Betterment and Praxis

1. Why in God’s name did you actually read this whole thing?

I don't know

2. Are these feelings normal or am I just a self-centered prick?

I think a lot of people hold these worries and prejudices so I'd say it's normal.

3. What are your opinions on giving money to houseless people you just randomly meet?

I'm usually busy and don't have cash on me so I don't give money. What my grandpa used to do is that if someone asked money for food, he'd go buy the food with the person. This way, he'd be more likely to 'give' the money in an appropriate amount and he'd make sure that this person would not harm themselves with the money. It's something I've always been proud of from him.

My brother-in-law has worked in homeless charity for a long time, not just on the front lines but as executive director, too. He told me that handing cash directly to someone on the street is something he never does, unless he knows that person personally from interacting with them at a shelter or in relation to some other support program. Folks can get so much more in terms of assistance and services if they're connected to a program. The programs run more efficiently, so your donations to a homeless charity will provide much more than a donation to an individual person. Finally, they want people to participate in these programs, so they can get people the support they need, not just in terms of housing and food, but mental health services, job training, all sorts of stuff.

You're right: make your donations to a charity of your choice, and go do some volunteer time, too.

Also just to call back to your comment on the dsa, it got me thinking.

I do think a great thing you can do is volunteer your time or be a proponent of things that can actually be a solution to the systemic issues that lead to large amounts of unhoused people. Social housing is a thing that's starting to be discussed in many places across the US, and I am very close with someone who was a key part of getting the initiative in Seattle passed. Her involvement in that has definitely made me look to participate in similar stuff where I live

Give if you feel like it. Don't feel bad you can't or don't. Acts of charity might not mean much for the world, but at the same time it could mean the world to someone.

Someone once popped in a Domino's pizza when I was picking an order up, he was trying to count out change for a soda, and also wasn't wearing shoes. I bought it for him and also gave a spare mask I had (it was covid time and workers felt a little uneasy with this person inside).

The sweet little smile he had warmed my heart (something worth more than $5), the $5 itself meant more to him than me.

Doesn't matter too much if half the time it gets used on smokes or drinks... if it can help someone out genuinely trying to escape a struggle 1 every 10 times I'm happy.

The feelings are very normal. And there is no good answer or solution other than voting for politicians who would take that issue seriously and make actual change. But they are rare to find.

My personal approach is, I stopped giving to random people asking for money. There are some long-term homeless people in my area that I recognize and I will give them some change occasionally. I don't do it because I think it will change their situation or even help them but just because they deserve some kind of "happiness". And I don't care if they find happiness by buying alcohol, cigarettes, any other kind of drugs, food, or anything else.

With random people asking for money, there are just too many people trying to take advantage of the generosity of others. And since I am aware that my contribution wouldn't help someone who is in actual need anyhow, I'd rather not give it to someone who is trying to take advantage of me.

Donating to charities is usually the better approach if you want to help others. Just put in some effort into researching the charity before donating as some of them are also a scam but in general, even if they only use 70-90% of my donation to actually help others, it goes a longer way than giving that money to an individual.

I feel like any response I provide would already be covered by the reply from @Thorned_Rose@kbin.social so I will just suggest that if you have free time you might want to consider volunteering for a local organization that does outreach to houseless people (preferably one that aligns with principles such as Housing First). I do have some recommendations for alternatives to reading books though:

(All YouTube links proxies through a common Invidious instance)

Wikipedia articles. While this is often ridiculed, they often provide a great starting point for knowledge. Then, if there's a claim you're skeptical of or that is especially interesting to you, follow the citation provided. If it's a paywalled article, sci-hub (not a legal endorsement, for educational purposes only) should get around it, and for books that you might want to read a section on that get paywalled the same applies to libgen (same disclaimer too).

Podcasts. This is one you have to be careful with. A lot of podcasts can sound authoritative on a subject while completely misrepresenting it (see Joe Rogan, any IDW-adjacent podcast, etc.) So check sources vigilantly. I personally recommend The Iron Dice: a history podcast currently going over the fall of Weimar Germany. [Also check out the creator's YouTube channel Three Arrows.

YouTube Channels. The same warning given to podcasts applies to these as well. Some personal endorsements:

• Jonas Čeika - CCK Philosophy. Heavy emphasis on philosophy and applying it to history and politics.
• Anark. Communicates anarchist theory providing historical examples and practical applications.
• Not Just Bikes. Brief explorations into urban planning and the importance of diversifying our available modes of transportation.
• Eco Gecko. Another channel largely focused on urban planning, but from a more theoretical and heavily research-backed standpoint.

I don't simply because the homeless in my area are all active users and they spend the money on heroin. Instead I donate to outreach programs when I can.

Wether you support private ownership or state ownership of the means of production, social programs that support citizens are just sound public/economic policy. You know the saying, ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. There is mountains of evidence that the same goes for social programs versus the opportunity/effect costs that come with crime, homelessness, lack of education, sickness, & other ills. Even if you don't believe in any of that, you need only look at the correlation between HDI and GDP per Capita to see the effect for yourself. Taxes (that fund social programs) are investments that pay dividends.

Obviously, corruption, crime and inefficiency at scale eat away at these dividends. But tax evasion is not something society should aspire to. It's just crime, and one that ultimately makes your preferred economic system look and perform worse, regardless of the flavour.

Here's a more primitive example: if you are really rich and you live next to some slums, you can spend massive amounts of money on walls, insurance premiums, vandalism cleanup, and armed guards and live in perpetual paranoia that your neighbours, or worse, your armed guards will rob you. Or, you can put all that same money into affordable living conditions for your neighbours. It'll actually cost the same or less, but now you get a pretty view, and more friends to invite over to parties.

So yeah, income, wealth redistribution, taxes & social programs, always a net benefit to everyone.

I think we have a responsibility to do what we can. To me that especially means treating the homeless with dignity and respect.

If i have 5$ I'm going to spend it on irresponsible things anyways. Why not give it to somebody else. Sure they might spend it on drugs or something you don't approve of. But they might not. Why not give them the dignity to choose for themselves.

I used to give a bit when asked, even when directly asked for "some change for a beer". That was about ten years ago when I was a student and didn't have a lot of money myself.

I have always considered myself lucky having been born into circumstances that allowed me to become financially well-off and healthy, even though my parent aren't wealthy or anything like that.

From this point of view, I always thought giving a little bit away, which I won't even feel, to someone less fortunate than myself, was very reasonable.

And it is absolutely no business of mine to care what someone does with the money I give them. If I gave someone money and expected them to spend it in a certain way, that would be incredibly patronizing. Who am I to judge? If I lived on the street, I would probably try to make my days a bit lighter with a beer or two or three.

Today, it is different. While I earn good money now, I give less, and it is often on my mind why. I like to believe that it is the external circumstances that changed, though. First of all, the sheer quantity of people actively asking me for money, mostly when I am waiting for a train, would mean a more considerable sum of money than I was used to. Secondly, often the people asking are obviously users. For instance, there is a very active open crack scene where I live. This is different from the beer or two, which I to this day never had a problem supporting. It is often not even homeless people but rather people in dire need to support their opiate addiction.

This has become so obvious that I mostly opt out of giving money. Sometimes my gut tells me that this is one of the "good old beggars" or they just cone across as sincere and I give.

To conclude: opiates are hell and I want the good old times back when I did not feel conflicted when supporting less fortunate fellow citizens with a little change.

B/c you care.

Entirely normal.

Meh.

There are fantastic videos, like YouTube has a series on Crash Course World History that I highly recommend. Before anything, start with literally the first one - and maybe go through them all rather than jump straight to socialism, bc it helps to understand context.

I advise to think of the whole affair like a "process", rather than an end goal unto itself. You might literally be doing them harm even, as in you give them cash, they buy booze, then freeze to death after drinking themselves into a stupor. Then again, even if they buy drink/drugs, that's their choice while what you offered was a kindness. And round and round the logic chain goes. Go with your gut, and don't worry too much - you literally are not in control of the outcome, only your own self. Also, I tend to buy food. I'm not helping, most likely, but it's what I do. For some, literally the best thing you could do would be to offer a job? Yard work or whatever. But many are not capable of that. I even took a pay cut and significant QoL cut trying to enter a job where I could help people more directly, and found out the hard way that you can't fix people, even when they ostensibly are asking for exactly that (a lesson I keep having to relearn constantly). Anyway, your own journey will look very different than mine, but that's why I say it's a "process": you need to go through it, each step of the way, so don't worry that you haven't "arrived" yet at a perfect understanding - that's literally impossible. If you want to offer food, or money, or nothing - all of that is your choice, and so long as your actions are motivated by true compassion then I think that's freaking awesome. Do what you can do - it really changes you, if you don't - and learn not to worry about what you can't control (somehow? I dunno how, I haven't done that myself yet!).

If you do not want people hanging around and begging, do not give money directly. However have well funded social services and charities. I feel this way because I lived through a town that got over run with beggers and I am not exagerating. They would even take the train in for the day from the city. Town hired some people to talk to anyone giving them money and ask them to stop. A month later they were gone. People do what works including begging.

In México, some people will opt to give them food, clothes or even cans (so they can sell). There's homeless people who collect aluminum cans, PET, cardboard and some people will give them money too. I think here most people see when they're trying to work.

I'm used to giving money in general, or whatever I can, but you can see when they'll spend it in drugs or alcohol, even then I sometimes give them money, but I prefer not to since here buying or even searching for drugs can put your life at risk. Also, most alcoholics violent other people when drunk and that's a no no for me.

Not gonna lie, I'm biased when giving money because where I live, they have their reputation, most people knows one or two and you can be sure they use the money to buy food or similar, but others have even trashed what they get or drop food because they intended to get money, not other kinds of help. Still, I can see why most people doesn't care and just gives money, I'd prefer to buy them things but it's not on my possibilities rn.

I try to keep this approach in mind: the bad actions of a few should not prevent us from doing good by a lot of people. Don’t deprive 9 people of food money you could give them because the 10th might use it on drugs.

I can’t find a source right now, but I believe that begging also lies near the end of the poverty cycle. If someone has resorted to that, it’s likely that they have no other options for income.

My experiences have been where I've been eating outside at a restaurant, and someone asks me for money. I tell them to order anything off the menu, and I'll pay. Every single one has turned me down. This has been at least 3 times in Orlando. I have also spent some time in the poorer parts of town, and I work in a hospital where many come. Even having gotten to know some homeless people and respecting them does not make me more inclined to give money to strangers.

Man, I've thought these exact thoughts so often.