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Giving money to strangers
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
This might have been done before, but let's bring it up again. What do you do when people request money from you randomly? Or, perhaps more importantly, what should you do?
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Otherwise it just depends on my mood, sometimes I wont give anything other times I will. Its more about how I'm feeling than anything.
Im the same.
Although if someone approached me for money after walking out of a ladbrokes then its a no.
Heh, that I've done before on many occasions.
You should do whatever you think it is right to do.
If someone was to ask for a quid for the bus or summat, yeah thats fine - if someone was to ask for a fiver/ask for more money and not say WHY they want it then ill politely say no.
A while back i was at cardiff train station and a guy asked me for a quid so he could get the train home - like a mug i gave it to him, only to see him ask no less than 4 other people for the same thing 5 minutes later. well pissed me off!
my dad however is always giving money when people ask. someone asked him for change the other day when i was with him - he didnt have any change on him so gave him a tenner that he had in his pocket. lucky guy :rolleyes:
I was out round Leeds a few weeks back and a lass (probs bout 25yrs old) came upto us in a bar and asked for 20p to catch the bus, I told her where to fuck. Afterwards I thought maybe I've being a bit harsh, but then when I bumped into the girl a few hours later when I was walking between bars and she asked for 20p again, now if she hasn't found 20p in 3 hours I'll bare my arse in church, safe to say I told her where to go again and when i mentioned she'd asked hours earlier her head dropped and she scooted off pretty quickly!
I give quite a bit of change to charitys etc. when there holding boxes outside supermarkets, and give the odd bits of money to beggars who look like they need it or if there meking an effort to play some nice tunes on an instrument in a town centre!
This is what I'm concerned about. If you give money, you risk being ripped off. If you don't give money, you risk your reputation + the fact that the person could really be in need. How can you tell?
Also, even if we can assume that everyone who asks for money is in need, how do you make sure you don't run out of money (without discriminating against others unfairly)?
for the stingy ones out there.. give it a shot! you'll realise a lot aren't 'scumbags' and are genuine people with problems, not someone to stare down your nose at
people at bus stops etc yea i wouldnt leave them stranded if i'd the money myself thats just plain selfish! taking into account yea they could just be tapping everyone goin past to get a few quid for themselves but fair play!
Neither day did i oblige, but shows what you can be letting yourself in for.
Does it?
People use different method of begging, but the reason behind it is the same - they need the money and need the help. So the ticket thing is a bit of scam but they do it because it obviously works, and it wors because people are more likely to give them money if they think they know how it's going to be spent.
That's because people love to judge the homeless.
I don't give a fuck what they spend it on anyway, if they spend it drink or drugs fair enough, that's what I spend it on.
If you don't want to give beggers money don't, you shouldn't feel you have to, but don't judge them for begging.
this issue has cropped up a few times and there seems to be quite an obvious divide in opinions towards it on this site!
Not the homeless, a young 17 year old chav who used to skip school and drink lambrini.
The people who trawl bar to bar asking for change for "the bus" aren't homeless but conmen/women who do this as a job! And in this instance for me its a simple case of....fuck off!
And I'm not a judge of the homeless, If I see what I believe to be a homeless person I'll always throw them a bit of spare change if I have it.
I'll also give spare change to buskers.....fair enough they might not be homeless and they might do that as a "job" but at least they are making an effort and actually trying to entertain for the money and not just conning people.
I rarely give money to people on the streets unless it is really cold. I buy the Big Issue when I can though, but obviously only from real vendors.
As for chuggers, I respect them. It's a hard job and they are also a part of the most cost effective way to fundraise... However, some have been quite naughty.
The ones who hang about bank machines annoy me more though.
Chris Rock
Ooooo.
I rarely visit the city anymore so I never encounter people asking for money. Even when I lived in there I didn't. And I usually wouldn't. Not to be a rude bitch but once you did, you were targeted as a tourist and many wouldn't leave you alone, especially the ones selling postcards.
Plus I never carry cash.
But there is this homeless guy I see every so often out in the burbs and he sits in taco bell in the winter because they let him, to get out of the cold. Sometimes, depending on who is working they will feed him, but other times not. I've seen him eat the sauce packets and it breaks my heart, I want to take him home, so when I leave I'll just order him a meal.
I've known several people, who, when in the city, instead of giving people money, they'll give them food. Whether it be leftovers that they happen to be carrying or they'll go to the nearest place and get them something.
Not sure exactly how this is empowering them. Isn't food, drink and ultimately housing more important? If they feel they can afford to drink and smoke then they will buy that stuff anyway, also it may be addiction that's contributed to them being homeless in the first place.
<for the stingy ones out there.. give it a shot! you'll realise a lot aren't 'scumbags' and are genuine people with problems, not someone to stare down your nose at>
Some of us aren't that rich ourselves, besides it is our money, we're not the council. I wouldn't ever regard someone who's genuinely homeless as a scumbag. If they were pretending to be, I would.
I would prefer to refer them to a shelter, also it is possible to register yourself as homeless with, the council, in fact! Concerned that people don't know about this though, and this is why they don't get the help they need.
Yeh but it's even harder to get out of it. A lot of homeless people have mental disabilities and poor education with little or no qualifications. The street is what they know best and it's hard for them to leave it.
It reminds me of having a drink with a homeless person, he was talking about his favourite song and he wrote down "I want to bake fee" on a piece of paper. It wasn't until he started singing "I want to break free" that I realised he was on about the Queen song. It's very hard to get people like that to intergrate into the "real world".
That seems very worrying, especially as quite a few people seem to think that homelessness is some kind of choice.
In that case, I don't think donating money is really the answer. It may be useful in the short-term, but ultimately people need empowerment not help. The main problem is that shelters can't seem to accomodate everyone at once.
Do you think it would be a good idea to build more shelters?
I am sure that many people on the street are aware that services (or lack thereof) already exist. Just because you're on the street does not make them ignorant... Many are probably more aware than most people and have possibly been rehomed, but then let down by a lack of other kinds of support and ended up sleeping rough again.