Panhandling

Money is used to buy goods and services, and the amount of money traded for a good/service is proportional to it's preceived utility. Why then would any red-blooded capitalist give money to panhandlers?


I was surprised to see that many posters here actually do give money to these people. They provide negative utility to society, yet they are rewarded. There are 2 kinds of panhandlers, the professionals who have decided they can earn more income by begging than by working, and the substance abusers who will use the money to buy alcohol, crack, etc... Anyone who has ever lived or worked in a city knows that the same people are there begging every day, not people who are temporarily displaced.


The methods they use are dispicable. Lying about needing money to buy food, harassment, and intimidation should not be rewarded. Offer a panhandler food and a job, see what he says.


Don't be intimidated by panhandlers. Give your money to job-training programs, The American Cancer Society, soup kichens, or shelters for battered women. It will do much more good than buying your local bum a pack of smokes. If you must give your money to people who haven't earned it, I have 30K in student loans I could use some help with...

I believe there is a difference between professional panhandlers and some of the folks standing with signs. If a guy accosts me aggressively and asks for money there is a good chance he is a panhandler or worse and there is little chance he will get anything from me. However some of these folks with signs on street corners really are homeless and in trouble. Since I can't know for sure which is which, if circumstances feel right I may on occasion give them some small amount of money. Sure some of it may go to professionals and some surely goes to cigarettes or drugs, but the thing is I never know when someone really just needs a hamburger or just got kicked out of a shelter. A lot of the homeless have mental or psychiatric problems and that is why they are homeless. How do I know. It's not like it's a lot of money and once in a while it really might help. Besides imagine how bad it would be to actually be homeless...these people have an immense uphill struggle not only to find work but most are not even eligible for food stamps or other aid because they have no legitimate street address (now there's a real Catch-22). Once they are in this situation, the stres and strain and lack of things we all take pretty much for granted can make it incredibly hard for them to get out of it--even if they don't have other problems like mental health issues.


So how do we know, and what's the harm, and it doesn't cost much once in a while. However, those guys in nice clothes and expensive coats on the prowl, hitting up strangers, and carrying with them an intimidating attitude, should be shunned. I think the attitude is usually the giveaway even if they are not well-dressed. Those who ask in an almost demanding manner are generally the pros, although in more recent years this may have changed somewhat to a higher percentage of sign people being pro. However we don't see a great deal of it anymore, or at least I don't see nearly as much of it with the signs as a few years back. So my guess is it doesn't pay all that well or there would be A LOT more people doing it.

the one's that are really appreaciative of the gesture become evident quickly that way. I've done it before and I'll do it again. I may have been trained as a capitalist, but I was born a human being.