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 give them a fiver and ask them if they need anything else. Saying ‘they might buy something wrong’ is a slippery slope to ‘people shouldn’t get benefits because they might buy beer.’ And I have heard right wing politicians literally say the latter.
I want them to get that fucking beer man. Being homeless sucks. A beer makes it suck less.
“Don’t give that guy money, he’ll just use it to buy drugs”
I’m just going to use it to buy chocolate, fuck does it matter if it’s his addict or mine? At least I still have a house to eat my chocolate in.
People don’t typically eat enough chocolate to die. Where as many “beggars” use the $ to buy drugs which certainly can/does result in ODs.
And you’re going to make the decision based on that and someone who would have gotten food or saved for medicine, or only needed that $5 to get a room night doesn’t get there. I’m not here to police that, all I know is I have, they don’t, and if I have something to give I should.
I agree. Some people buying something bad for them doesn’t mean they’re unworthy of the chance to buy food or something else objectively helpful for life.