By giving money to an addict panhandler, you’re basically handing them their drug of choice. They’ll buy booze or drugs first and then use anything left over for food. Anyone giving money to an addict is deluding themselves if they think they’re helping. You might as well have given him a bottle of booze or a bag of crack. It’s essentially the same thing.
I disagree. We all have choices, we all have free will and we are all responsible for those choices. If I give an addict panhandler a buck I do it in the spirit of service to another human being, once again, the act being about the person I want to be, not who I think the other person should be or what that person should be doing. That said, when I do give money to a panhandler I believe to be an addict, I also give them an NA schedule and let them know there is another way to live. What they choose to do with that dollar is entirely up to them and I have no say in the matter.
I think this is the reason not to give money to panhandlers.
I think this is a reason for YOU not to give money to panhandlers or do you propose to make choices for the rest of us as well?
You’ve mentioned a few times now that you live in NYC, and now you’re admitting that all the panhandlers you’ve personally encountered behave more or less reasonably. Pray tell, how much of your experience predates Mayor Giuliani’s much-criticized (at the time) efforts to “clean up” the City?
Not everything is bigger and badder in the Big Apple, and not every city regulates the behavior of street people as tightly. I’ve visited or lived in several cities where beggars will confront you and follow you down the street until you tell them in no uncertain terms to buzz off.
I generally choose not to give money to beggars, but I do so without any of the moral judgment you impute. A quick “no” without breaking stride usually suffices. If you choose to give, that doesn’t bother me in the slightest, especially since you seem to live someplace where doing so does not encourage bad behavior.
Nope. Even back then, we knew that there WAS no magic pill, magic drug, that would get us high without consequences. If someone held you down and forced you to take enough coke (or whatever) until you became addicted, then yeah, I’d have some sympathy. Otherwise, no. You did something stupid. You more than likely knew it at the time, but wanted to believe in the magic powder.
And it’s not just you, an anonymous person on a message board. One of my husband’s sisters will drink, snort, or inject anything she can get her hands on. We’ve given her emotional and monetary support for a long time. But she’s not interested in getting clean. She’s just interested in getting high, and she’ll beg for money from her family and from complete strangers in order to get high. We’ll feed her, we’ll buy her groceries, we’ll lend an ear. But we won’t give her any more money. WE can’t change her. SHE has to want to change. No amount of effort on our part will make any difference to her. And it’s the same with random beggars who accost people on the street. Giving them money will just enable them to continue with their self destructive lifestyle. Now, if you’re comfortable with buying someone their next fix, there’s not a lot that I can say that will change your mind. On the other hand, there’s not a lot that you can say that will change my mind.
I think you missed filmore’s point which is that good intentions are a delusion of purpose. It’s a process of logic.
On the positive side your donation “might” help the person. At best, a direct donation will be used inefficiently in the purchase of retail products and services (versus the wholesale purchase power of a shelter).
On the negative side:
It could be paid to a professional beggar and thus not reaching the needy.
It could harm the person by enabling drugs.
It encourages the behavior and draws potentially dangerous people into the area.
It harms businesses.
It creates public health hazards and degrades communities with trash and human waste.
If the intent is to help the homeless than it’s wasteful to donate money directly. Money donated to a shelter will go further (wholesale purchasing power) and it will do so without the problems associated with financially enabled behavior.
Here’s an interesting article regarding the ridiculous amount of loot panhandlers can get away with: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2009/01/26/edm-panhandling-police.html
according to the article some of the panhandlers are making 6 figure incomes. They could afford to pay the $250 fine every day and still make almost $40K a year. All this tax free. Maybe tax evasion should be the focus. FYI, that article is similar to a 60 minute piece (?) where they gave a figure of $300 a day.
If chromaticity had said “everyone” instead of “I” I would agree with Kalhoun but that’s not the case. It’s a fact that some people have been beaten down by life despite their best efforts but would be completely my fault if I – me, personally – became homeless. There are many, many steps between being an employed home-owning woman with modest retirement savings to living on the streets, panhandling for change. (Admittedly, it helps to live in Canada where an illness/accident won’t bankrupt me, to have a relatively good education and work ethic, and to have copious government-assistance programs available to help me help myself.) I’m not counting on the grace of God; I’m counting on my determination to do whatever it takes to look after myself.
Well put, razncain; I heartily concur. If a relative or friend came to me for cash after drinking/snorting/shooting away their job and their home, I’d tell them no for fear of contributing to their downward spiral but offer some other sort of tangible assistance. Therefore, I couldn’t in good conscience help a homeless stranger score their next fix and tell myself I’m doing a good deed; it would feel like helping them dig their own grave.
There are a few homeless people living in the woods by my apartment. One of them is nuttier than squirrel turds. He was waiting at the bus stop when I showed up. He asked for a quarter to make bus fare so I gave him one. We got on the bus and he starts going on about how he won a trillion dollar lawsuit against the government and his family had him committed and stole all the money. The family was paying off the police and lots of other people to kill him which was why he is living in a tent, so they can’t find him. Scared the crap out of me especially since he’s about 6’5" big and crazy, but apparently I’m tallied as a good guy since I helped him out.
There is another one that beats his girlfriend. A neighbor called 911 (and like 8 other people in the surrounding area) when they heard her screaming in the woods. No police showed up in our apartment complex so I grabbed my 5 D-Cell Maglite which doubles nicely as a club (I didn’t want to get shot by police in the dark if I had my rifle with me). I searched the woods for a few minutes and didn’t find anyone. My neighbor called 911 again and it turned out the police went in another way and that the guy was a regular with them.
I’ve lived here 6 years and those are the only two incidents that I’m aware of. They do seem to have a good neighbor policy overall, so i don’t feel like I should give them a bad time.
I have simple rules regarding panhandling that I think work pretty well to help people that need help, and keeps me from getting ripped off. If someone asks for some change in a location that they are likely looking to get service at (bus stop or the like) if I don’t mind helping out. If I have food or change by someplace that has food, I’ll help out if the person looks like they haven’t eaten in a while. I don’t give money to people standing around with signs unless it is really truly original. Like this one. Ones like that are my exception, I reward originality.
I do not buy bullshit stories. A guy told me he ran out of gas and needed gas money to get home,about 30 miles away I asked why the hell did you go on a 60 mile trip with an empty gas tank?
But if a street person is an addict ,panhandling is better than B&Es or robbery to feed the addiction. You lose a little change and he does not smash up a house looking for something that can be turned into cash. It is better.
I give money to anyone who asks, providing I have enough to spare. I do not give if I am alone on a dark street and the asker is male. In those cases, I keep it moving.
I do not take into account if they are ‘bullshitting’. I can tell a bullshitter from a mile away, and I don’t care. I don’t care if they are bullshitting. Who cares? You need crack. You know it and I know it. And I know you are going to get it. You are.
Maybe by selling the kids bike, maybe by breaking in a house, maybe by doing any number of things that will add to your misery before you finally get your fix. But you are going to get it.
Take the dollar, brother.