I was having a lunch with a friend last week and after finishing, he decided to give $10 to a homeless man who was begging. I was surprised by his generosity and he told me that he’d been in a rough spot financially and was willing to help out.
I know many people in life who refuse to give money to homeless people/panhandlers in fear that they may be enabling their drug and alcohol use. I’ve always looked at it from the other side and felt that giving them money may prevent them from engaging in criminal activity to feed their habit and in fact Switzerland gives heroin addicts free heroin which is essentially cutting out the middle man and giving them drugs. It drastically reduced crime but some would argue it’s the ultimate form of enabling.