"you also do that" implies the above isn't actually a myth.
Seriously though, there are at least three groups of homeless with some overlap:
addicts, for whom the addiction drive them to homelessness, they need to go to rehab, before they can be helped (seems like this meme refers to them)
The meme refers to the people who believe every homeless person falls into this category and not the other two.
Having a home makes it far easier to kick an addiction.
Do you think if you got addicted, it would be easier for you to kick the addiction if you kept your home, or if you lost it? Same thing with mental illness or any other problem.
Addicts destroy everything they’re around though. It’s easy to say “oh just give them a house”, until they’ve pulled all the drywall off and ripped all the copper out of the walls to sell for a fix, broken all the windows, and generally destroyed the place.
No, I spend that money on sweets and soda, which will kill me much faster than alcohol and drugs would
Overdosing on sweets will get you diabetes. Overdosing on drugs and alcohol will get you death.
I spent most of my money on booze, fdm printing, and video games. The rest of it I wasted.
At this point, professional panhandlers are a much worse stigma. There aren’t many, but you can bet the panhandlers in the best spots, the most outgoing ones, are the pros.
Actually, I’ve found that I don’t even have a choice about whether to trust that someone is truly in need, since I almost never carry cash
But yeah, I mostly gave up when a guy asked for $5 for food at McDonalds and I got him food from McDonalds, and he tossed it on the ground and vandalized my car. It turns out he was one of the most notorious professional panhandlers in my city, and most definitely NOT in need. I decided I can’t tell or I’m a sucker, but it’s probably more effective to help organizations who do this every day
when I was on the streets I could not believe just how much money professional panhandlers made.
I'm talking like a couple of hundred a day, depending on the time of month and the location.
I myself could never participate in panhandling, even as a junkie I had self respect lol
I was always worried about someone I knew noticing, but some people have zero problems begging for money, the beggars would brag about how soft people were, especially older women, zero respect
I've been clean for over 10 yrs and my sober life is great, all of these panhandlers are addicts, they are all redeemable
I have no idea what a 'professional panhandler' is, but if standing on a traffic island inhaling fumes all day and having abuse and sometimes trash hurled at you, hoping no one jumps the island and runs you over, asking people for money makes you a living, good for you I guess. Not the way I would do it.
If I waste my money on a professional, I feel like I got ripped off. I may no longer trust the people truly in need or be less likely to help. I AM less likely. These people are a scourge.
A professional panhandler is exactly what it sounds like - people who turn it into a “job”. They’re scam artists. My city’s newspapers have done profiles on a few over the years, and those “professionals” tend to be quite comfortable. Again, relatively few but tend to be high profile, more active at their “sales pitch”. If you see a homeless person NOT trying to panhandle, they are much more likely legitimately in need
Why would it be all day? A key spot at rush hour or lunch hits the crowd, and someone outgoing and personable will make that pay. I’d even say that if you do see someone all day they are much more likely to be legit. Maybe even if you see someone with “sales skills”, you need to be cautious
I would be very surprised if you earned much more than a full time minimum wage job doing it for a few hours a day.
If in an hour they get 4 five dollar donations, that's $20/hr. Think about how many cars you see stop to donate each light change. If you think it's not lucrative you're being disingenuous.
Another way to look at it. That McDonald's right there is hiring, and this guy stands outside panhandling all day. He's already there, why not get a job at the McD's? Market pressure, there's more to be made with way less effort standing on the median making people feel bad.
Panhandling needs to be made to be a waste of time for people. It's dangerous, abusive, and an annoyance.
ALTERNATIVELY, social programs need to be expanded greatly in order to actually help people so that panhandling isn't even necessary in the first place.
My father gave money to a panhandler when I was a young adult (when I had almost no money to spare). I asked if it bothered him how the money might be spent. His words: "If he needs a bottle to get through the night, who am I to judge?"
That had a profound effect on me. I don't give money to everyone who asks. But I give a hell of a lot more because of that statement. My father was a teetotaler, fwiw.
Absolutely. If I lived on the streets, I'd want to do practically anything to take my mind off of it. Drugs and alcohol are an easy escape.
It's a pretty bad stigma. I regularly pluck homeless who are hanging out at the gas station. i tell em to get what they need for the day and something later. I have to Tell them to get smokes and or alcohol...like Bruh/Ma'am I have to follow societies bs rules all day and while i don't Smoke or Drink. Fucking hell i know why people do. and if i was homeless...id like the occasional chance to escape my reality or take the edge off. especially when they are literally the most unprotected segment of society. teenagers regularly get locked up for murdering homeless people. societies dark underside has people who are smarter than einstein but pressed so far down they cant bloom...
Also, it keeps them warmer than we as a society do. Just let them have an escape, they lost everything already.
"If they're just gonna drink, smoke, snort, or inject shit, then why should I give them the same money I was gonna use to drink, smoke, snort and inject shit? I'll just buy the drinks, smokes, coke and heroin and we can do them together."
I mean, as someone who enjoys drinking and occasionally other legal drugs, I have to admit OP has made me second guess my POV a bit.
No, OP’s claim is bogus. Sure, I do use a small portion of my income for vices, for escapism, just like most people. But I don’t use it instead of food. I don’t use it to the extent that it keeps me from paying for the rest of life. I don’t use it to the extent that I can’t function in society.
There’s a huge difference between wasting some money on a vice/escapism, and that vice/escapism becoming your life. I don’t know if it’s just addiction or desperation, or how close we could all be to that pit of despair, but there is clearly a huge difference between using a bad habit to cope with life and your bad habit becoming your life
And? I couldn't care less if you are a rich drunk. But if you are living off the state you should be drinking limited quantities or have friends paying for you. You are a burden on the system.
Or, the system failed to get them the help they needed to stabilize their lives and be productive. The burden is the system that is broken, not the people it failed.
You are a burden on the system.
Are you seriously afraid drunk homeless people are the ones getting too much of the government's budget? If so, I've got a B-2 Bomber to sell you.
Why should you be drinking limited quantities?
What does it matter if you are a burden to the system or not with that you consume?
Why not? No, seriously, why not?
Firstly, YOU specifically, are not. Your taxes are. The same taxes used to bomb brown people and fund the murder of children. The same taxes that are used to pay the fire department to rescue kitties from trees.
You aren't paying for any of that. Are you suggesting that you should be directly responsible and accountable for the innocent people we kill on death row and the children soldiers we create? If so, what punishment would be appropriate for your part in those atrocities?
If you deny being part of those, what claim do you have on the money given to those in need?
So, I ask again: why not? It certainly isn't anything to do with what you're paying for.
And taxes aren't me paying? I can't say I don't want my leaders to use taxes in this way? I can't vote for someone who agrees it's wasteful?
I'm fine paying for health. I'm fine paying for defense. I'm fine paying for education. I don't want to support an expensive habit from addicts who can't support themselves.
Correct, your taxes aren't you paying.
If it was, you would be personally liable for the police who break into random houses and kill brown women.
You pay taxes. You vote for people. But you don't pay the police.
So, either you're saying you don't want to pay taxes - which is a whole different problem - or you answer the question. What's your problem with people drinking? (Expensive habit? Hah! You think... Wait - just how poor are you?! 😂 no, no, don't answer that, it's off topic. You still haven't answered the first and only question I've posed to you.)
