Until you meet this particular homeless guy:
Posted on 08/26/2005 7:09:01 AM PDT by Millee
I give money to panhandlers. It's not part of my daily routine, but every now and then, a homeless person will be in my line of sight when I'm feeling generous, and I'll hand him or her a couple of bucks.
I don't have any expectations about how the recipient will spend the money. Maybe he'll buy food. Maybe he's saving for a bus trip to another city. Maybe he'll use the money to pay for lodging. Or maybe he'll just buy booze. It doesn't matter to me. I give him money because I can see he needs it.
Last week, a study commissioned by the Downtown Denver Business Improvement District and the city's Office of Economic Development revealed that 44 percent of Denver residents are like me. Our occasional giving adds up to about $25 a year for each of us, which totals about $4.6 million a year to panhandlers.
Denver business leaders and city officials want us to stop. They say, with a straight face, that they care about panhandlers and that our impromptu donations only perpetuate the problems that beggars face. They say panhandlers need tough love if they're going to rise out of poverty. They point to the city's proposed $122 million, 10-year proposal to end homelessness, and suggest redirecting our $4.6 million a year in donations could significantly help fund this program.
With all due respect, I doubt that this study was motivated by humanitarian ideals. Business bureaus and economic development offices typically don't spend time trying to cure the complex problems of poverty, homelessness and panhandling. The objective was to figure out how to keep unattractive, malodorous, poor beggars from driving away tourists and other customers.
And I imagine their concerns are well-founded. There are many people who get nervous and/or scared when they see panhandlers, and they might avoid a shop that had a lot of beggars out front. But I'm not going to stop making my occasional donations to people on street corners.
Panhandlers play an important role in our society, because they are the visible face of poverty. The study in question focused on Denver residents, but a large percentage of middle- and upper-income families Click Here!
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Link To Article Print Article Email Article Article Last Updated: 08/25/2005 10:31:47 PM
reggie rivers Don't stop giving change to beggars By Reggie Rivers
I give money to panhandlers. It's not part of my daily routine, but every now and then, a homeless person will be in my line of sight when I'm feeling generous, and I'll hand him or her a couple of bucks.
I don't have any expectations about how the recipient will spend the money. Maybe he'll buy food. Maybe he's saving for a bus trip to another city. Maybe he'll use the money to pay for lodging. Or maybe he'll just buy booze. It doesn't matter to me. I give him money because I can see he needs it.
Last week, a study commissioned by the Downtown Denver Business Improvement District and the city's Office of Economic Development revealed that 44 percent of Denver residents are like me. Our occasional giving adds up to about $25 a year for each of us, which totals about $4.6 million a year to panhandlers.
Denver business leaders and city officials want us to stop. They say, with a straight face, that they care about panhandlers and that our impromptu donations only perpetuate the problems that beggars face. They say panhandlers need tough love if they're going to rise out of poverty. They point to the city's proposed $122 million, 10-year proposal to end homelessness, and suggest redirecting our $4.6 million a year in donations could significantly help fund this program.
With all due respect, I doubt that this study was motivated by humanitarian ideals. Business bureaus and economic development offices typically don't spend time trying to cure the complex problems of poverty, homelessness and panhandling. The objective was to figure out how to keep unattractive, malodorous, poor beggars from driving away tourists and other customers.
And I imagine their concerns are well-founded. There are many people who get nervous and/or scared when they see panhandlers, and they might avoid a shop that had a lot of beggars out front. But I'm not going to stop making my occasional donations to people on street corners.
Panhandlers play an important role in our society, because they are the visible face of poverty. The study in question focused on Denver residents, but a large percentage of middle- and upper-income families
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in the metro area live in suburban enclaves that are completely devoid of poverty. The tight restrictions of homeowner associations ensure that blight doesn't exist, and the cost of mortgages, HOA dues, assessments and mandatory repairs make it virtually impossible to maintain a home in these neighborhoods without a substantial income.
So if you live in a poverty-free area, drive on highways crowded with your peers, work in an office building full of successful people, and never see anyone on the low end of the economy, it would be easy to forget that poor people exist and that homelessness is a significant issue in Denver.
The suggestion that our $4.6 million in donations would be better spent on other programs is true, but irrelevant. I donate money to many charities, but these impromptu donations wouldn't exist if not for panhandlers. Beggars provoke impulsive contributions in the same way that tabloids near checkout counters provoke impulse buys.
Rather than asking us to boycott panhandlers, business and city leaders should think seriously about what they can do to reduce the social problems that contribute to panhandling. I don't know how much money they spent on this survey, but if their goal was to help the poor, the money could have been better spent by donating it to a program.
If you give money to panhandlers, don't stop. They're not getting rich off your donations, but they are serving a purpose. We shouldn't push the poor out of sight; we should push them out of poverty.
What is it about sports columnists and athletes that turns the majority of them into liberals? They spend their entire lives seeking excellence. The difference between success and failure in their profession is 100ths of seconds and inches of space. How, after spending that much effort, can they not see the benefits of hard work in other aspects of our society? Bueller? Anyone?
Regards,
TS
LOL!
I call it "French Revolution Aversion Syndrome." These prominent liberals, from sports stars to Hollywood figures to Ted Kennedy, feel:
1) No matter how much work they put in, they were lucky to have succeeded.
2) They didn't actually earn their success - it was given to them. They lack honest self-esteem.
3) They are deathly afraid their economic status is going to be taken from them by force, and thus...
4) They are willing to spend any amount of public money necessary to buy off the slavering hordes before they actually show up at The Compound with pitchforks and torches.
These types actually hate and fear the poor far more than conservatives do - they believe the poor are too stupid to succeed on their own. Their feelings of condescenscion and terror lead directly to their advocacy of massive social spending programs.
The author of this piece needs to understand a basic principle of government economics.
If you want MORE of something, you subsidize it.
If you want LESS of something, you tax it.
By subsidizing beggars, this in-duh-vidual is not making the problem any better (like the post about cats).
You mean that was you? What a coincidence meeting again on FR.
I don't consider voluntary giving to be liberalism in general, and certainly not at its worst.
Uhh....cotton. That IS their job.
Yeah, I know. I'm not naive. There's a guy by my house with a sign that says "stranded vet". He's been there since about May. You'd think he would have collected enough for a bus ticket anywhere by now. But he doesn't need a bus ticket, see. The only place he wants to go is right back to that corner.
Sorry, Millee, other FReepers had the same idea.
Never have, never will.
I believe psychologists call this "enabling".
"If a homeless person has a funny sign, he hasn't been homeless very long. A real homeless person is too hungry to be funny." - Chris Rock
I'll admit to playing guitar on the street with an open case a time or two - but I think *everybody* knew it was just for beer money :)
I growl at them. I mean, literally, bare my teeth and growl. You'd be amazed how quickly they leave you alone.
I'm very sure he was right!
:o)
One of my friends from back in the day was a church groundkeeper and was very adament about locking the church up at night to keep out the homeless people who try to get in there to sleep. It's necessary to protect the church and all, but it still didn't feel completely right either.
The professional beggars can clear 2-300 a day, tax free. Why get a minimum wage job and have to show up for work clean and decent?
On the other hand, there's a guy at the intersection of 14th St. and the interstate ramp (on the west side) who holds up a sign reading "WHY LIE? - I WANT A BEER." I always give him a couple of bucks 'cause (as I told him) I like an honest man.
Until you meet this particular homeless guy:
We give out $1 McDonald's gift certificates (2 or 3 buys a decent meal off of the dollar menu). Sure, they could conceivably be sold to other people for money, but eventually, someone who's hungry will get a meal. Handing out the certificates is a compromise we're comfortable with.
We always ask if the person would like the gift certificates before giving them out. In Detroit, we often got disgusted looks and "no" answers - they only wanted money. Here in TX, everyone (so far) has been very grateful and sincere.
There was a study done on a major intersection in the Detroit area, one we drove through nearly every day when we lived there. They found that beggars at that intersection were pulling in $200 - $300 a day. That's really good money. Why WOULD you work? Set your own hours, keep all the profits, pay no taxes... it's great!
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