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?
Can confirm this. I was in downtown Kansas City Missouri on a daily basis for a time in the late 90’s. There was always someone with a sign at a big intersection close to the river. One day I spotted the person that was there that morning at gas station in the afternoon. They got in a BMW at the gas pump and left. It was at that moment that I mistrusted every pan handler I ever saw afterword. Turns out it was a whole family that sent someone down there daily. They dressed down but they were living big in a town right outside the city.
People can be in desperate financial situations and still have a car. Hell for some people that’s their only shelter. Begging doesn’t really get you a lot of money, so that family might’ve been desperate for a different reason than being homeless.
Nope that wasn’t the case. When I asked around I found out they were not poor or desperate. Few people dare I say no one with a late model BMW is living in their car.