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Is it ethical to give money to beggars?
gracelee
Veteran
Is giving money encouraging them to stay on the street?
Is giving them money increasing or decreasing the quality of there lives?
What is the general motivation for giving money? Is it to make them feel better or appease our own guilt?
If the individual doesn't get money through begging they may turn to crime? Or go and get a job?
difficult isn't it?????
I would love to hear your views!
Grace
Is giving them money increasing or decreasing the quality of there lives?
What is the general motivation for giving money? Is it to make them feel better or appease our own guilt?
If the individual doesn't get money through begging they may turn to crime? Or go and get a job?
difficult isn't it?????
I would love to hear your views!
Grace
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
First, that they are in some kind of situation where their likelihood of being able to earn money is tenuous. For example, in Bangkok you often see beggars who have amputated limbs or partially blind or are terribly crippled or have leprosy.
Second, that they will use the money for food or water or something constructive in their lives...not to go and buy beer or cigarettes. That's a bit tougher to judge.
Oh, and there is a third reason I've succumbed to on occasion -- thinking they'd mug me if I didn't give them some money.
Instead, keep some gift cards to an easily accessed food source (grocery store or fast food, whatever), or offer to buy them lunch, or take them somewhere to buy a coat. Of course, all those things take more work/planning.
If people are begging on the streets, they usually are not doing it from choice, although there are some who are drug addicts or in some form of vice. As a rule, we do not usually distribute money to them because we do not know what they would do with it so we feed them instead. Usually if I am having a meal and someone comes and asks me for money, i will ask them to order food and eat instead and i will pay for the meal.
Even when we feed the needy, we sometimes get criticised for feeding people who can work etc, as mentioned by others above. Actually, feeding the homeless is just one of the things we do, we also help those who want jobs find jobs. Sometimes it's just that they need a break, so we look for companies who will hire them and we will also see who are willing to work. It is our goal to get the homeless off the streets through whatever means possible.
I don't think every single person is better off living how I do. I know people who currently live on the streets, or have in the past, and they did it by choice. They didn't want a permanent shelter or any of the other things the rest of us consider necessary. But a lot of those people also were not beggars, most of them were dumpster divers, hobos, gutter punks, etc.
You never know a single thing about a homeless person by looking at them. We make a million assumptions when we see them, but we never know if we are right or not. They might be a junkie or a drunk. But they might not. Maybe they have mental health issues and cannot hold a job and were lost in our system that fails so many. Maybe they lost everything in the recession and just started having to beg to feed their kids who are living in a car 2 blocks over. Maybe they were homeless because their parents were homeless. Maybe their home burned down. You just never know, and it's not up to you to judge. It's only up to you to decide to give them something, or not. Give them a subway giftcard if you worry about giving them cash.
I saw the story about the homeless man who returned an expensive engagement ring to the owner. The fiance' of the lady set up a web page which has collected around $150,000 for the man.
How many of those people who donated to the site because the man did such an honorable thing? Yet would have walked by him with their heads down had they seen him on the corner?
I know what they'll spend the money on but I figure it'll either kill them, putting them out of their misery (I don't believe in the traditional rebirth thing), or it'll get them closer towards their rock bottoms where they'll do something about their drinking.
Hopefully it's the latter and hopefully I've planted a seed.
I know a few guys who've recovered from living on the streets. They're hugely respected in A.A.; most don't.
Sometimes I give money and other times I don't.
My only policy is to try to look at each circumstance as unique for me, the beggar, the offering and the moment.
To bring ethics into the equation is just trying to make one feel more comfortable with our actions. Lose the attempt at being comfortable or uncomfortable.
Just be as present as possible with that moment and see it all for the meditative opportunity that it can be.
You say that it upsets you to think this dollar you give might be spent in ways you don't approve of? Why? Once you give it away, it's not your money. How they choose to spend it is their karma, not yours. You have not penetrated the spirit of giving yet, which is to give and then let go of what you have given.
OK, so I don't trust this bum with money, so I'll buy him a sandwitch or bottle of water instead. That way I know for certain he's only getting what I approve of. Funny, the ungrateful bastard didn't even thank me. Again, you have not penetrated the spirit of giving, because you insist that along with your gift, the beggar must be thankful for you treating him as scum not worthy of making his own decisions.
Are you rich? If not, then a few thousand very rich people think you're nothing but a beggar, a leach with a hand out wanting to be given money and services you didn't work for or deserve. You don't deserve the "gift" of a decent government retirement paycheck because if you were not lazy, you would have saved enough for your own retirement. When you look at that beggar and see only a flawed untrustworthy, disgustful moocher, it is with the same eyes that the rich CEO looks at you. How does it feel?
The spirt of giving is to give because there is an opportunity to help someone and then put it out of your mind. For some reason, people find it almost impossible to do this simple thing.
But he might use your money to buy a bottle of cheap booze? So what. Unless you're living the life of a beggar or homeless person, then you have no right to tell them what to do with the few dollars they are given. When you have no hope, no family, no pride, and nobody who cares about you, then maybe you'll find a few hours numbness in drink to be about the only thing that gets you through the day. You don't like it? Roll up your sleeves and help at the homeless shelter or soup kitchen.
So don't judge. Just give, then put it out of your mind, and maybe thank whatever karma or gods you believe in that it isn't you with the hand out -- yet.
As for myself, whenever I give money or whatnot to someone on the street, it may not always be a gift that bears the greatest fruit, but when I give out of compassion and kindness, I'm not really thinking about what I'll get out of it as much as I'm hoping that it will help relieve some of the suffering the person I'm giving it to may be experiencing, whether it happens to be food, money, or what have you.
I don't know how people will use my gifts, or if it my giving helps encourage them to remain on the streets (though I doubt it), but I tend not to think about it. Since I have a job and a roof over my head, I don't really feel that I'm in a position to judge what someone who has neither does with a dollar or two I may happen to give them. I honestly can't imagine how much it sucks to be homeless and hungry, especially in the winter.
As if we have the right to tell them what to do with their lives because they are so blessed to receive our assistance. Remember a big part of Buddhism is reducing attachment and expectations. That includes attachment and expectation of the outcome of generosity. It's no different than those who stand in line at the grocery store and judge every item someone uses their food stamps for. Worry more about yourself. Chances are you have plenty to fix in your own life without telling someone else how to properly live theirs.
He never passed an opportunity to give to beggars. He insisted on paying all my expenses. Generosity is a state of mind and being.
I think it's fine to ask someone what they need. If you wonder if you can help in another way, then ask. But it isn't up to anyone to decide what the person needs. Just because you feel they should have different clothes, doesn't mean you get to decide that for them.
In the US, 40% of homeless men are veterans. 40% of overall homeless people are mentally ill.
Both of those are groups of people we routinely fail as far as getting them the help they need. Throwing all the mentally ill out on the street from the 50s to the 80s increased our homeless rates exponentially. There is little community housing for people who are unable to care for themselves. They have no means to get medications that enable them to function and have a chance at a job. It's a vicious circle, as are many social issues.
What is the best for them? Give or not give them money?
I'm just saying I think it's better to actually give people what they need, and really, nobody needs money, just the things it can buy. If they need clothes or shelter, help them find that, if they need food, buy them a meal. Handing a person a dollar doesn't really communicate much, but asking them what they need and spending the time to help them get it is a much more personal act. You can give a million dollars to charity without ever touching someone's hand out of comfort, or wrapping a warm blanket around them when they're cold, and that human contact, that expression of 'I care,' is more important than money.
I would love to go to Thailand and spend time with the people there, if you're willing to purchase my ticket. That is out of my means. But, I've spent a good deal of time with the greatly impoverished, the people who aren't even well enough to be able to sit on the street and ask for money, in my own communities. I'm sorry you seem think if that's not as worthy or important as the level of suffering that you've witnessed (as I don't consider it a contest) and that makes my opinion inferior.
Here is some interesting info
http://www.kashgar.com.au/articles/To-Give-or-Not-to-Give-When-Travelling-Abroad-the-Issue-of-Begging
Sometimes I give when I'm on the street, when I get a certain vibe from them. Like an earnest vibe.
I never give when they start off with an obvious lie, which they often do, "My car just broke down..." is the most common one. It loses effect when you see the same dude saying it on different days.
Some homeless people scare the crap out of me and I honestly don't want to spend any more time with them, let alone whip out my wallet in front of them. It depends on where I'm at, who's around me... a lot of things. The last time my girlfriend gave a cigarette to some guy on a corner, he became really weird and demanding and started screaming obscenities. I had never been happier for the light to change in my life.
I always give when they're singing/playing music, good or bad, because I enjoy that. Just the other day I gave money to a woman as she was setting up before I even heard her play.
I'm not heartless, I've given nearly twenty bucks before because this woman's story really got to me. I just think I probably encounter this more than most people (but of course, still less than some). I certainly encounter it more than I did 5 or 10 years ago, living in much different neighborhoods.
But @Cinorjer raises some interesting points. Perhaps I'll try giving money to every homeless person I see for the next few weeks and see how it goes. Another thing I've always thought I should do is carry granola bars on me. It seems a better gift...
I ask as it may be an avenue that others can catalyse as you did.
I ended up on the streets through a combination of drug abuse and mental illness, I was lucky enough to get a spot in a shelter after leaving London to head back to the north of England and then was moved to a halfway house for people with long term mental health problems. I moved from there to independent living after about three years.
I see that random gifts were welcome. Is it possible to elaborate further so perhaps people who don't and have never lived on the streets may gain a insight into the issues typically faced and how they may be overcome; also how assistance from a generally uninvolved community may be best employed?
Its a long and complicated issue - everybody's story amongst the homeless community is different, though there are a lot of coincidental factors. I'll have a good think about it and get back to you.
He had to leave town -suddenly- 5 yrs earlier, but now he's back.... very thin, sickly looking, dirty, weak and weary from 5 yrs 'on the road' (homeless).
He sits down at the counter and is given a plate of hot food- delicious hot, homemade food the likes of which he hasn't seen in a long long time. - for free. He's very grateful and very humble, and thanks the owner Idgie with tears in his eyes.
As he begins to eat, Idgie notices his hand shaking as corn and stuff falls off his fork. He seems embarrassed.
Idgie gently pats his hand and says to him quietly- "Come with me". She takes him out back and hands him a flask of whiskey to steady his hands and help him feel better.
He is just as grateful as he was for the plate of hot food.
This scene always sticks with me and makes me tear up.
Idgie gave Smokey Joe what he needed to feel better, now, without judgement, without lectures, without looking down on him. THAT is true compassion.
I think the idea behind this scene is one we can apply to seeing homeless people, on the street today, who need help... give help- but without strings attached and judgements.
If you can't give help without judgement, then it's no help at all -- it's ego & control.
I give what I can, be it money (when I have some) and (always) recognition, learning the person's name and spending time recognising them as my sister or brother. The only hope is that, should I, too, ever be in their worn=down shoes, someone would do the same for me.
We are urged to give alms to monks and nuns of the sangha. The homeless and destitute, caught in the maelstrom of poverty caused by money itself, are our fellow human beings in the greater sangha of all sentient beings.