Beggars

[Younggun]

Respectfully, IMO, you and your kind who give to these beggars are idiots.

Uncalled for.

Saying "respectfully" before saying something disrespectful does not change the fact that its disrespectful.

 

[Engineerbrian]

Nope, no cash here either. I work in DC and cant go half a block without being asked. The most I've done is bought someone lunch or given them chips and water. The real kicker was when my co worker offered to buy a pan handler lunch and the guy said he just wanted the money instead. My co worker wouldn't give him any cash so the guy gave him an ear full. Got to love it!

 

[Anger]

Uncalled for.

Saying "respectfully" before saying something disrespectful does not change the fact that its disrespectful.

Maybe so but it is what it is. Enuf said. Unsubscribed. Not worth my time people giving money to filth beggars.

 

[matefrio]

Respectfully, IMO, you and your kind who give to these beggars are idiots.

Can't fault someone who's heart is in the right place, looking to do good for doing what they feel is right. They're not the problem nor do they deserve to be called idiots.

 

[Anger]

Idiots

 

[RstyShcklfrd]

You really hate beggars. If there's ever a string of homicides involving beggars, we'll know who to start questioning first.

 

[GaryH]

Wow, I'm not that much of an asshole, but I don't give money to people on the street for any reason any more. I used to, but I don't carry cash these days.

 

[winchster]

I will relate the following story, and it will explain my position somewhat.

April 19, 1995 I watched my house burn to the ground. My wife, kids, and I were left with only what we had on that morning. Thanks to the generosity of the farmers that stopped and cried with me that afternoon I walked away from that pile of rubble with a little over $1000 in cash. April 21, 1995 i was fired from my job. Over the course of the next two weeks, between our church, and the community, my wife and kids had more clothes than before the fire. The transmission in my truck was fixed, and we had over $5000 collected for us. We moved to Portland, OR due to the job market being better there than in Lubbock at the time.

I told that story, not for sympathy, but so the following would make more sense.

We had been in Portland less than a week when I drove by a man about my age standing on a corner holding up a sign that said, "lost our home to fire, need help" or something akin to that. As I drove past, and subsequently spent the next 10 minutes looking like a drunk driver trying to find a place to park, my wife asked what was up. I explained what I had seen. She said "Do it". I got out of the car and went to have a conversation with the guy. We both ended up crying together on that busy street corner in Portland. When I left, I handed him $500 and gave him a phone number to contact me for clothes for his kids. He called a few days later and we gave them clothes.
This was the last time I gave anything substantial to someone on a street corner. I don't know why, I just haven't felt led to as I was that day.

For the most part now days, I see people that, for whatever reason don't really want help, they want cash. If I felt led to give I will.

 

[Younggun]

Some people can't feel adequate on their own and are forced to try to push others down to a level they feel is below them by calling them names over trivial differences in opinion.

This makes them feel like they won something and gives them a boner which they will jerk while thinking about how much a they kicked on the Internet.

Silly trolls.

 

[Blind Sniper]

Respectfully, IMO, you and your kind who give to these beggars are idiots.

Respectfully, you can go **** yourself with that attitude.


Anyway, on-topic now.

Normally, I prefer donating time and effort rather than money. That way I don't need to worry about getting scammed or robbed. On the rare occasions when I do give money, it's either into a collection box/pot (Salvation Army 'bell-ringers' usually get a handful of change from me), or I'll just go and buy whatever it is someone asks for.

 

[308nato]

You have to have missing parts before I give.

I feel the same way .
I was at a stop light on 290 and watched a guy in a wheel chair just leaving the corner and as he came to a small strip center
he wheeled into the parking lot up to a Volvo station wagon and poped the trunk and put his wheelchair in and drove off.

 

[Das Jared]

Every pan handler i see down here in south houston, i can usually spot their vehicle parked discreetly somewhere nearby. I HATE panhandlers.

sent from my dishwasher

 

[RstyShcklfrd]

I feel the same way .
I was at a stop light on 290 and watched a guy in a wheel chair just leaving the corner and as he came to a small strip center
he wheeled into the parking lot up to a Volvo station wagon and poped the trunk and put his wheelchair in and drove off.

My roommate and I were in a Walmart and some guy in a wheel chair came up to us with a really strange story. He didn't want money. He wanted us to buy him things, so that he could sell them. I didn't understand it. He was in a wheel chair, and he admitted that he was in it because he had hurt his foot and was tired of walking. He also mentioned that he had served in the Navy, but I didn't believe him because he was approximately mid-30s, able bodied, and I didn't expect someone to really use that as an excuse.

I was trying to empathize with him, until I told him that I simply could not afford it. He became aggravated, and told me he wasn't asking for money. At that point, I was already mad enough where there was nothing he could tell me to give him anything more than jack shit.

He convinced my roommate though to buy him roses, since it was just before Valentine's Day, and a pack of Bic lighters. Not my money, not my problem.

 

[Jakashh]

i'll give em change, food. $5 is the most i've given.

 

[Jherico]

Wow, speak to the right people...get the right answers. Getting a first class education on this issue. Very much appreciated.

 

[Dhayes]

Wow, speak to the right people...get the right answers. Getting a first class education on this issue. Very much appreciated.

A first class education and some interesting accounts. Once, I was stopped at a red light and saw one of those beggars with a cardboard sign asking for help. I had no money but I did have my 32 oz plastic Target snack bar cup. I always wash it out so I can use it again next time I'm at Target. It was hot outside and I rolled down the passenger side window and called to the guy and gave him the cup. Told him "There's a Target across the street, to get a drink, and save the cup and clean it so you can keep reusing it"

 

[Driller]

I believe most are scammers. Investigators many times report they can make about $500.00 a day. :-)

Driller

 

[Gilgondorin]

Respectfully, you can go **** yourself with that attitude.

Quoted for truth.

- - - - -

ALSO back on topic: I won't ever give more than $1 at a time to any one person -- but I usually try to make it an effort to give to each person I come across that genuinely looks like they need it, and I'll freely give to fireman's associations, the red cross, salvation army bell ringers and the like too. I've only been on this earth for a very short time, especially compared to some of the rest of us here, but some of it has been around a rougher crowd than most -- you learn to tell who really needs what, and who's out there just to see how much they can earn goofing off.

I've seen a man on a street corner of a high-way intersection begging for money get handed a full to-go box full of food, which he promptly disposed of and continued to beg for more with as soon as the light changed and the guy drove off (this same guy was turned down by me a few minutes earlier). We've pulled up to an unattended donation station for a local children's home and seen a man with his wife and little girl picking over the donations there, which about set my dad off. I'm of a mind that you can steal or scam from and get away with whatever you will, either from me or the next guy -- but you can't do it without the lord seeing it, and Grandma said that Ill-begotten things are like sand in the hands of the wicked -- squeeze as hard as you want to hold on to it, but it'll run right through your fingers like so much sand, and it'll be like you never had it to begin with. Dad taught us that if we mis-behave, we may not get in trouble over it now or ever in this life-time, but eventually, every sin's gotta be accounted for with the man upstairs some day, and he's got a far better memory than any parent or judge on THIS planet; if you give freely and in good faith, you've already done your part.

We had a gentleman once approach us from under an over-pass, that said he was homeless and down on his luck, and what made him different than the standard beggar was that he approached us while we were digging up an old rock bed on a street corner to plant in, and picking up all the trash that had been thrown (it was a street corner downtown) -- and the first thing he did was offer to help us in exchange for some money. After helping us shovel the bed out and turn the dirt over (about 45 minutes' worth of work), mom and dad gave him about $23 and handed him some sodas and water to take with him. Mom has also bought food for some homeless guy that had a perfectly valid $10 gift card that wasn't being accepted by the manager at that particular location, and he was in tears because it was shortly before closing time and he'd walked to this one location -- he even offered to give her the card in exchange for his food (she didn't take it). We also were taught that, while thieves, cheats, and swindlers all get their day in court, the man up stairs takes care of his own -- the hardworking, honorable, and charitable -- and looking back on it all, we've been helped out of more tight situations than I can count, with luck too good to be anything less than divine intervention. That possibly is the final reason I give -- I've been in a tight spot before, and man, when someone else comes along to help you out, it's like a god-send; you really can't even begin to thank them for it.

 

[45tex]

From the Christian perspective, one can unknowingly give money to Satan himself. If their heart is in the right place, God will both bless the giver and put the donation to work for good.

 

[TX69]

Usually I just hand them a multi-vitamin