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?
You do you, but I can’t imagine it would improve their situation. I also don’t trust people. It sounds horrible but I’ve been taken advantage of before and I won’t let it happen again.
If I had infinite money I would give it all away but my real opinion is a lot more closed-hearted.
I grew up in a drug town in the US and over time my will to help just died.
I knew some people in active addiction and every time we were out they would notice someone begging and say “hey, I know them! I have used with them. They are NOT homeless” or something to that effect.
I have seen people use their kids as props. I have seen people leave the corner and hop in their expensive af vehicle. I have seen people rob whoever stopped to help them. The list goes on and on.
It’s genuinely unsafe to get involved. Sure, most people aren’t like that but I can’t tell the difference and it only takes one. Besides that, if I gave a dollar to everyone who asked, I would have nothing left. I have to worry about me and mine.
Maybe if I grew up in a safer neighborhood I would feel differently but you don’t un-learn survival and I stopped carrying cash all together because of this.
i am poor myself and am fully aware of the assistance options available in my area. sitting on the corner with a sign is not a good solution to poverty. i will happily pay 10$ for a rose or cup of mango slices, but sitting around and guilt tripping money out of people that are just trying to get to work or focus on the road is not an ethical use of peoples time imo, no matter how poor you are.
Policy wise, this has always been my hill to die on. Giving the homeless money directly is my exclusive form of charity. Because I don’t want some capitalist on some bragging rights philanthropy board getting part of my donation as part of their six figure board salary. They’ve done enough.
A large homeless population is a symbol of a failed society’s crimes against itself.
If a society doesn’t exist to take care of its people from the worst off upward at all times, it is without a benevolent point and it’s existence is without worth.
The homeless in the US are the US’s greatest domestic victims, left to die horribly of exposure and
policecapital defense force brutality for the crime of failing to become model exploitation vessels for our robber Barron’s insatiable greed disease.Most of them should have conditionless basic housing, the worst off should be inpatient mental health wards of our society, as they are us whether we hate them or not. But we aren’t willing to pay for that. Even though mass homelessness is not inevitable with good policy and funding.
Worse still, many non wealthy Americans hate them for lowering their… 🤮… Property values. This all goes back go us being a society in name only. We’re more a bunch of exploited, deluded peasants at each other’s throats for robber Baron scraps as they use their media and their captured government for blaming their greatest victims, those people under your local freeways and tent cities, for their avarice fueled malice.
Communism may starve human nature, but capitalism indulges and gluts humanity’s worst, most vile impulses exclusively. It breeds sociopathy as a desirable choice.
And considering the depths our homeless have been brought to by the society that betrayed them, I genuinely do not care if they spend it on food or shelter or alcohol or drugs or whatever will give them even a moment of solace/escape/peace from what we have done to them.
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 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.
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’ve been couch surfing homeless before and that was rough enough. People begging for money have it way tougher. Just because there might possibly be someone who has a house and a car behind for money doesn’t mean it’s a scam, they might also be desperate for money despite having those things.
Begging for money isn’t very lucrative.
If you have the cash and want to help, go ahead and toss that starfish, but if you don’t want to don’t pretend you’re taking the high road.
If they ask and I have it, sure. People will say “I don’t want my money going towards drugs and alcohol” to which I say “who cares?” once you hand it over it’s not yours anymore, let them do with it what they want. Their lives are already shit as is so what do I care if my $2 coin is going to go buy them a beer…oh no a single beer, they’ll get wasted!
Others will say “but you’re just encouraging it” my guy I live in a city of millions not everyone is handing out twonies to homeless people, it’s not going to cause a massive increase in drug use or alcoholism.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
