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 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.
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’m getting the very minimum basic income aid, I’m struggling too so I dont give 🤷
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.
I say, it’s your money, make the choice yourself. I’d rather donate time and money to an org like Food Not Bombs where they can use the same amount of money to help more people. But, let’s face it, I’m too busy these days to find the time to volunteer. So for me, if I have money–and I usually don’t–I’ll give them what I feel like I can.
deleted by creator
I don’t agree with it for two specific reasons, non is a judgement of character or moral failings:
- If you are willing to give a beggar any amount, those dollars would be far more useful in the hands of a good organization whose aim is helping people. Want to feed them? Give them food or donate to the food back. Want to clothe them? Give to a shelter.
- The reality is that these people are likely not capable adults due to a variety of reasons (no judgement). They are not capable making good decisions for their own well-being and giving them money is fueling an unhealthy choice, like short term happiness for long term pain and potentially death.
My belief is that we should mitigate suffering, help them live good lives, and set them up to be contributing members of society, and that isn’t accomplished by randomly giving people money.
Lol yes it is. Most of the population would be mitigated suffering if you just gave them money. Literally money buys happiness until you’re like a millionaire. Get off your high horse and treat these people like humans and not as something less than.
That is generally true, but not in this context. If you are an addict, having $50 doesn’t enable you to improve your life. It just enables you to buy your next fix. I don’t say this to demonize anyone, but the point is that many homeless have mental or physiological issues that make it very hard for them to spend money wisely. Handing out money is slapping a bandaid on the issue or possibly worsening their situation. Chronic homelessness cannot be fixed by a few good natured individual’s pocket change. It requires actual rehabilitation, which is incredibly hard.
This is just putting your own morals and conditions on generosity and also assuming you know what’s best for the homeless person. Yes, I agree we need systemic change to address homelessness but that’s not what this is about. I think we should give without judgement. You’re not gonna give them the whole rehabilitation treatment and society has failed them, who are you to judge if the next fix is or isn’t the best thing for them to cope, minimize their suffering, make it through a hard day or cold night?
This whole conversation wreaks of holier than thou.
Acknowledging crippling dependence != judgement
Do you know how addiction works?
You’re assuming crippling dependency and yes you are making a judgement, it’s your whole reason why you’re not giving money. Yes I know how addiction works I’m 6 years clean from hard drug use and was an addict for about an long.
Addiction is rarely the root cause of homelessness, it’s a byproduct, and it’s something people do to cope with their hard reality. If these people’s society hadn’t failed them they likely wouldn’t be turning to hard drugs to numb the pain of their existence.
Addiction was simply an example of why a homeless person might not be able to handle money reponsibly. It was not an assumption about what made them homeless, nor was it a judgement on their character. I don’t disagree with anything your saying, so I don’t see the problem. And I don’t refuse giving any aid. I just think giving to an organization is more likely to help a person than giving to them directly. Maybe if I was handing out in volumes of $1k it’d be enough to change soneone’s like, but obvioualy most can’t afford to do that.
Furthermore, it’s people operating withing a system that has failed them.
Hypothetically, where everyone is equal and starting on equal foot, giving everyone morem oney likely would benefit most.
But we don’t live in hypothetical land. Those resorting to begging are primarily in a bad state and we’ll down the path of mental instability, chronic homelessness, addiction, physical disabilities, or escaping abuse. They don’t have the education or mental capacity to make the right choices financially and don’t have safety nets to get them on their feet.
Donate money to your local food banks, homeless shelters, or any other non-profit that has a good reputation for assisting those in need.
If someone approaches you asking for money, absolutely under no circumstances should you give it to them. Be sure to say that you do not carry cash to give them. Then if you are feeling that you need to give to them, then offer a meal or buy groceries using a credit card. You’ll find that most of them will decline.
They are using YOUR GUILT to get their next drug fix most of the time. That guilt is artificial and the result of manipulation techniques they are employing against you. It is rather contemptible to be perfectly frank.
I don’t give. I donate to organizations that give, but I don’t give direct. I’m not particularly trusting that it’s going to the right place. I’m not interested in buying you a beer, and I don’t believe the train ticket story, because I’ve heard it a million times.
My wife works with the homeless. She gets them housed. My wife found a dude who shed gotten housed out busking telling people he was homeless. It’s happened more than once.
If you’re going to give to a person, give to an organization.
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.
The issue here isn’t about charity for the less fortunate. Many of the people begging make a decent living (from begging), and moreso than those working shitty service jobs. I don’t want to give money to someone that dresses homeless and puts on an act. I would happily give money to anyone that genuinely doesn’t know where they will sleep next week, or where their next meal is coming from.
The problem is that I’m not in a position to evaluate that. As such, I would rather give money to food banks and the like, since they are in a better position for that.
This is such a bad take. If it’s so profitable why don’t you quit your job and go beg for a living? Someone is asking for help and your response is to question their worthiness or intention?
Someone is asking for help. Help if you can. It’s not easy to get out their and hold a sign belittling yourself and putting your fate in the hands of strangers. Have a little humanity.
My perspective is, if someone is walking around asking for money and I’m not, they probably need it more than I do.
A few things. My policy for all people is that if they ask me for something specific, then I will not give it to them on the spot. Doesn’t matter whether it’s panhandling or selling something or asking for signatures. I don’t like being put on the spot, so I’m going to either research it on my own or follow some policy.
My policy about panhandling is to give money to food charities instead. Not because I think it’s wrong to give them things, but because it makes more sense for me logically and emotionally.
Emotionally first. I don’t get that emotional rush that other people seem to get for giving out money to a needy person, but I do feel a lot of remorse if I think it was a mistake. Sometimes, their response to a donation makes you feel really bad, and you don’t ever get that if you just ignore them.
Logically next. A person without a home cannot buy food as efficiently as even a badly run charity. They don’t have a refrigerator or even a safe place to store food, so they’re forced to buy ready to eat food at several times the cost. Even if I did hand out money to individuals, I wouldn’t do it without a budget. It just makes a lot more sense to give the same money to a charity, instead.
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.
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 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.
