy drugs which certainly can/does result in ODs.
And you’re going to make the decision based on that and someone who would have gotten food or saved for medicine, or only needed that $5 to get a room night doesn’t get there. I’m not here to police that, all I know is I have, they don’t, and if I have something to give I should.
Not giving someone $5 ultimately won’t do anything to change that. The government needs to implement radical harm reduction policies.
Wrong. Any amount of cash can help someone buy a “fix”. That fix could be fatal. If you don’t believe it, you’re ignorant.
I agree. Some people buying something bad for them doesn’t mean they’re unworthy of the chance to buy food or something else objectively helpful for life.
I had a lady come up to me in the grocery store with her child and ask very quietly in very broken spanish/english to help her buy food for her and her daughter - who looked to be about 2. My first reaction that I acted on was to say sorry and walk away. Then it hit how cold and callous that was. Even if she was a scammer, that is not an easy way to make money. So I found her gave her $20 and walked away. A few minutes later I saw her with a cart and some food with a smile on her face.
My opinion is that if I have a bit of money that I can do without there is someone that could do with it I’ll let them have it. The money may go to a scammer from time to time and I know in the past it has, but if I can help one genuinely needy person I do what I can, not going to let the shit bags (both scammers and politicians) keep me from trying to help
I been on the bottom rung. So I know that kind of living. And because of that I help when I’m able to.
Honestly for me, it’s very hard to trust people who haven’t fallen on hard times. People that have never been in trouble, always feels like they look down on you, and don’t understand the system that keeps people down.
Ive spent a night or two in jail, I’ve been broke as fuck, I’ve had to go without. Until you’ve experienced it, it’s hard to fully understand.
And it’s impossible to explain to people who haven’t lived it.
I try to give a bit of money, reasons like they are going to spend it on *bad thing* aren’t for me to judge or evaluate and people don’t become rich from begging on the streets. There is also a bit of a hope that someone will give me a bit of money if situation will reverse once.
I don’t think it’s necessarily bad to evaluate/judge what they spend it on, but ultimately if that’s your reason for not giving (“bad thing”) then it’s probably just an excuse. I say this to mean I can know they likely will buy liquor and I wish they would buy food instead.
I give homeless people money sometimes knowing they are lying or might not spend it wisely but I reason that they got into that situation through a lot of bad luck so whatever they decide to spend it on is on them. I have a friend who couldn’t believe I’d given money to a homeless person who lied (they had a quite unbelievable story that sounded like a huge lie anyhow). I explained to my friend that them lying doesn’t mean they don’t have a good reason to need money. They’re only doing it out of desperation and clearly need money.
This is the closest to my philosophy. I keep a few $1 bills in my car and hand them out to anyone who asks. I’m not interested in judging whether they look like they need it, or what I think they’ll spend it on. I just want them to know they’re not invisible.
There are some highly publicized cases who do actually get rich from panhandling. However the trick is to understand they are the exceptions and that you can usually distinguish them from actual needy
I once saw a guy searching through the trash for “Pfand” Bottles (German recycling system) that are worth 25 cents. He didn’t ask me for anything, so I gave him 5€.
PS: I could tell that he was genuinely grateful (or at least a great actor) and I had that gut feeling that he is a good guy.
This shows that you have great empathy.
But what if a person came and ask you explicitly for money, will you give them?
Mostly no, especially in big cities, because I would be broke in 30 minutes. If someone tells me they need it for something reasonable and specific and I believe them, maybe, honestly it depends on my mood as well as I am obviously flawed, just like everyone. Also I live paycheck to paycheck myself.
Edit: Thanks btw.
Searching through the trash means they genuinely need the money, and are willing to work for it. That’s worth something.
I won’t help every time, but if someone asks and I’m feeling generous, I usually stop and talk for a few mins and hand them $10-20, no strings attached. I’m not the ethics police and if they buy insulin or liquor doesn’t matter to me as much as them getting the impression that they aren’t invisible and people want to see them prosper. It’s too easy to see myself in their situation for me to be an asshole about it. Most of us are only an accident or bad decision away from homelessness and poverty.
As someone who’s been homeless, I deride the term beggar. Still, It depends, If I have something on me I can part with. A joint, a cigarette sure. Got a fairly annoying allergy that means I often wind up with some food stuff I can’t eat. If I have bills they can have cash. Change is kinda worthless here. If someone looks hungry, I’ll give them something. But there’s so many now in the area, you can’t help everyone.
Just handing them money? No, I don’t. I don’t have much myself.
But I do work in a downtown area near a shelter and see a lot of the same people pass by every day. I’ll give them cold water and extra food if I have it. Certain others I will let go through my scrap metal for stuff they can sell to recyclers, and occasionally I’ll hire someone for the day to help me clean.
I still feel like a dick setting in my air conditioned truck ignoring the person setting outside in 100F+ weather with a “help me” sign.
A lot of them have drug or alcohol problems. I don’t want to fund their self destructive behaviour. I’m more than happy to give money to homeless shelters, food banks and other related charities.
Occasionally I will say “how much more to get some product” followed immediately by “how much ya got”. If they show change in their palm or otherwise engage honestly, I’ll usually top them up. Have your beer dude, if your life is so crummy this is what you need to feel OK go ahead. Never ever ever ever ever ever ever give to somebody that claims they are hungry because that is a bald-faced lie.
But generally the way I give is to check on the addicts in the bus shelter during extreme winter nights, bring them hot/cold water, supplies to plug wind holes and otherwise keep it warmer, plus whatever I salvage in my travels. In summer I maintain the community “ice water” zone which is just at the stump of a tree, but now that all the people in the hood know it’s there, it’s raided continually. I honestly can’t keep up as I just have a tiny freezer but it’s replenished as often as reasonable for me. The community chips in now as well… they’ve started to bring lidded takeout cups and plastic bottles and leave them there so I don’t have to constantly scout containers.
My thinking is that as long as I’m given the choice, I’d rather be scammed out of $20 than fail to help someone who legitimately needs it.
Where I live, there are a lot of people who hold signs on the side of the road and the end of off ramps. I’m a funeral director, and I’ve had to cremate homeless people who got hit doing that. It makes me very anxious to see someone running across traffic to grab a dollar from someone three lanes over.
So that in particular bothers me pretty bad
Loud street beggars - never. They are usually members (or victims) of criminal organizations. Even if they are forced to do it, giving them anything only makes the business profitable for their bosses.
Poor people you know otherwise. Like for example a homeless person in your neighborhood who doesn’t usually ask for anything. Help them if you can, especially with non-monetary support. Food, clothes you don’t need, personal hygiene supplies, etc…
I prefer donating to food banks etc. That’s a good tradeoff between helping people eat and not feeding addiction or encouraging begging. I want a world where anybody struggling just goes to the next food bank and shelter and won’t freeze, won’t go hungry and find assistance to improve his situation. The cost for these things is so little and it helps so much.
Vehemently against it. Far too easy to abuse - there’s been criminal gangs that force people to beg. I’ve even heard of criminal gangs crippling people they traffic to give them visible disabilities to make the begging more effective. Giving money to beggars - even if they’re not being trafficked - still makes begging worthwhile and increases the likelihood it will be made into a gang activity. We need government programs that handle it, or give your money to a charity instead, which makes sure the money goes to effective programs that help people in real need.
But what if the poor person who is asking you for money, is unable to access any help or charity?
I know that the easy answer is to not give any money to beggars and to only give it to charities, but that also has its own set of problems.
They can go to the cops. I get this may not seem ideal to them if they are in fact doing something illegal. And again: giving money to beggars encourages begging -> more human trafficking. It’s a very, very direct causation. I rather not get into that.
My take is that your $5 or whatever isn’t going to really make a difference either way in the grand scheme of things because this issue is systemic and you can’t fix systemic issues as an individual taking a small action.
We have an insanely large issue with meth and heroin addiction where I live and so I’ve become quite jaded on the issue after seeing the results of it for so long. I’d be inclined to give money to someone actually down on their luck but I’m not giving shit to some loudmouth tweaker who’s probably going to come by my house later and steal my kid’s bike or commit identity theft on my elderly neighbors with zero remorse. These types of people are on the streets because they’ve burned every bridge in their life already. Addiction is a mental health issue but that doesn’t absolve everyone from the responsibilities of their actions. Some people can’t help themselves due to disabilities whether physical or mental and these people deserve help, but there’s a good segment of people who just don’t want to give up the life.
