I don’t think I said it wasn’t their fault that they are homeless and begging; it sure as hell isn’t mine. A huge percentage of homeless people are mentally ill; in your worldview, these people also deserve our scorn for losing the genetic lottery? Another huge percentage are addicts of some kind; should they stop drinking/drugging and pull themselves up by their bootstraps? Of course, but that’s much easier said than done. If they could easily stop drinking, I imagine they would have done so before they wound up at rock-bottom. You sound like either someone who has never had a serious problem in his life, or someone who has had a serious problem and worked his way out of it and expects everyone else to be as tough as he is. Either way, your lack of empathy is astonishing.
No, I don’t think that’s the saying I was thinking of. Of course, I can’t remember exactly how it goes, so I’ll drop it.
You really have a penchant for opening your mouth just to change feet don’t you?
What makes you the judge and jury? how can you say these people are worthless scum?
FWIW I’ve holidayed many times in the USA, been approached umpteen times for change and ALWAYS have I given some, heck one time I even gave a homeless guy $20 in Chicago plus a pack of cigarettes.
No skin off my nose pal, If I can help someone less fortunate than myself I’ll do it.
You? I wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire, I would if you weren’t though.
I should have elaborated- anybody with any sort of illness (mental, physical, drug related) or temporarily on the skids, or with kids, or old or crippled, anything like that, should be helped or at the very least, not taunted. But the professionals who approach you, who speak clearly and coherently, are not elderly or infirmed, who walk and talk and seem otherwise normal and able to work, those particular scam artists deserve NOTHING but scorn- they in effect “ruin” it for those with legitimate need. When the same guy hits me up at the gas station twice a week with the same Falling Down-esque sob story not backed up with facts, he’s a scam artist and deserves nothing.
Several posters have opined that true beggars deserve compassion and help and so-called professional scam artist beggars don’t. I have two questions regarding that:
Does anyone have any statistics on the ratio of scam artist beggars versus true beggars? I imagine it’s vanishingly small.
If you can’t tell the difference between the the two, doesn’t it make sense to just give them all the benefit of the doubt and treat them respectfully? (I don’t consider respectful behavior to necessarily include giving them change or any other form of help). If you’ll never know for sure, what’s the point of getting riled up about it? It only hurts yourself and benefits no one.
For me it comes down to honesty- if someone says they need a dollar for wine or crack, I don’t care, I’ll usually give, as long as they’re honest. But those bastards with the rehearsed story about needing gas to get to Bumfuck, and if you give them your address they’ll mail the money back to you, but if you ask them where their car is ala D-Fens, they don’t know, its insulting. Just be honest!
Well, I wasn’t offended by the OP. I’m sorry that Polk Gulch has disappeared as the culture you knew. The end of Ghettoization has also meant the end of unique culture in a lot of ways.
I will generally always give money to anyone who asks for it. In return, I like (but don’t demand) for the panhandlers to talk to me. Usually when I give money to homeless people, I’ll hang around and just talk to them for a while, ask them to tell me their “story.” I think it’s important to talk to everyone in life.
What the the difference? Even if they’re a “scam artist” beggar, they’re still a beggar. I look at it that way. I always give them some cash. No matter what their reason is, the point is that they’ve been reduced to begging for money on the street. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no difference.
I will never give money to panhandlers, I see them every day on the subways. The ones that piss me off are those who will sit right in the middle of a staircase during rush hour, causing a huge logjam of people, and then when you finally get past them they scream at you to give them money, as if being an inconvenience will somehow entice me to give them money.
That said, I would also never be purposefully be rude to someone who justs walks by me and asks for money. Normally I either say nothing or a quick “No, sorry.”
Well, I live in a small city where there are hardly any panhandlers. And the ones here tend to be very non-aggressive and polite. If I lived in a big city where there were people constantly and obnoxiously hitting me up, I think it would be a very different story.
Y’know, this post sort of explains the second you make after it. I wondered why you were so willing to give to folks who (probably about 50% of the time by my wild-ass guess) would spend your money on booze or drugs. But if you hear their life story first, that probably mitigates those odds, or at the very least any reluctance.
Well, it’s not like I would ever say “I’ll give you this money if you tell me your life story first.” It’s more like, I give them the money, then after they thank me, I’ll maybe ask, “where are you from” or some other such open-ended question that gives them an opportunity to talk about something. I’d figure that most panhandlers get very bored sitting around all day without talking to anyone.
We’re having a Dopefest in Costa Mesa this weekend if you can make it…
*DISCLAIMER: The preceding is a joke. It is not intended as a bona fide invitation to chowder to assault 2.5"-what-the-fuck-ever. I do not know if the troll in question is in Southern California, and I seriously doubt that chowder is in any position to to travel to Southern California on a whim in the next five days. IANAL. All rights reserved. May cause drowsiness. Do not operate heavy machinery while using. YMMV.
Incidentally, being retired, an old bugger of 66 with a few quid in the bank due to years of saving plus a bit of luck in the past I could travel to SoCal whenever I wanted.
Matter of fact I’m off to the jolly old US of A on August 23rd, Rhode Island is my destination 'cos I love that state (see username)
The end of Ghettoization has also meant the end of unique culture in a lot of ways.