I am asking because I know people from both sides:
- People who discourage it: usually talk about how the beggars might spend their money on, how they might be lying, How donating to them will encourage them to keep begging and how they should be looking for a job instead (My commentary: finding a job is impossible for them this days, matter of fact there is literally hundreds, if not thousands of articles online talking about how hard and impossible it had become).
- People who encourage it: to be honest here, they usually talk only about religious reasons.
(Note: I know that the overview about both sides are highly unbalanced, but I preferred to keep it limited to my personal experiences rather than expanding it from myself, as I intentionally not looking for theories and objective logic, rather I am looking at people reasons and opinions as this is highly subjective matter.)
Anyone got any thoughts about this?
I try to give a bit of money, reasons like they are going to spend it on *bad thing* aren’t for me to judge or evaluate and people don’t become rich from begging on the streets. There is also a bit of a hope that someone will give me a bit of money if situation will reverse once.
I’ve seen a guy with a “Money for Weed” sign in Hamburg the other day. He obviously got some money.
There are actually beggar gangs that can be obscenely rich, particularly in China.
Who becomes obscenely rich in these gangs, people that ask for money on the streets? Obviously in big cities with a lot of tourist traffic there bound to be criminal organisarions that try to monetize suffering.
I don’t think it’s necessarily bad to evaluate/judge what they spend it on, but ultimately if that’s your reason for not giving (“bad thing”) then it’s probably just an excuse. I say this to mean I can know they likely will buy liquor and I wish they would buy food instead.
I give homeless people money sometimes knowing they are lying or might not spend it wisely but I reason that they got into that situation through a lot of bad luck so whatever they decide to spend it on is on them. I have a friend who couldn’t believe I’d given money to a homeless person who lied (they had a quite unbelievable story that sounded like a huge lie anyhow). I explained to my friend that them lying doesn’t mean they don’t have a good reason to need money. They’re only doing it out of desperation and clearly need money.
I’ve certainly given based on entertainment value of a tall tale
This is the closest to my philosophy. I keep a few $1 bills in my car and hand them out to anyone who asks. I’m not interested in judging whether they look like they need it, or what I think they’ll spend it on. I just want them to know they’re not invisible.
There are some highly publicized cases who do actually get rich from panhandling. However the trick is to understand they are the exceptions and that you can usually distinguish them from actual needy