I really want an answer to this from people who are not reddit-brained libs. I have seen some good points elsewhere about this contributing to a cycle of abuse and control, causing parents to withdraw their kids from school to beg instead, etc., but if someone is desperate enough to humiliate themselves by begging on the street, shouldn’t we give to them? Or should I feel bad that I did give to them?
I always try to give money to people because I was homeless for the better part of a year and most people treat you like dirt.
“Oh, they’re going to just spend it on drugs.” “Yeah that’s what I was going to do with it, who am I to judge?”
Don’t give money to your landlord or corporations they are just going to spend it on rentier capitalism
“Oh, they’re going to just spend it on drugs.” “Yeah that’s what I was going to do with it, who am I to judge?”
I make this argument all the time, usually tailored to the vices of myself/whoever I’m talking to. If I was just gonna spend that on a pack of beer, an oz of weed, some fast food, some electronic toy or video game, who am I to say that those less fortunate should have no respite from reality while I drown in vices? it’s fucking bullshit moralizing that should have no input on whether or not you give to the needy
Yeah that’s what I was going to do with it, who am I to judge?
I like this because it’s not just true but also so out of pocket they don’t know how to respond, but there’s 2 more serious arguments against “tHeY’Re gOiNg tO JuSt sPeNd iT On dRuGs”
-
being homeless is so physically and mentally stressful that turning to drugs is the only way to make it tolerable for many. it’s not just not having money for food, it’s worrying you might get robbed/assaulted/arrested while sleeping (or at any time really), and constantly feeling like shit because you never get decent sleep from all the noise and elements and having to sleep on the ground, as well as not being able to maintain hygiene. any one of these would drive a normal person nuts, but homeless people have to deal with all of it 24/7.
-
drug withdrawal can be genuinely lethal, so even though it’s true that it’s bad for that person to continue using drugs, abruptly stopping might end worse for them.
-
Tax payer money gets spent in the trillions for Israel to drop bombs on homeless people and that’s fine but someone begging for $10 to buy a pack of smokes is a bridge too far.
“Oh, they’re going to just spend it on drugs.” “Yeah that’s what I was going to do with it[.]”
lmao i love saying this, people always get a kick out of it and it’s 100% true
I promise you nobody is making enough money from begging to withdraw their kids from school
These are terrible points
its one of those things that sounds plausible if you’re not familiar with homeless people and don’t think about it too hard but falls apart on any scrutiny.
I guess the idea is that a parent is both garnering more sympathy and covering more ground by having their kids beg with them? but the kids are probably getting food and an education at school if they do go, and the state will at least try to come down on the parents if they don’t, so it really doesn’t make any sense, even if you believe homeless people would do that which, no, they aren’t greedy monsters that don’t care about their kids or anything else but money, that’s capitalists…
I mean children begging with their parents is unfortunately a more common sight than it should be where I live (South Africa), it is something that you will see in poorer countries. It’s more that the kids don’t currently attend school , instead of being withdrawn from school. As of 2021, nearly 1 million kids were not in school over here.
Yes. I don’t donate to charities or ngos. I give money directly to folks who ask for some help. Not 85% admin fees. No advocacy, no outreach, no “we must raise awareness”. Much more efficient. At most venmo or whatever is scraping a few percent.
I’m in the us and i’ve never seen minors panhandling, so i can’t speak to that. I’ve only ever seen adults.
If you don’t have a reason not to (hardship, no cash, etc) then why not ? I’ve never regretted giving money.
If someone asks for help and you’re in a position to help, you help them.
I do. I’ve not seen anyone who isn’t a reddit-brained lib argue you shouldn’t, though I have never gone looking for such arguments, and more than just give them some money when I can, I try to treat them like a human, to say hello, to wish them well, say sorry if I can’t offer them anything that day, etc.
If you had no income and no place to live or even safely keep belongings, wouldn’t you want people to help you out when you asked and not just avert their eyes and pretend you weren’t a fellow human?
I guess if I saw a parent and kids out together on a school day that would set off some alarm bells but I’ve never seen that personally. It seems like a pretty contrived excuse not to help, honestly. Maybe there’s some cycle that could happen if the person is always coming back to you specifically for money but even then… its hard to argue you should do nothing.
liberals hate panhandling because it reminds them how inhumane their vaunted “end of history”, “best possible system” society actually is and forces them to confront it, so they try to justify it by saying that the homeless/desperate are like that because they’re just inherently worse people and that helping them won’t make a difference. They are wrong. individual charity won’t end poverty and homelessness, but it does help the individual, not merely enable them to continue “choosing” to be homeless or whatever nonsense liberals say
The very same people that resort to begging, or even theft to stay afloat, will mostly gladly share generously if they manage to land in an environment where resources aren’t scarce and their very survival doesn’t depend on hoarding and guarding whatever they can get their hands on
A lot of it is tied in to this old calvinist (of course) idea of deserving vs undeserving poor. “Undeserving poor” are poor bc they’re lazy, shiftless, blah blah blah, with the underlying theological brainworms being that god doesn’t love them. Deserving poor have merely been temporarily laid low by circumstance and extending them a helping hand they will return to being a productive member of society!
We’ve all seen the outcome -
plus a lot of “leopards ate my face”/" i’m the only person who deserves help everyone else is a lying cheat"
literally the only reason i keep cash on hand
Yes
Yes
If you have time talk to them too. People won’t even look them in the eye. Everyone I’ve talked to has been pretty nice and grateful for some humanity.
If you got extra cash, why not?
There are no good points against giving homeless money aside from I can’t afford it.
cycle of abuse and control
On this, burn your local landleach’s house and salt their fields. Cycle broken.
causing parents to withdraw their kids from school to beg instead
I can’t imagine why homeless parents would have trouble getting to school and why homeless children may not be motivated to go to school. Aside from the massive stress of being so impoverished that they are begging on the street
Kill the cop in your head. The worst person you will ever meet is going to argue nonstop about not giving them money.
Only if they’re cool and spend it on drugs/alcohol. I ain’t giving money to someone to buy food/clothing, that’s gay.
Yes. I do so when it’s within my means. And I wish them well because it’s not easy being considered an unperson on top of whatever circumstances brought them in that position in the first place.
I do it when I can afford it
I don’t think you should feel bad for giving to people begging. I budget some money for this purpose. But giving money to poor people will not end poverty; ending capitalism will. The bulk of your available time and effort is probably better used fighting for structural solutions. So I don’t think there’s a moral obligation to like, seek out individual homeless people to give money to or something like that, but you are probably obligated to work towards eviction protections and public housing and stuff.
Yes.*
*Unless they’re a veteran.
Oh come now; surely you can at least donate a heavy helping of saliva.Don’t do this; as the person replying to me pointed out, you’d more than likely get innocent people doing this.
lots of homeless people steal valor to either get more donations or because of mental health issues. Please be normal and don’t go around spitting on homeless people or joking about that wtf
Ah, I hadn’t considered that; I assumed actual veterans and didn’t think about this.
