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do you ever give homeless people money?

StoneHappyMonday said:
Neither do I (give a fuck what they spend money on) but it's not a question of either/or is it? Giving money. Cool. Giving food. Cool. Asking Big Issue seller where to score smack. Cool. Autonomy comes in many forms.
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food is cool, everyone likes to eat for sure and if thats all we can do then i wont say not to, but as a person who lived on the streets i would rather source my own food than be given food by a stranger.
I just know a lot of people say, oh ill buy them a 5$ burger or wtv but refuse to give that 5$ so a person can do it themselves, that is what i have an issue with.
Also just cuz i dont like that, doesn't mean its wrong, it just isn't in line with how i behave/see the world/ act.
 
When I lived in Anchorage, Alaska there were a lot of homeless people. If I had extra money on me I'd help them out. Usually I insisted they be honest and tell me they need beer
 
That's cool, wise people always save some money, I've seen many fools who sell their used furniture/appliances to get drugs. I feel pity for these people and would rather help them quit (drugs) before the lose everything that they own in this bizarre world.
 
I give a lot of things. Last homeless person I saw was on my birthday. He was sat with his dog. I bought the dog a few tins of food and gave him some money. If I don't have money I usually have time and some cigarettes. My patter may not be great but some days it's all I've got.
 
withlove said:
yes. whenever possible

and i never give people food, except sometimes in the summer when its a heat wave i give out cash and ill give out water bottles too.
having money is important, it gives a person some autonomy. and i dont give a fuck if they do drugs or drink with it.
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I actually am a full time begger. I hate it but prostitution was murder on my soul and this is the only legal way to make enough to support my habit. Anyway speaking for myself. I wish people would ask before buying me food. Everyone has the same idea and I regularly wind up with more food than I could ever eat, more food than I can carry. I don't want to waste it but sometimes I have no choice. Fruit is a problem too cause it's too heavy and doesn't last long. Canned food lasts but again can be a weight issue. Worst by far is bottled water though. I can wind up with 5 kilos of water a day. Apart from it being impossible to carry. If you live in an area with safe tap water, which is most of the first world, you don't need any water. You can carry a bottle and refill it at any bathroom and many other places. When you're homeless (id be considered hidden homeless) you gotta travel light.

Then there's all the food you gotta eat now or not at all. I often get as many as 6 sausage rolls in a morning. If you wanna buy beggers food. Make it lightl, small, long shelf life not needing refrigeration. Don't even get me started on the frozen pizzas and similar poorly thought out items. Every so often I'll get a gift card, now that's smart. Can use it as needed, it's light, can get stuff that has to be eaten straight away. And from their perspective can't be used for smokes booze or drugs. There are still ways to use them that way but it's still smart.

I doubt most beggars almost ever buy cigarettes anyway. We get given them anyway. Or people pick up used one's and roll them into new cigarettes.

Just my 2 cents from my experiences doing it. I hate doing it but compared to other bad shit I've done for drugs this is nothing. And fuck people who say "get a job". I'd like to see them beg all day every day all week dealing with Assholes and guys soliciting you for sex (if you're a girl) and tell me this is easier than their job.

Then there's peoples retarded judgements based on their total ignorance yet total certainty in the subject. I know preople who won't use the free showers offered to the homeless cause then people think they're not homeless when begging. Then theres the cigarettes youre given but can't be seen smoking. Food that's too expensive to be seen eating. Clothes were given but can't wear. Not to mention all the people who think it's still The 90s and mean you can't be seen using a cell phone. How is a homeless person supposed to even try and get a job if people can't call you?. And a smart phone today costs like 50$. Not to mention you don't have to turn in your existing phone when you become homeless.

Some people exist in this world for no purpose but to make life harder for other people. In this case people already living a suck ass life to start with. Ironically those are the people that make it easier for me to do this. It's the nice people that make it hard on my conscience.

I really doubt anyone does this cause they're lazy. It's very boring and unpleasant. To be honest I think the whole idea of people being too lazy to work is almost always bullshit. People hate doing nothing. That's why a lot of people draw and other shit while begging. In my experience doing almost anything reduces how much you make. Also why retired people start doing free work. People weren't made not to work. And the few who are lazy, it's not the beggars. This is a very sucky job. If I had any other legal choice apart from selling my body I wouldn't do it. Even that you can't really do legally as a drug addict. And if I'd kept doing that I think I'd kill myself.
 
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Very nice post JessFR :)

Whether I give money (or whatever) to folks I don't know depends on what I have to give. If I have small bills I almost never mind ($1 is rarely not doable). TBH though when I don't give anything or ignore someone asking it's because of shit going on in my life. For instance if I'm late for something important and my mind is somewhere else.

Asking for spange is much more interesting than the decision whether to give it out or not, that's for sure.
 
I normally don't give money. I very rarely work and live on a tight budget, surely I could afford giving now and then, but my excuses for not doing it do the job. If I ever make the money an average person makes I think I would give now and then but in no case every time I am asked. I would favour baskers over plain homeless.

I have been kind of and atypical homeless myself. I always preferred to sleep rough than expending my money on an expensive room. Working is much harder for me than to miss some of the common commodities for a while. I think it is all about the power games you find in work, difficult to take for somebody who has issues dealing with authority, so I don't last.
I used homeless facilities a few times when needing a shower or a washing machine, though I rarely felt welcome by the workers there me not being a homeless by their book. Sometimes the need of something is not enough and it looks like you should feel pity about yourself and/or be an alcoholic or yunkie. They don't like people who are actually choosing. In my experience volunteers are always nicer and less judgmental than professional social workers.

I travelled a lot and met different kinds of homeless. We cannot generalize on that.
I have seen all the range, from authentic scammers to people with bad mental issues. For example in the UK I had a close friend who was begging as he preferred it to work, he was making around 10 pounds and hour while I was making 6. Not mention about Christmas, in a good spot then you can make a fortune, crazy amounts of money. He had to put much less physical effort on it but more psychological especially related to social stigma and the others homeless he had to deal with. For the record, he was a bad alcoholic and drug addict and died.
I have seen real mafias of Romanians conquering all corners of North Europe and fighting among different factions for the control. The people who hated them most where the Romanians who went to those countries to work as they suffered their social stigma. Heard stories from those which said the one showing a photograph of their famelic offsprings, owned a mansion back home.
I have seen people in India blinded or amputated probably for mafias to work for them.
I have seen people borrowing puppies or kids to get more money.
I have seen people with not much option to stop their cravings than that.
I have seen a lot to have a clear idea.

It would never cross my mind to beg, I know I would feel like shit doing that and I probably become and official beggar (monk? :) or kill myself before that. I think is a hard job and really psychologically damaging. I think is a job by the book, in the section of not socially productive ones, in fact you get professional beggars working for charities, paying people to hunt for charity, that's fucked up. I would never get into giving money to those. The business of making you feel good about yourself.

Sometimes I think giving money to homeless keeps them in the situation as they can keep on like that. Even some become homeless as in their map of the world that's their best job opportunity, it is craziness. It is really complicated. Charity is quite important for humans, and I believe is as old as us. But I feel some people gets damaged by it, as they could do much better feeling the need to solve their problems. The richer the country the more the ''poor people'' complain about their situation, it is like we don't complain about the situation per se if not about the difference of our situation with our neighbour. I as well think society is getting more and more competitive and individualistic and those features create isolation and defeat. Easy to point out at problems really difficult to find proper solutions.
 
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I can't speak for everyone, but in my experience with everyone I know. If they couldn't make money begging anymore, we would either be stealing or selling ourselves. In neither case are we or anyone else better off. People have to be ready to change. In my opinion begging is a kind of harm reduction.

Funny you mention asshole professional social workers. I had a social worker the other day approch and make some unspecifc accusation that I'm not homeless or doing something wrong, he wasn't clear. Then he threatened me that there would "be repercussions" and might call the cops. I laughed and told him to call them and that I'd done nothing wrong. Begging isn't illegal here. But a lot of people think it is and have amusingly threatened to call the cops on me. Funny, no cops have ever shown. Cops have been around for unrelated reasons but have never paid any attention to me.

The guy was a bully who has no business being in social work. I admit I do love imagining people like him thinking they're gonna get me in trouble or stop me only to be told by the cops they won't do anything. Then everytime they walk past they can feel outraged and powerless. They thought they had more power than me in threatening me, only to wind up totally impotent and ignored. Serves them right. Especially since I really am homeless by any legal definition.
 
Not trying to judge at all, so don't take it wrong. I am one of the laziest people I know by definition and try to be very open-minded. I sometimes think that we all are capable of anything, we just need to find in the right circumstances, well the wrong circumstances better said. Just looking for some insight.

Do you think you could not do another thing besides stealing, begging and prostitution to get some cash? I probably think you should be able to find something but I am not saying is going to be easy by no means.

I feel like begging covers a niche of the economic system. People has the need to feel good about themselves and feel they are good, nice, etc... So the more people give the more beggars they create. Offer and demand at its best. It goes by the amount you get versus the effort and suffering it takes. For example, do you think would people beg four times under the minimum wage? I very much doubt most of them would do it.

I have seen the worst face of begging in the third world where atrocities are committed trying to get the business tourist give in form of begging. India is by far the worst in that sense. Little think tourists that by handing coins to that boy with no arms or blinded they are getting somebody else blinded and with no arms. Sometimes to avoid future suffering you have to suffer right now.
 
I'm not talking about third world begging, nothing I've said should be taken as relevant to beggars of the third world. As for could I find another source of income. Probably not given I'm a heroin addict, but even if I could I'd never make enough money doing it. I mention begging prostitution and stealing because those are the only things that make enough money.

As for creating more beggars, like I said, I highly doubt many beggars do it just as a job for the money with no addictions or desperation motivating them. In which case the solution to the problem of more beggers is in solving the problems that cause the desperation, like homelessness and the war on drugs. Just targeting the begging by getting people to not give money might stop the begging but it leaves the need for the money in tact. Which means people will resort to other options which will generally be more destructive. I have a close friend in jail cause she was stealing to support her habit. It hasn't got her clean, she started using again and locked up again every time she got out. And I know others like her. If they had been beggers they wouldn't have been stealing. Since nearly all do it out of desperation and not purely for the money, they were all compelled to do it by circumstances unrelated to how much you can make. So the argument about giving money creating more beggers is unfounded in this circumstance. Except for the rare and highly immoral people who exclusively do it as an income source motivated only by the money. Rare enough I consider it irrelevant. Again I'm speaking about the first world exclusively.

I have no interest in discussing third world begging as its an entirely different issue. And has little overlap with begging in the first world.
 
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Ya, I completely agree that the ridiculous price of drugs puts people into unfair situations. Prohibition is really damaging for addicts. It would just so easy to solve lots of problems by just handing to addicts what they need... Now you got me curious, so how much do you make begging if you don't mind me asking?

I had been addicted to opium for a while but I just harvested myself in plantations you can find in the countryside, so besides the little stress related to stealing it from pharmaceutical companies and getting it back home, it was free of criminality. Not paying huge prices and not dealing with dealers. That made addiction a pill much easier to swallow and to get out of.
 
It varies a lot. But you can easily make 300 a day. In the right place around the holidays I've gotten up to 700 a day. I already had a huge habit when I started so doing this hasn't caused me to actually use all that much more. Just now I don't have to steal or sell myself.
 
Wow, that's impressive. You cannot blame anybody for doing it really...might give it a thought...haha. That must be dollars, as people not mentioning location or currency are normally Americans ;)
Thanks for the honesty!
 
Being young, white, female and not looking like a stereotypical drug addict all work in my favor. But the biggest factor is location. A train station if you can find one not taken or small shopping mall is probably best. especially in the latter case people will have money on them. Some people have asked security here to remove me but I'm right at the entrance a few feet from the property line so they're powerless. I also know the mall securities working schedule so I know when not to be on the property.
 
I was not thinking on it. I was joking around, but thanks anyway, you never know. I think besides young, female, not looking like a drug addict, I would guess you must be good looking too. Gender equality would never cross those limits...
Don't you get harassed by other beggars fighting for such a gold mine?
 
Fortunately no. There are other good unclaimed spots around that aren't obvious around, but yes mine is about as ideal as it gets. There is one other person who does it near here sometimes but its rare and short lived. Provided that reminds the case and it has such a marginal, near nonexistent effect on what I get, I don't care.

I have way too low self-esteem to say I'm good looking. Best I can manage to say is that's what people often tell me.
 
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Not an expert in how to raise self-esteem but you should give yourself some credit. Morals aside, to manage to get that kind of money while of a low point shows some aptitude. Whatever you are doing you are doing it really efficiently. During begging you have a lot of time to think and analyze, so try to find out what kind of value you can give that people want. You never know you might have an advantageous point of view from where you are. You are young and chances will come your way, try to grab them.
 
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