When was the last time you PAID someone for directions? If he were a normal, everyday person, I wouldn’t have given him anything, nor would he have expected anything. Directions are FREELY given in our society – homeless or not, makes zero difference. I only decided to go the extra mile and pay him because hey, why not? No skin off my nose.
Sure, it makes a difference. Perhaps not a single quarter, but if someone else gave him two bits, and other a handful of pennies, and so on…it all adds up. It only takes 10-12 quarters to buy a sandwich…or, most likely in his case, a bottle of cheap wine. Now, if he was hoping for enough for a fix of crystal meth, or some other street drug, then yeah, a quarter isn’t gonna get him far towards his fix, which is probably why he rejected my handout. I’ll be sure to keep that in mind next time.
And if someone gave me a dime out of the blue, without me asking, I’d probably feel bemused, not disrepected. But that’s neither here nor there – he DID ask for change, I gave him some, and he spit on it. Now…tell me again who’s the asshole in this scenario? Because it certainly ain’t the guy who actually bothers to WORK for a living, ya know? :mad:
I did not “throw the money at him” – I tossed it for him to catch, after I got his attention. You know, like you’d toss a beer to someone. Maybe he interpreted it differently, but that’s not my problem. Frankly, it doesn’t matter if I threw it, bounced it, or wiped my ass with it first. The size of the donation shouldn’t matter, either. As long as it’s legal tender, his immediate reaction should have been gratitude, not derision.
As for the cup/box/other receptacle, I don’t think those are in style nowadays. I can’t recall the last time I encountered a panhandler who had anything but a sign or an open palm. (This guy had neither, BTW.)
Well what you said has nothing to do with his post. Why does his saying he thinks the story is bogus mean that he thinks homeless people are paragons of holiness?
At any rate, whether or not the story is bullshit, the OP is an A+ douchebag. That is a fact. Not my opinion.
“Ooh don’t poo-poo a quarter, Frank. A quarter will buy you a steak and kidney pie, a cup of coffee, a slice of cheesecake and a newsreel. With enough change left over to ride the trolley from Battery Park to the polo grounds.” - The Old Man and the Lisa, paraphrased.
You went back. You went out of your way to thank him for giving you directions. You went out of your way to give him a quarter in thanks for him giving you directions. A whole fucking quarter. Where was your gratitude?
I change my opinion a little, knowing the bum did beg for change. Without a receptacle for said begged change, I may also be inclined to toss a quarter or drop a dollar (if I were inclined to give anything at all - which I don’t as a rule anyway). What? Actually hand him change, like with the possibility of touching fingertips to palm? No way.
If I gave him a dollar, would I be less of a douchebag?
If I gave him ten bucks, would that elevate me from douchebagville to merely being a jerkwad?
What is the minimum I should give to avoid being considered an asshole? Fifty bucks? To someone who will most likely spend it on crystal meth?
How am I more of an asshole by giving him ACTUAL MONEY than not giving him anything at all?
Perhaps, next time, I will spit on his shoe and say, “There’s some fresh water, take a shower, you fucking bum!” At least that would be practical, right? I do believe I shall do that next time.
My gratitude is that I was not obligated to give him anything at all. Yeah, maybe I’m selfish in that I did it for myself, hoping for some positive karma or at least a smile and a thank you from some person obviously down on his luck (albeit bad luck probably caused by his own drug habits.) All I wanted was a little ray of sunshine in an otherwise dreary, rainy day, and guess what? It didn’t work.
And stop harping on the “just a quarter” thing. You can still buy a gumball for a quarter, you know. Heck, four quarters will buy you a song on iTunes. It’s not so paltry an amount as you pretend to make it out to be.
Ha. I thought there might be a small chance fuzzypickles wasn’t actually trolling, but I think that last post clinches it.
ETA: man this thread is going fast. The 2nd post back by fuzzypickles now.
Obviously, a homeless person should have responded, “Thank Goodness, only three more quarters will let me make a payment on my credit card and buy another song from iTunes!”
Where is everyone getting this “thinly veiled contempt” from? Try reading my OP again, this time with both of your functioning brain cells, if you can find them.
In fact, that’s precisely what pissed me off. Not only did I give him money, I made the effort to at least partially engage him as a human being, by looking him in the eye and tossing him the coin. Had I merely dropped the coin at his feet, while looking away from him, then yeah, that kind of thing would be worthy of contempt. But even in that case, he should have said thank you. That’s common courtesy, homeless tweaker or not.
