Do You Give to Beggars?

[Ninot]

Depends. Often they say things that catch me off guard and feel guilty. Usually I just walk by though.

[Mrs. Tuberski]

i usually give them a few bucks if i have some cash on me. I dont feel like im being scammed if they buy beer or liqour with it, for after i give them the money its thiers to do with as they choose.

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Lancer
In the Phils I do in the US I don't.

I'm the exact opposite.

ACK!

[GePap]

I used to, but not anymore. Most of them would be better of getting help from an organization willing to feed or host them.

[LordShiva]

Or from an employer.

/me runs

[Jon Miller]

Sometimes, not really the ones who look like they are there all the time.

JM

[Deity Dude]

Depends. I've given beggars $20 a couple times. Sometimes nothing. If they are just honest I will. If they come up with the "my car ran out of gas and I need 75 cents to get back home" line I won't.

[Mrs. Tuberski]

I have a question. If your giving beggars money, after you hand over ur money to them where do u think you have the right to decide what they spend it on? This is something i have encountered with a few folks. Because ur kind and offer money ur decsion power ends when u hand over the cash doesnt it?

[Drogue]

I never do. Oxford has *loads* of beggars, however some are professional beggars who do it for the money but actually have places to live and welfare support. We were warned when we arrived by the college welfare support not to give to them, as many have more money than we do. As an alternative, our college JCR donates around £800 a term to charity.

I also have a rule that I don't donate to charities I don't either work with or have good knowledge of how they work. Giving money to some charities actually enables less than 20% of money to go where it's needed, the rest goes on admin and charity costs. However some charities manage to get this as high as 70% or even 80%. Giving to charity I find such a misnomer, as to me the key isn't whether you gave money, but to what charity.

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
I'm with Shiva. A little music. Maybe some juggling. Acrobatics. If they have a dancing bear, I'm hooked.

That's not funny when you see malnourished children as young as five years old performing on the street as beggars. It's organised begging, and it's horrible. I make it a point to never give anything to beggars, because most of them are part of organised begging, and I don't want to give anything to a system so utterly horrendous as that.

Children are kidnapped and have one of their limbs amputated so that they can beg for the people who control the racket. I am NOT adding to that. If people simply stopped giving to beggars, it would end.

[SlowwHand]

Actually I wasn't talking about butchered children.
That's not funny.

I just meant, yeah, I'll drop money in an open guitar case, and then I just ran with the thought.
Although a dancing bear would impress me. I was serious about that.

[Meticulous Man]

I sometimes give to beggars, depending on the situation. More often not. Although I suspect most of them are alcoholics or drug addicts that I think are to a great extent responsible for their own problems, given that I have no chance of changing their lifestyle I think it's just common decency to occasionally give a couple of euro(cent)s to people who seem to be in some kind of trouble.

[Vesayen]

Originally posted by aneeshm


That's not funny when you see malnourished children as young as five years old performing on the street as beggars. It's organised begging, and it's horrible. I make it a point to never give anything to beggars, because most of them are part of organised begging, and I don't want to give anything to a system so utterly horrendous as that.

Children are kidnapped and have one of their limbs amputated so that they can beg for the people who control the racket. I am NOT adding to that. If people simply stopped giving to beggars, it would end.

Are you ####ING crazy?

Yes, all the worlds beggars are part of one world-wide begging conspiracy, who control the banks,the media and the hungarian clothes-line manufacturing industry, with trillions of dollars invested and all of their effort is to get two dollars in quarters....

YOU MAKE A STAND YOU MORAL CRUSADER! STAND TALL!

Of course continue to buy products made with slave-labor style sweat-shop conditions and eat meat from animals which are tortured and buy unfair-exchange food but no no no, your going to make a STAND! No more! You won't let a handful of bastards trick you into charity!

I salute you ser!

[SlowwHand]

Ser?

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Vesayen
Are you ####ING crazy?

Yes, all the worlds beggars are part of one world-wide begging conspiracy, who control the banks,the media and the hungarian clothes-line manufacturing industry, with trillions of dollars invested and all of their effort is to get two dollars in quarters....

YOU MAKE A STAND YOU MORAL CRUSADER! STAND TALL!

Of course continue to buy products made with slave-labor style sweat-shop conditions and eat meat from animals which are tortured and buy unfair-exchange food but no no no, your going to make a STAND! No more! You won't let a handful of bastards trick you into charity!

I salute you ser!

Actually, a lot of the begging in India is indeed run by organised gangs; in the big cities, I'd say almost all of it is (where beggars are assigned to various intersections, and their rights to beg there are guarded by force).

But don't let your ignorance of conditions elsewhere in the world get in the way of your rants. WTF is "unfair-exchange food?"