in my neighborhood I do not, sorry I have had to maney freinds who reached in there pocket only to have a gun/knife put in there chest... but if were at a gas station/some where we are on film or not in my neighborhood I will give them change from time to time... I rarely carry dollars on me...

BadComrade wrote:There's this fucking woman that walks around the neighborhood I work in, and she walks up to every single person on the street and says "Do you have a dollar?" A dollar. Who the fuck asks for "a dollar"? I guess she expects everyone she annoys to assume that the cost of living (on the streets) must have gone up. She weighs about 280, so she's not starving. Also, there's nothing "homeless" about her... she's pretty well groomed, is always wearing different outfits when I see her, etc. A friend of mine once gave her a dollar, walked in to a store, came out two minutes later, and she asked him again. He's not exactly someone who "blends in to the crowd" either, so he went off on her. Whenever I see her, I just stare at her like I'm about to kill her.

Stare at her like you're about to kill her? WTF, Chris? So she begs for a dollar and her appearance doesn't quite betray the obviously unfortunate circumstances she's mired in. How do I know that she is mired in some unfortunate circumstance? Because she stands on the street, begging for money. So fucking what? And your friend, "going off on her" because she didnt' recognize him on the way out of the store? What did he expect, a medal? A cookie?

No, it's more likely that your friend wasn't giving anything away. He was attempting to buy a feeling of superiority and stupidly expected some self-effacing display of slavering bum-gratitude. And when it didn't come, when his not-exactly-kindness wasn't even recognized, he was angry and yelled at her. What a pussy. What douchebaggery.

If you're going to give, give, and be fucking done with it. It's not a gift, it's not a kindness if you expect something in return.

Next time, instead of "staring at her like you're going to kill her," or "going off on her," try to help her out. Explain to her that, to be a more effective beggar, she should dress more "homelessy." Maybe dirty up her hair a bit. Put some holes in those pants. Tell her that, if she looked more like you think a bum should look like, you'd be much more inclined to give her that dollar.

BadComrade wrote:
This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, but yesterday, one of my co-workers saw her outside his apartment counting about a stack of 50 singles.

Fifty whole dollars! Why, with that kind of money I could buy the moon!

The day I can't spare a dude a dollar is the day my finances are so fucked that I'LL be asking for your change.

I don't care if they're "scamming" or whatever - seems to me that the various permutations of "unemployed and begging for money" don't actually change that much with a sob story. Crackhead? Fuckit, I'd rather he be asking for money than out attacking people. Whatever. I have, other people don't - why be a dick about it? Show some love, it comes back to you.

I don't know. Maybe I'd just like to live in a world where people didn't care about money, and if someone says, "Guys, help me out!" someone would stand up.

Yes, I think less of people who don't.

if i've got singles or change on me, i'll give. how could i not? i've spanged, i've dumpstered, i've lived on the goodwill of others... it would be such a dick move not to ease that along for somebody else now that i'm making a little scratch.

when i worked in the west loop i'd give or not give to the various panhandlers along jackson boulevard based on how recently i'd previously donated. these days i'm usually giving to the guys (and one lady) at the 90/94 offramps.

and who cares if the money goes to food versus booze/drugs! fuck it -- if i was standing at an offramp for eight hours, worrying about getting hit by a truck, breathing shitty exhaust fumes, i'd want to get mighty loaded too.

additional tangential story:

when i lived down in champaign-urbana, there was a guy that ALWAYS needed some money so that "he and his wife could catch the bus back to rantoul." i got there in '93 and heard that story until i left in '02. after a while, he recognized me and wouldn't bother with the story but i'd still give him money. so one night i'm walking over to the brass rail to get drunk. he sees me. asks me, "got any change?" i say no. he tells me, "here's 40 cents. how's THAT for a change!" and gives me 40 cents...

it was genius. made me laugh all night.

One time my dad and I were walking and we got the similar bus fair story. We told him sorry and just walked on. Someone else did hand him some change right afterwards. He was asking for like 50 cents if I remember correctly.

We run into him later after we come back from dinner. He asks us again for bus fair, and again we say no. His hand slips from his pocket, and he accidently pours out loads of coins all over the sidewalk. Hah, his face quickly turns to a frown as we walk off...

I dont know; Ive been physically harrassed before by homeless people wanting spare change. This hasnt tarnished my image of them though - I really like to just give them food rather than money because I dont know where its going. I do feel bad for them, but I dont want to help them continue any habits that may have gotten them there in the first place.

hench wrote:additional tangential story:

when i lived down in champaign-urbana, there was a guy that ALWAYS needed some money so that "he and his wife could catch the bus back to rantoul." i got there in '93 and heard that story until i left in '02. after a while, he recognized me and wouldn't bother with the story but i'd still give him money. so one night i'm walking over to the brass rail to get drunk. he sees me. asks me, "got any change?" i say no. he tells me, "here's 40 cents. how's THAT for a change!" and gives me 40 cents...

it was genius. made me laugh all night.

Fucking brilliant.

i feel more sorry for the shit-workers who hustle all day long and get yelled at by assholes for $6.50/hr, so they usually get the extra dollars in my wallet that might otherwise go to 'bums'.

Marsupialized wrote:there's no way I could give to every bum every time....sometimes you get hit up 5 times in 2 blocks

This is but one of my problems with this. The few times a year I'm in downtown, I'm hit up maybe 4 times in as many minutes. I usually just say "sorry" because the giving is now illegal, and I prefer giving to an actual organization, anyway. The real bitch of it is when they get you and you've just gotten out of your car. There's no way I can risk having to possibly pay for a vindictive person's damage; there's no way I can enjoy myself if I don't give it to 'em and I think they're out their stripping my car; there's almost no way to prove vandalism, etc., so I always worry that if I don't give 'em a buck or so, then I'll be driving home sans windshield. Unfortunately, that is the cost of parking, as it were.

On a related note: I would like to start seeing more of those donation jars by the cash registers at 7-11s and places like that dedicated for the homeless rather than MS, CF, CP, etc. Those organizations get a shit ton of private funding. I doubt the homeless get a commensurate share. As evidence, the lack of such jars would suggest this.

Like I said, it comes down to this: I don't like people that beg for money when they don't deserve it. If you come at me with a "who are you to decide who is and who isn't deserving of money", I'll tell you that I am, because it's my fucking money that I worked for. There's a "tip jar" at the Mexican restaurant I go to when I'm at work. I pay for my food, they wrap it in foil and hand it to me. This is not deserving of a tip... this is something they're paid hourly for. If I was eating there, and the waitress was going out of her way to refill my drink, get me napkins, etc, then I'd give her 20-25% of whatever the bill was. Fuck people begging for money they don't deserve. I would never put a tip jar on the counter of the record store I work in, with my reasoning being that it's "hard work" to go grab the CDs that people want to buy from behind the counter.

This is the "Mr. Pink" speech for the 21st century.

I hit the tip jar in places like that for a buck like it was my religion. I have heard that the workers don't get the money, that management just takes it, but I don't want to believe that.

What I really hate are the people who try and foist a service on you like a shoe shine, or a sloppy washing of your car windows and then are all like "Fuck you, pay me". No one really hits me up for money anymore, tho 5 years ago my weblog was choked with bum stories on a near daily basis.

The new think I see downtown is "Help I am stranded" people. They sit and don't bother anyone, but it is weird that suddenly 5 people are stranded within a mile, when before last year I hardly ever saw such a thing. The people change, but the spots are cherry and they are always occupied by people trying to bet back to Florida or Hollywood.

"Why lie? I just want a beer" signs don't move me, possibly because I have never wanted a beer. A fishing pole with a line extending into a tin cup? I hope they never find your body.