So, to get this out of the way, I'm a cisgender white man from a well-off family in a fairly affluent town. I'm making this post because I want to hear perspectives from those who are different from and likely significantly more knowledgeable than me. (Literally as I was writing this post, I came to the epiphany that I should probably more properly educate myself on socialism.)
TL;DR: What is your opinion on giving money to houseless people you see IRL?
I like to consider myself socialist/progressive in thought---in favor of wealth redistribution via various methods, live and let live, freedom for everyone as long as you're not materially harming anyone, etc.---but I grew up in a fairly conservative household (more socially than fiscally, but even then). Being in a rich area, I never really saw houseless people around unless I went to one of the nearby cities, and the general policy was keep walking and don't look. My parents definitely raised me to be kind and generous, but more in a detached "give to charity" way.
Rather recently, I've really embraced this idea of being socialist, and I've become very free with giving my money in particular (though I'm aware I could do more, like join a DSA branch or somethin'). I love giving to non-profit organizations when I can, I support creators I like on Patreon. I've even started giving to people on Fedi who I've seen need money for whatever reason. Spread the wealth, right?
Now, things have changed where I live, and even in my rich lil burb, you can usually find at least one refugee or houseless person when you go out to a grocery store or something. I just saw a guy who was standing outside a grocery store asking for spare change, and it was a rare occasion that I actually had cash in my wallet. On my way out, I gave it to him. Simple.
But I feel weird about it. I have all these ideas in my head from White America saying that they'll just buy alcohol or drugs with it or that they're scamming me or anything else like that. Then on the other hand, I think that it's just as likely (if not more) that they're going to spend it on things they actually need to live and how it's not my job to police how they use their money. And then on the third hand, I think that maybe it would be better to donate money to organizations that help out houseless people than just giving money to random people. Then on the fourth hand---you get the idea.
For those of you who actually read the whole post and didn't stop at the TL;DR, I have a few questions:
- Why in God's name did you actually read this whole thing?
- Are these feelings normal or am I just a self-centered prick?
- What are your opinions on giving money to houseless people you just randomly meet?
- As a bonus question for the socialists out there: Any recs on socialism learning resources for someone who likes reading, but doesn't like reading books?
For those of you who made it all the way to the end, thank you for reading my neurotic ramblings.
EDIT: I didn't really expect this to blow up... but thank you all so much for your perspectives on everything. It was exactly what I was hoping for and exactly what I didn't think I was going to get. I tried to read everything and I feel simultaneously less conflicted, but definitely more... not confused, but maybe full of ideas?
There is an awful lot of moralizing in huge essays here.
Homelessness is a complicated problem, and feeling confused, conflicted, or otherwise unsure is natural and probably wise. There is no clean, simple answer.
If you don’t want to give money to people on the street then you shouldn’t, regardless of what people here tell you. Instead, find a way to help that you feel more certain of. Maybe look for homeless shelters and programs local to you and go volunteer, that seems like a pretty safe option.
i'm not sure why you're surprised by this--or think it's weird--when OP asked a question which inherently invites moral reflection, and is themselves grappling with their own feelings of right and wrong on this subject. people should moralize this issue in any case; the way we collectively treat the downtrodden is extremely gross.
“Moralizing” is not the same as “moral reflection”. Moralizing is generally pontification, sermonizing, etc, with a focus on asserting your own air of (unfounded) superiority.
In essence, there are a bunch of holier-than-thou comments here.
...i hesitate to lean on the dictionary here but quite literally, that is what moralizing means, and you probably need to find a different word here to describe what you mean. it's genuinely not debatable. at least two of the word moralizing's main senses are completely synonymous with "moral reflection" and have been used that way for basically as long as it's been an English word:
I hesitate to lean on the dictionary, but (from the new Oxford American dictionary):
Or from the collins dictionary:
Dictionary definitions are hardly absent of debate, especially on a global platform where colloquial definition is arguably more important anyways. It’s probably better to use context and debate in the spirit of the argument rather than worry about semantics.
Such as in this case, where the point was to find a comfortable middle where OP could do the right thing and feel good about it… not to debate lexical scope.
my point here if you want to call someone holier-than-thou and be understood correctly in the context of this post, you should probably just use "holier-than-thou". this is a moral subject in which the OP is morally introspecting and asking for moral opinions from other people--the original meaning of the word moralizing. in such a context you scoffing about people in the thread moralizing is generally going to be interpreted as you being weird, not as you saying people need to get off their high horse. i am hardly the only person who found your phrasing strange, judging by upvotes.