yo. see. hold up. i have a theory on this.
I'm 23 years old. if i go out with my friends to get A beer (let alone 2...or even if i buy a round), i'm going to spend at LEAST 5 bucks. especially in the city.
Now, if I could spend 5 bucks and buy a beer i dont' really need, i think i could give 20% of that to a guy on the street. it's a stinkin DOLLAR. big deal. think about it. sometimes i spend 13 of those dollars on a CD i dont' really need, that turns out to only have a couple of good songs. Am I THAT selfish I can't give 1/13th of that money to a guy on the street. ridiculous. I dont understand why people say "oh they might spend it on beer don't give it to them". so what, you give me money, i might buy a beer with it too.
When we were in Poughkipsie, a guy came up to me and asked me for money. I gave him a dollar and said...now what's going on? why aren't you working? I got the dude's life story. He was working on and off, but jobs were hard for a guy with no house and being kinda dirty and all. i felt really bad. I gave him another dollar. my friends were all perplexed...like, why am I wasting money...i just don't get that. how much drugs can you REALLY buy with 2 dollars? If he's hungry, he'll get some food. If he doesn't, well, that's his choice.
yea, but you arent an alcoholic. well at least i don't think you are. If yoiu give money to homeless people on the street here you could very well be supporting alcoholism and drug use. Plus they guy we talked to was high and drunk at the time (you could smell the odor of both substances), and to get, like i said, can be a very expensive habit. You can wast your money on a beer or a round or an cd's, but you havea Job. They can't afford to waste their money on such things, yet often do anyway. So I dont think it would be exactly right to give my money (especially when i barely have any myself) to aperson who obviously have misused his own money in drug and substance abuse. And if i begin to give out money hile I'm preaching, people will start think I'm some sort of meal ticket and keep asking. If the person is hungry, I'll buy them food. But NEVER will i jus give them money.
I never really thought of it like this...
SOMETIMES you find a homeless person who is a victim of society. He can't get a job because he doesn't have an address. And he has trouble getting cleaned up for an interview because he doesn't have a home. It's a catch 22. (Kinda like a college student getting denied a job because of their lack of experience. Well how else are you going to get the experience unless you are hired???) But then again, sometimes you ARE fuelling addiction by giving a homeless person money. No matter what, someone loses. But I do feel bad for the homeless people out there who are trying to get out of the hole they are in and can't find a way out.