It’s weird to give someone money and care what they do with it unless you’re expecting them to pay you back someday. You’re giving it away, so it’s expendable to you, and you’ll probably never interact with the person again, so it’s odd to care about the specifics beyond “I hope this helps.”
You’ll never give them enough money to actually change their situation, and that’s not your fault but it’s also not your problem, it’s theirs. If they think they need a cigarette more than a sandwich, who am I to tell them they are wrong? It’s their money now, not mine.
I was talking about the hypothetical scenario where you gave it to them and were miffed it didn’t go towards food, so I agree 100% with what you’re saying. Don’t give your money away if you can’t afford to let someone else do what they want with it.
A lot of people don’t mind giving someone something they need without placing conditions on it. But it’s okay to be different.
The problem with directly buying them food is that it has to be eaten within a fixed time window. Money can be used to buy food tomorrow, or it can even become food five years from now while being trivial to carry around. Getting money affords you the chance to take some time off from panhandling to attempt to better your situation because you know you have that backup food in your pocket. You’re not going to get out of homelessness if leaving that street corner means you’re probably going to be one day closer to dying of starvation.
If a random guy on the street offered you a sandwich, would you eat it? Why not, you like to save money, right? What’s the problem, I’m a nice guy trying to help you here.
It’s weird to give someone money and care what they do with it unless you’re expecting them to pay you back someday. You’re giving it away, so it’s expendable to you, and you’ll probably never interact with the person again, so it’s odd to care about the specifics beyond “I hope this helps.”
You’ll never give them enough money to actually change their situation, and that’s not your fault but it’s also not your problem, it’s theirs. If they think they need a cigarette more than a sandwich, who am I to tell them they are wrong? It’s their money now, not mine.
And until I give it away, it’s mine, not theirs. Who are you to tell me I’m wrong for how I decide who to give it away to or not?
I was talking about the hypothetical scenario where you gave it to them and were miffed it didn’t go towards food, so I agree 100% with what you’re saying. Don’t give your money away if you can’t afford to let someone else do what they want with it.
A lot of people don’t mind giving someone something they need without placing conditions on it. But it’s okay to be different.
I agree I have no say in what they do with the money, only whether I choose to give it to them or not.
Have you considered that if you really want homeless people to have food, you can just buy them food?
The problem with directly buying them food is that it has to be eaten within a fixed time window. Money can be used to buy food tomorrow, or it can even become food five years from now while being trivial to carry around. Getting money affords you the chance to take some time off from panhandling to attempt to better your situation because you know you have that backup food in your pocket. You’re not going to get out of homelessness if leaving that street corner means you’re probably going to be one day closer to dying of starvation.
Yes, and when they get mad and say they want money (which has happened more than once), you know what they were going to use it for.
If a random guy on the street offered you a sandwich, would you eat it? Why not, you like to save money, right? What’s the problem, I’m a nice guy trying to help you here.
I offered to buy them food. I’m not sure why you thought I’d just buy some first without making sure they wanted it.
That’s fair. It’s their body, you have no say in what they do with it ;)
Nope, only in what I choose to do or not do to help them destroy it.