<p>At the store tonight, there was a guy and what appeared to be his 9 year old daughter. They were begging for money, because (according to him) their car three blocks down ran out of gas, and they needed to get home. I didn’t verify that there actually was an out of gas car two blocks down the road.</p>
<p>Would you have given money to this guy in this situation? Do you normally help beggers out?</p>
<p>He was jumpy and twitchy, and in my opinion, he was in desperate need of a fix or something to get high on. It was sad that he was with his daughter.</p>
<p>I would have liked to do something to help him. Like help him open a bank account, or get a permenant address if he didn’t have one, apply for jobs if he didn’t have one, or something to help out. I didn’t like the fact that he was out begging with his daughter. But I didn’t think that giving him money would have helped him, rather I think it would have enabled him.</p>
<p>I would offer to call AAA and wait with them for their car to be towed somewhere or have AAA put gas in said car. Normally, I prefer to support the services that provide for social service needs rather than enable random people I happen to come across. If I find someone who claims to be hungry, I may give them any food I may be carrying but never cash. Don’t want to give them the means for their next fix.</p>
My H walks them into the nearest diner and buys them a plate of food off the menu (then leaves). Where we live, it’s rare. If it was in my S’s neighborhood in L.A., with homeless people sleeping on many street corners, I don’t think he could keep it up.</p>
<p>I usually give them some change. I figure it’s good karma. It’s not for me to analyze whether or not they really need it or are buying drugs/alcohol with it.</p>
<p>My son, who lives in a city that is homeless central, tells a story about a beggar. He was leaving a little shop that stays open late and sells a variety of things. He often goes there late at night to get a doughnut. As he was leaving there was a man asking for money, said he really needed a meal, so my son reaches into his sack and hands the guy a doughnut. The man looked at the doughnut rolled his eyes and threw it in the trash barrel.</p>
<p>I had something similar happen to me at a NJ Turnpike Rest Stop - maybe I look like an easy mark. Someone had a meeting somewhere and he drove in the wrong direction for too long and ran short of gas and had his pregnant wife in the car (I couldn’t see her) and they were out of cash. I gave him a few bucks.</p>
<p>In another case, I had bought a very nice bagel with cream cheese and lox sandwich and a guy on the street asked for some money for food. I offered him my sandwich and he declined. This was a really nice sandwich. I was somewhat shocked at this. In general, it’s more efficient to donate food to the local soup kitchen.</p>
<p>I figure they don’t really want the food, they just want the money so they can do what they want with it if they decline my offer of food (generally I have a nicely packed plate lunch or something that is really quite good and I was planning on eating). That is so rude of the guy tossing the donut your son so generously gave him! </p>
<p>I figure we’re all paying taxes to offer social and other services as well, plus supporting many non-profits. Don’t want to hand money to random strangers–rather fund programs I believe in.</p>
<p>We give a lot to charity every year, volunteer at the foodbank and at other community organizations, and I still give some change when asked on the street. Maybe that makes me a sucker but I always think that people who are in a spot in life where they have to ask strangers for some change, need that few bucks far more than I do.</p>
<p>No - I’d never give the beggars any money - it only encourages them to continue begging. I’m always amazed when I see people giving them money. I suppose it might make the giver feel better but more often than not it’s just going to buy the beggar more drugs or booze and the givers are only enabling them and not helping them.</p>
<p>It’s far better to support charities including ones that can directly help the people begging for money.</p>
<p>We used to live in a small town, and lived a few blocks from H’s workplace. People regularly came in to there to beg money. Rather than hand over cash, he’d send them over to our house to do an hour of paid outdoor groundswork. He’d call ahead to tell me to watch out for them. It made me nervous at first. But then, nobody ever showed up.</p>
<p>Oldest married daughter lived in a lower income neighborhood while attending a major university in the Midwest. Several of her neighbors (NOT students) would stand on street corners with signs, collect money and then go home in their cars. Begging was their full time job. It was gross.</p>
<p>I’m with post #8. H’s ex-girlfriend was a psychology major and studied this, she told him the beggars beg fmoney for drugs. He told me not to give beggars any money.</p>
<p>Granted the soup kitchen crowd is a little sketchy. But here in CT there are enough kitchens and food banks to ward off hunger. I think that’s the reason I encounter fewer “money for food” requests these days. I do get asked for “gas money” more regularly. I give change sometimes. Is it likely the money will be used inappropriately? I don’t torture myself with that.</p>
<p>Amusing story: A clean decently-dressed guy asked if I had change. I gave him what was in my pocket … about 85 cents. The guy looked at the change and said “Is that it?” Yeah, that’s all I have. “Well I don’t want the pennies.” And he picks through the change and hands me back the pennies.</p>
<p>If my story was unclear above post#9, I meant he only offered them a one-hour job. If they’d have done it, then they would have been paid by me. He didn’t pre-pay anyone.</p>
<p>I give money. Especially if they appear to be alcoholic. The dangers involved in unsupervised withdrawal from alcohol are very great, and it is not at all uncommon for an alcoholic to need a drink much more than s/he needs food.</p>
<p>What I’d like to give them is a roof of course, and then, if they choose, access to treatment. Sigh.</p>
<p>never… though I did give a guy a couple euros in Amsterdam, who randomly started following my friend and me and talking to us while we were obviously not interested. He followed us for multiple blocks and I didn’t want to chance him pulling a knife or something if we both told him no.</p>
<p>Several decades ago I was approached by a man who I knew was about to beg for money. My initial reaction was no way, but when he told me he wanted money so he could buy beer, I was so shocked by his honesty that I gave him some money.</p>
I’ve heard withdrawal from heroin is pretty uncomfortable as well so if you suspect the person is a heroin addict do you be sure to give them plenty of money to sustain their habit so they don’t have to experience any discomfort from their self-inflicted condition?</p>
<p>To add to my original post, I do not give to beggers. Why? I make a lot of money, but that is because I trade my time for money. Many others aren’t willing to give their time & spend some portion of their day being told what to do; but their unwillingness to work for others isn’t my problem.</p>
<p>Someday, I plan on establishing some sort of endowment (probably to the tune of several million dollars) where I can sponsor a program or teacher or some other person to encourage young kids to do something positive with their life. It’ll be part of my estate, and be something that is around forever and will help thousands of young people, but I don’t think that giving $5 or $10 to random twitchy people on the street will be more beneficial. Hopefully through my endowment many thousands can avoid being twitchy beggers on the street; that would be incredible.</p>
<p>By the way, I live in a poor area, and encoutering beggers is a daily experience. I’d spend probably $2000 a year if I gave money to everyone that I saw asking for money in a year.</p>