Comments on: Begging

By: * Weekly Highlights: January 23, 2009

* Weekly Highlights: January 23, 2009 — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 01:57:41 +0000

[...] Smart Life — Here’s a good list to get your 2009 going in the right financial direction.Begging at Four Pillars — Very interesting. I’ll let you read and decide for [...]

By: Mr. Cheap

Mr. Cheap — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:36:42 +0000

Valerie: I definitely understand your perspective on the matter. As “The Butterfly” from Zorba the Greek (http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/~berument/personal/zorba.htm half way down the page) makes the point, sometimes we can do harm by trying to help. I’m not entirely convinced you can divorce the two (your son’s friends are challenging him about the consequences of his actions: is it still moral if he recognizes his actions may be harming the person he’s trying to help?).

I think if we decide we want to help someone, we also accept an obligation to try to make sure we don’t harm them in the process (with physicians this is codified as an oath to “do no harm”). In many cases I think the world would be a better place if people focused more on not harming each other and less on “helping” each other.

By: Slinky

Slinky — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:33:42 +0000

I always say give a hand up, not a hand out. The guy that offers to put a cart back at Aldi’s in return for the quarter gets the quarter. The guy with the sob story gets nothing. Other than that, I prefer to give to charities who also subscribe to the hand up philosophy.

By: Valerie Crook

Valerie Crook — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 12:30:09 +0000

I just had this discussion with my teenage son. He’s 2000 miles from home in San Diego for military training. He and his buddies are often approached for money or food, and he almost always gives away his pocket change. His buddies give him a hard time about it since the change may be used to buy drugs or alcohol. My son has a kind heart and I want to encourage him to perform small kindnesses whenever possible. When he asked for my advice, I told him “What you give is between you and God; what they do with it is between them and God”.

By: Weekly Roundup - Winter Reprieve Edition | Cash Money Life : Cash Money Life

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 12:05:47 +0000

[...] Begging. An interesting article on a social issue I have no answers for. [...]

By: Mechanonuke

Mechanonuke — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 02:18:30 +0000

Ok, I agree that being homeless is difficult, especially in Canada during winter. It can also be argued that some legitimately homeless people need help and have the ‘right’ to beg.
BUT…there are also professional panhandlers, that as one post above pointed out, earn a full time income swindling regular folks with a conscience. Two cases stand out in my mind…..one was of a man coming up to me on the subway and asking me to ’spare a loonie or a toonie’. Come on now! Not even change! At rushhour, just going down the platform at least half a dozen people opened up their wallets.
….OR a couple of years ago, seeing a man who sat in the middle of the road at Younge/Dundas in a wheelchair panhandling cars during the red stoplight; then later seeing him running down the street wheelchair under arm! Scammers indeed.

By: A Lap Of The Blogs : WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com

A Lap Of The Blogs : WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 01:26:07 +0000

[...] Cheap from Four Pillars talks about his philosophy on beggars. Remember, this is the guy who wants to wear a t-shirt that has a picture of a tuxedo on it to his [...]

By: Ray

Ray — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:08:11 +0000

You can usually tell the hard luck cases, or the truly pathetic ones. I’m also shocked that noone has stated that being a beggar has to be tough. Public humiliation, non-steady income, unpredictable weather, wondering if you’ll eat, wondering where you’ll sleep. If the beggar is really homeless in Vancouver then damn, it’s really rainy and cold here. I don’t pick cotton for $2/day, I can afford to flip him a loonie to do with as he wishes. Money isn’t that hard to make, but if he has to endure all that on the random chance he’ll get a loonie from me, then so be it. Your comments are understandable about the aggressive ones, or the fraud ones that fake homelessness.

By: Shevy

Shevy — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:30:09 +0000

I’m concerned that giving a panhandler money does not solve whatever the root problem is. It doesn’t get someone who is mentally ill any treatment or get someone with a substance problem into detox or provide safe housing for a homeless person or help a teen who has faced physical or sexual abuse, etc.

If we dealt with those root causes how many panhanders would be left?

By: Andrea

Andrea — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:49:36 +0000

There is a woman in Toronto that drives me nuts. In the span of a few weeks I saw her no less than 7 times on the Queen streetcar in Toronto, always between Yonge and Sherbourne (she usually snuck on the back doors at Yonge during rush hour when they don’t check everyone’s proof of payment). She always had the exact same speech, word for word:
“Excuse me! I haven’t eaten in 3 long days! Imagine that! 3 long days! Also, I live on the streets” and then she’d go around asking people for change.

After a couple times, she came to me directly and I flat out told her that I didn’t buy her story because it was the same thing over and over. That didn’t stop her from coming up to me a few times after that (always to be told the same thing). One time I actually saw her twice within 2 days of each other. She sat in the seat next to me, did her spiel, and I told her that her math must be wrong because it should be 5 days by now. She then proceeded to basically admit that she’s been lying but that she’s always broke anyway, so could I please give her some change? I told her she should have walked the few blocks and saved her streetcar fare (which I saw her pay) if she was that desperate for cash. Ugh, she drives me nuts!

On the other hand, there is a guy I pass by often on my way to work who I really like. He’s polite, he doesn’t harass people and he’s always extremely grateful to get any food that I offer him, even if it happens to be leftovers that I didn’t eat. Anytime I happen to see him outside of Subway when i got for lunch, I make a point of buying a footlong and giving him half. It does kind of concern me that I haven’t seen him in quite a few weeks, but I’m hoping he just found a nice warm place to hole up for the winter.