Do you ever give money to street people?

I've always considered it relatively safe, but who knows. I live on the highway of tears, so I figure it is better I pick them up then some killer-rapist.

 

I always do, bc I've never been homeless, & only they know the true hardships of it. Even if it is just for them to buy drugs or alcohol, so be it. Maybe they didnt lose everything to drugs, maybe they were born with nothing to lose in the first place. So thats their only way of escaping.

 

BWAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHA that is so funny !

 

i give away money wild and recklessly, to all kinds of people.

i like to drink and hang-out a lot with the guys in the alley behind my building. there is usually somebody cool or interesting in the alley, and i am friends with a lot of the regular guys. so i buy beer and cigarettes and weed for us all, and if they have any they always like to share too.

 

I've actually panhandled last year about this time. I was driving back up to Mi from FL. I got to the Florida/Georgia state line and ran out of gas. I had no money to further my trek back so I made a sign out of a 5 dollar Hot N Ready pizza box. I had about 45 hemp necklaces too.

I made 9 or 10 bucks in two hours. lol

The gas station was not busy and not in a busy locale. So it was good per capita.

I was technically homeless.


And I can say this. It's not the rich who give, it's the people who don't have it that do give.

 

I've noticed that as well from both observing and from talking to homeless people.

 

^Yup, yup. They have more empathy and aside from that, struggle is insight. With out that you have no clue as to how other people may feel in their own shoes.

 

I do give and try to help where I can.

I also lobby for changes to help those who need it through changes to assistance that are needed to help to reduce the problem.

 

One night last year I was leaving a bar and making my way the many blocks towards the main bus stop. I asked person after person for a smoke. People who had cigarettes in their hands. Not one of them obliged.

After about 15 minutes I see this older homeless guy smoking crack in this alley, I recognized him as I see him all the time. I told him how I spent the night and said that all I wanted was one smoke but not one person would give one up. The guy reached into his pocket, took out his pack and gave me his very last cigarette because he knew how badly I wanted one. That dude would have had to go the rest of the night without smokes. Those others would have gone probably 20 minutes till their next smoke.

People are much, much more giving when they know how it feels to go without, no matter how big or how small.

 

I agree.


Also, damn those were some stingy people hoarding ciggs like that. When I smoked I bummed them out like they grew on trees.

Sometimes kats would come up to me and as for one. I'd grip 5 or 6 out and hand them over, sometimes with a lighter. It all depended on the person and how I assessed their level of honesty, and level of goodness. I guess I was judging but really I was taking applications for my cigs and this was the interview process. lol

 

Sometimes you can just tell their character. If you say something like, "I'm sorry man, I don't have any change at the moment," and they reply in a slurred manner, "fuck you then," you've made a good call. Sometimes you can tell ahead of time which ones are going to reply that way. Though they're few and far between.

 

no, i don't give to people on the streets

 

I give all the time and I've never been disappointed. I'd rather give a little to somebody who doesn't deserve it than give nothing at all. After all, I work hard for my money but one dollar goes much farther for somebody who is lacking it.

But I live in a small town with a really huge homeless population, so my situation is probably different.

There are only a handful of things in the Bible that I agree with: the fact that hoarding wealth saps the humanity out of a person is one of them.

 

Normally, the people that want to say 'fuck off' don't and upon rejection they usually lower there head and walk away drained of happy thoughts momentarily, from my experience. I can see it in their body language. When I ask a stranger for something I fully expect to receive it. I guess there is an energy factor that you can put out that can be received as sincere or not or something.

 

sometimes you can be sincere and friendly and still get shot down...
but i know what you mean+

 

I´ve taken a few out to lunch... some of them have pretty intresting life stories.

I don´t usualy give money, there´s this one corner downtown where there´s always someone begging, and about once a year, I see a car pull up to the corner and the ´homeless´ person gets in the car, and a new ´homeless´ person gets out and takes over.

I´m not going to support a scam or a heroin addiction, but if they take me up on my offer to take them to eat, I assume they´re legit..

 

^How's the dinner experience on Mars ?

 

Yes...not always, but very often I do. Last time we went out on a "date" day, we went to a headshop and a girl in a wheelchair asked us if we had some change in the parking lot, so we gave her the loose change we had in our pockets. If someone right out asks me for change, I'll usually give it to them. I don't just stop and give people money, though...that would make me feel weird. I've never begged, but I would hate to be in that position, so I don't mind tossing a couple bucks their way. Even if that couple of bucks supports something dishonest, at least my intentions are good.

 

I turned down a guy once who was deaf and handing out cards in the parking lot asking for money

I didnt feel bad at all when he walked away and I said something and he turned around

 

All the time, the way I figure it is if their not going to spend on booze I am.