Speaking of homeless… my God, man, you’ve sunk to drinking Brasso? Please, take this five dollars!
When I lived in Houston, I saw a guy all the time who had a sign that said “I want beer.” I think I may have given him a buck or two once, because I appreciated the honesty. Although I always wished I had a six pack on me when I drove by, so I could hand him a beer and see his reaction.
Don’t feed the pigeons.
The two or three times I’ve been asked for gas - it was always at the gas station with the car present- I obliged by instructing the pump-guy to give them the gas. They never asked for money. Maybe it was a scam, but I don’t think so.
No one using the term “double sawbuck” is trying to sound “hip”.
Here is an image of a ten-dollar bill from back in the days when the term “sawbuck” was more readily understood.
Note the Federal Reserve seal (the circular-shaped symbol with the letter “B”) to the left of Hamilton’s head. Note further that there are a bunch of tooth-shaped points on the edge. Reflect on how that (at least superficially) resembles the blade from a circular saw. This is why it’s called a “sawbuck”.
Well, anyway, that’s the version I read in L.M. Boyd’s newspaper column back when I was a kid. It fails to address the fact that other denominations of currency carry the same feature, but I always liked it.
OK, so if a guy dressed like a '40s gangster walked up to me and, talking out the side of his mouth, asked for a fin for some gas, I might give it to him. A double sawbuck, though? No way.
I’ve never heard the (circular) saw “buck” explanation. I was informed instead that a [url=http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/images/g05451art01.jpg]sawbuck is an x-shaped frame](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/11/93788893_9476eb02a3.jpg) used by sawyers, and that the Roman numeral for ten is X.
But the x-shaped frame you showed us has two Xes, so a sawbuck should be a $20 bill!
All I know for sure is what I found on this reference site,
…which I found from a sticky posted by a member whom I shall not name, but whose initials are Arnold Winkelried 
You’re an uninformed idiot and I invite you to educate yourself before you speak about things you don’t know about. I don’t presume to know the social policies of Germany but I know for a fact your concept of our social policies have no association with reality; I assume you base your information off of word of mouth or even worse internet message boards like the Straight Dope. Keep in mind most Straight Dopers are anti-capitalist and it’s popular for them to more or less insist that the evil capitalists that run America keep millions of homeless on the streets, if you weren’t such a stupid, stupid, stupid person you’d have the ability to get some information for yourself and you wouldn’t be here making a fool of yourself.
A quick note for anyone who is curious: the United States spends upwards of $90,000 in housing per homeless person in the country ($67.5 billion as of 2009.) That doesn’t count many other forms of social service spending. Of course, many of the homeless are homeless because they don’t take advantage of the billions of dollars the government spends subsidizing low income housing.
Not much related to the OP but what the heck its a funny outa gas story.
I had an old embarrassingly junky car that was fine mechanically except the gas gauge did not work. Once on a long distance weekend drive in Alabama I was cutting it close trying to reach the next exit on the interstate to get gas. There was a long uphill stretch right before where I wanted to exit and get more gas (I could calculate my range pretty well). I ran outa gas right before I crested the hill and woulda certainly made it to the exit at the base of the hill.
So, there I am outa gas on the interstate, quite embarassed at my stupidity. A State trooper comes along. Being so very embarrassed I have to embellish the story and claim I had just worked on the fuel pump earlier in the week and a hose had come loose…blah blah blah…I was lucky the car didnt catch fire I tells ya!
He gives me a ride just a mile or so down and back to get more gas. Thanks Mr. State Trooper !
Well, literally the very next weekend I do the same damn thing again at the same damn place! Thank the gods somebody else came along this time to help me out 
People that say to beggars, “If you are indeed hungry, my good man, then you shall agree to dine with me and my family this eve. Or, failing that, I shall purchase some curds and whey and you shall consume them in my presence! HaHA! You see, you haven’t outfoxed me, you old rascal! I am far too clever to fall for your spun yarns!” just annoy the hell out of me.
Give it a rest. Just give the miserable sap a buck or two and let him get his wild irish rose. Geez.
I kinda have to side with Constanze here, to a point. In the late 1990’s I worked in the Pentagon and lived in Arlington, VA. I had a cousin that lived just over the MD State line and worked in DC. She was happy that I was back in the US and for the first few months that I was there I stayed with her in her house and commuted to work with her. (I was stationed at the pentagon which has its own Metro Stop). She commented…and correctly, IMHO, that I was too giving since I would give every beggar that approached me my spare change.
It got to the point that I was actually hurting myself moneywise, because I fell for every sob story some random person gave me.
I noticed that even in a crowd beggars seemed to target me. Maybe its imagination, maybe I have a “sucker” face or just an appearance that makes people think I’ll give them money. No matter the reason it got old fast. I made it a personal rule to not give money to people in the street on their word because I don’t know if they are lying, I’m not rich by any means and most of them ARE probably lying. YMMV but a few situations turned me to that direction.
[ul]
[li]Shortly after I got married, I was waiting for a guy that had sold me a car. He was a legit car dealer, and I had the car already…I had forgotten to sign the check! He offered to drive to a location near the national mall for me to sign it instead of having me drive all the way to him. So I’m sitting on a bench in uniform waiting for him. A guy comes up to me carrying a bike with one wheel. He was at leasty 40 years old and he gives me a song and dance about how he is a bike messenger and his bike lost a wheel. He needs a few bucks to take the Metro back to his boss. It was an obvious scam. (you may have had to have been there, but this guy was no messenger, trust me) I ask him why he doesn’t call his boss. He tells me some cock and bull which I don’t remember and I tell him, “Sorry, I can’t help you.” He then calls me everything but a child of God and walks off.[/li][li]A woman runs up to me at a gas station and starts begging for money. She claims her sister just threw her out and she has nowhere to go. Again, you may have had to have been there, but she was on something, maybe crack. I don’t know, don’t care. I offered to buy her some food in the station, but she wanted cash. I told her to go away. A friend of mine was with me and gave her a few bucks. Sucker. [/li][li]This was a doozy. When my wife got out of the army and we lived in Arlington she worked in the evenings. We only had one car then, so I took a bus to the Pentagon and back, she drove to work before I got home on work days. The bus stopped in front of a 7-11 a short distance from where I lived. I got off of the bus on a friday and went to the 7-11 to get some brewskis before I went home. theres a guy in front of it that says to me as I go in “Hey, brother, let me talk to you when you come out”…which translates into “I want your change”. I come out, and this guy is all in my face, telling me how he has to get back to DC, but doesn’t have bus fare. He needs 3 bucks to get enough fare to get home. But the bus was only about $1.50 or so to get to the Pentagon where you could a transfer on the metro to get back to DC. I mention that and he tells me he can’t take the Metro because it passes through the potomac and he has a fear of water. Yeah, well, the only way to DC rom Arlington involves passing the potomac! I tell him no and leave. The VERY NEXT DAY, which was a saturday I’m in civilian clothes. I go the the 7-11 in the afternoon and this guy is there again. He tells me the exact same story as if he has rehearsed it. I ask him “Don’t you remember saying this yesterday to me?” He says he’s never seen me before. Then I tell him, *“Yes you have. Green uniform, briefcase, no sunglasses…yesterday around this time.” *He walks a few feet away and won’t look at me…obviously perturbed that his scam did not work.[/li][li]Adding: A week or so later I’m leaving work, waiting for the bus. A female captain I knew passed me in her car and asked “Sergeant, do you need a ride? I believe you live on my way home, I’d be glad to give you a ride.” It was pouring down rain, so I accept. Now this captain, while pretty IMO, had a short haircut, kinda butch looking, but hey…and she wants to stop at the same 7-11 near my home so I go in with her. The SAME guy is there and says THE SAME thing about wanting to talk whe we come out. (This guy was D-U-M-B…I mean, he doesn’t recognize me, still?) We come out and he tells the captain THE SAME FREAKING STORY he told me before. She goes off on him pointing out the holes in it, and the fact that there was a giant “Help Wanted” sign in the window of the store. He then says “You need to calm down, Sir” which sets the captain off more. I understand. She may have had a butch haircut, but that was the extent of it. Besides, the boobs kinda let ya know she a woman. The manager of the 7-11 finally came outside and shooed the guy away. [/li]
[/ul]
As for the gas thing, I had had a guy in a freaking nice BMW try to bum fuel coupons off of me in Stuttgart, Germany. Why anyone that could afford a car like that had no money for gas is beyond me. (its illegal to give or sell fuel coupons so I refused.)
I may sound like a jerk, but I give money to charity. I refuse to hand it out to beggars though unless its an extreme situation. As in, I can tell the person needs immediate help like a person on a lonely highway with no gas, etc. Am I right all of the time? Maybe not. But I ain’t rich either. I can tell you the last beggar I gave money too. This is no lie, though it sounds cliche’…last July. I pumped some gas at a station a quarter mile from my house. I came back to my car and noticed a guy sitting by a wall. He was there when I went in to the minimart/gas station and he was there when I cam out. He looked at me and said “I won’t lie to you, man. I need a beer and I don’t got enough money for one.”
Shit, I gave him $2.50 just for being honest.*
*While it may not have been a good thing, at least he didn’t lie to me about why he wanted some freebie money. I kinda respected that.
I tend to agree.
You don’t have to give them money. That’s completely your prerogative. But the idea that you need to evaluate the honesty of their request before giving has always struck me as rather bizarre. I’ve found that most people who take this tack tend to be people who wouldn’t give anyway, and who see it as a convenient justification. At least the assholes who respond to beggars by yelling “Get a job” are up-front about their position.
Really ?
I find your position quite bizarre. Especially given that the norm here seems to be that most people who have actually bothered to see whether the person actually needed the money for what they said they did found out they were lieing.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve given change to someone short who just wanted a beer or a smoke. But I can certainly see that many folks certainly dont wanna give their money away for such frivolous shit, and will certainly resent being lied to pay for it to boot.
Many folks also hold quit the IMO reasonable moral position that giving homeless or poor people money for an additction or worthless crap actually does more harm than good as well. Shame on them :rolleyes:
I think that scamming money destroys the trust among citizens that we’d like have. Someday I might run out of gas and not have my wallet with me. It’d be a shame if no one would lend me money or extend credit because they have been burned so many times. People who lie to get money to spend on drugs and alcohol are scum. They make our lives worse in many ways. One recent example from Portland: we have a system by which people can ride public transportation without paying a fare if they are within the core commercial district. Tourists, downtown workers, and shoppers all loved it. Homeless people started abusing the system by using buses and trains as places to sleep or to harass riders. Now the bus portion of fareless square is going away and just the train part is left. So we had a service that was of great use to poor people who actually did something worthwhile in their life like go to school, work, and take care of their families, but that service is going away because of a handful of freeloading scam artists, drug addicts, and drunks.
So do I feel sorry for homeless people? Yes. But I feel more sorry for the rest of us who have to put up with the puke, human excrement, and crime associated with living and working downtown in a city known for its soft touch with the homeless.
Whatever.
If you don’t want to give, don’t give. I couldn’t give a flying fuck. It just seems like more trouble than it’s worth to make it a big detective issue, to try and work out whether the poor schlub who wants your dollar really needs it for gas, or for booze, or for a meal. Especially since we already know, in 99 percent of cases, that the story is probably bullshit.
My life would have to be pretty fucking bereft of meaning for me to take any satisfaction out of catching a panhandler in a lie. But if it’s what floats your boat, more power to ya.
I don’t think anyone’s taking any satisfaction out of “catching them out in a lie”. It’s just that people- like myself- are happy to buy a meal or a cup of coffee for someone who is homeless and needs food or a drink, but aren’t happy to help them get drunk or buy drugs.
It’s the same reason I might choose to donate money to the Salvation Army (to support their good works) but not the Sea Shepherd Foundation (whose methods and parts of their cause I disagree with). I’d be pretty shitty if the Salvation Army told me they were fundraising to help battered women then spent most of the accumulated donations on new BMWs for their managing committee, for example.