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?

  • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
    6·
    1 day ago

    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.