Big Big Question

Fri 23 May 2008

1. Mike Harris (guest)
   May 23rd, 2008 at 7:38 am

   There are varying schools of thought on this one, but I didn’t feel comfortable with the idea that I might be funding a drug or alcohol addiction. I give $10 a month to a local food bank which advertises “$1 = 4 meals”, and on occasion I’ll buy water or food for someone directly, especially in severely inclement weather.

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2. russilwvong
   May 23rd, 2008 at 9:15 am

   Here in Vancouver we have a lot of homeless people.

   I never give money to panhandlers–I give regularly to the local United Way instead.

   John Stackhouse, a reporter for the Toronto Globe and Mail, spent a week living as a street person in Toronto back in 1999.
   

   There is a deep well of public concern and charity, but much of it is misspent while those with the deepest needs, physical and mental, are overshadowed by panhandlers and others who crowd the public view.

   Most of the panhandlers I got to know are serious crack addicts and alcoholics and spend almost all their begging money on their addictions.

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3. IndigoRain
   May 23rd, 2008 at 1:23 pm

   I give money to charities, not panhandlers. My mom once bought a man on the side of the road McDonald’s. That I would do.

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4. BitterOldPunk
   May 28th, 2008 at 8:03 am

   As one of the Last Smokers Left On Earth, I’ll usually toss them a cigarette.

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5. Meatbomb
   May 28th, 2008 at 9:11 am

   I don’t pay for services I don’t want. Those giving to panhandlers are not helping the poor, they are supporting their local panhandling industry. There are plenty of ways homeless / poor folk can make money - scavenging, bottle collecting, etc. Standing on the street waiting for cash is one of the easiest, if and only if patrons support this activity. Would you give money to a really loud and shitty street busker?

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6. krautland
   May 29th, 2008 at 4:58 am

   I used to not give to panhandlers in germany because we have a solid social security system. it’s a social democracy, my reasoning went, I pay lots of taxes and have the right to expect free education, healthcare, unemployment, retirement and social care. there always were few panhandlers in my town and the ones you saw were usually binge-drinking punks (I *do* mean punks… the sid-vicious type, this is not a euphemism for “young people”). I knew they got their free apartments and 400-500 bucks each month and just supplemented their income this way. giving to them seemed unfair to me. occasionally you’d have the old alcoholic and his dog and occasionally they got a few pennies but never really much more.

   then I moved to the US. panhandling seemed everywhere. I saw the malnourished, the clearly insane, the confused and the just plain lazy. america isn’t a country that supports the weak in its midst. I began giving every now and then but did notice that the attitude to begging was much more cavalier. a lot of people who didn’t seem to need the money asked anyway. whereas I got approached once a week in a place like hamburg or london I got five or ten requests on any given day in LA. there seemed to be a bit less in NYC and even more in Chicago.

   there are too many panhandlers for me to give you a clear answer. I couldn’t give to all if I wanted to. I do give sometimes but I don’t think anyone is entitled to receive my help and feel insulted when money is being demanded from me. I’m not sure if I should not give at all or do so more freely.

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7. Josh Millard
   May 29th, 2008 at 7:24 am

   I generally don’t, on the mix of principle (I don’t think it’s the best route to actually improving the homeless situation in Portland) and practicality (I rarely have change on me, since I use my debit card for pretty much all my purchases).

   And then every once in a while I do, because, shit. I’ve never been asked for change by someone who looked like they were having a better day than me.

   A couple times someone has followed up with a no-to-spare-change with a request for food and I’ve bought them lunch. It’s kind of hard to spend “eating a hamburger” on drugs, so hey.

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