I never give change, only offer to buy people food, and only once has someone taken me up on that. This summer I've been seeing a lot of hipster assholes standing at intersections with "Traveling and broke" written on cardboard, which is literally the shittiest reason for panhandling I've ever heard of, if you're too stupid to budget properly for your vacation then you deserve to get stuck. The kicker is they're usually wearing high end sunglasses and clothes nicer than mine but have the balls to ask me for change.

I'm sorry but if you're needing to go on food stamps then yes you should be selling your fucking Mercedes. That mindset always confused me, if you need money, and you have shit worth a lot of money, sell it and get the money.

^still remember seeing this white girl on Robson with a sign that says too ugly to prostitute.

Probably a late 90s, early 00s car, car wasn't worth much second hand?.

This reminds me the time CRS bought a homeless man a sandwich, and the hobo bitched at him, saying he wanted money instead and that the sandwich was too much for his "teeth".

When I was in Beijing or HK I didn't see anyone begging for money. But then again in Beijing I most went to tourist place so most likely the police have beat all the beggar out and in HK well not sure why I don't see them......

newer then what I drive and I work full time and pay taxes... It doesn't matter the year the fact is shes scamming people that feel bad for her and its a fucken joke... That's one reason why I would never give a person begging for money cash.

There's always this fucker in downtown that needs money to get to whistler or some shit. He used the same story on me twice in seperate occassions..

Reminds of this South Park episode...

Hey, if the car is fully paid off, why sell it and end up getting a POS rust bucket?

^ because you're broke?

still worth a few thousand dollars. At least you get to put food on your table rather than having a car that can't feed you.

:whistle:

Yea, I'm gonna ride public transit to bring my premature kids home.

This reminds me of this bottle collector in my alley a couple years ago. She would go through everyone's garbage looking for empty bottles and if you were standing around she would come up and ask for change or ask the person to bring her empty bottles from inside your house.

One day I'm driving down my street when I see the same woman parked behind someones house putting the empty bottles in her Lexus SUV. You can't trust anyone nowadays.

I was at the Burger King on Granville earlier this year. Ordered myself a Jr. Whopper, a homeless guy comes in and begs me to get him something to eat. I'm like "sure why not, make it 2 whopper juniors" ... then the guy was like "c'mon man make it at least a regular whopper" ... :seriously:

Worst part is that I caved and actually got him a regular whopper, his meal cost more than mine lol

If a person asks me for change for food and say they are hungry, I will give them some food from a convenient place like McDonalds or something. I will never, again, give any pan handler money. Not when I see them completely able-bodied and wearing name brand clothing.

The only time I felt that what I did was appreciated was when a bum, cried and said thank you after I bought him a coffee and a McGriddle. The dude was geniunely desperate for food.

lol, whats the big deal.

if u have spare cash to throw away, then throw it away at them.

if you don't then you don't.

wanting control of how that money is used, is like not donating blood because you don't know who the blood will go to.

who the fuck cares.

either you give them money because you can, or you don't because you don't want to. the reasons and excuses behind the reasons are... negligible. only you care. the only real result is whether money was given out or not.

what's the diff between a beggar driving a car... vs mcdonalds trying to up sale u on a super size?

both you're throwing money away that you can afford. and both you're not sure where the money is actually going and how it's actually being used.

so really who the fuck cares. if a super hot girl came up to me and asked me for a dollar, i would just as easily give it to her as some poor bum. DEPENDING ON HOW I FEEL.

i dont really care HOW they use it. i just know they WANT the money... so it's just up to me whether i wanna satisfy their want. how they use it, who knows, there's no guarantee unless you fucking follow them and watch them spend it. but who the fuck has time for that... who the fuck cares!!!

they want money, you have money. you decide, yes or no. don't need to think so hard or deep.

you're just another person they're going to ask. as soon as u give or dont give, your use is over. they're on to the next person. your concern on what happens after is ... useless.

even if the bum uses the money to buy crack or whatever, at least he's happy lol. if it werent for your money, he'd probably break into something... like no matter what, he's going to get what he wants.

the opportunity is there for you to possibly minimize any desperate attempt by the beggar to somehow gain more money through more evil means.

and like i said, if you're too fucking poor that you have to count pennies and quarters and loonies... then you fucking keep that money in your pocket and use it yourself.

I am the asshole who listens to your entire 10 minute sob story (because I am lonely and enjoy your company) then gives you a penny. :troll:

However, pennies are no longer in circulation... so I suppose I would have to give a nickel.

I don't take public transportation anymore so I rarely get to encounter panhandlers and beggars anymore. So lonely.

are you even Asian?

without sounding too much like hyde, I know a few that make 7 figure income and you can bet they still count their coins.

even if one's making serious bank, they may still live the way they're brought up

your argument just seems out of place...it has nothing to do with how much you gave and how much you lost out...it's about assholes taking advantage of goodwill.

i am asian AND hyde at the same time.

yeah they live the way they're brought up and im saying that's stupid. you're fighting something that cannot be beat, and you're just 1 person thinking your actions will somehow affect how reality will actually be.

that's kinda like taking a shit and not wanting any flies to land on it.

like who the fuck cares. they're going to keep doing whatever they're going to do, with more persistence than your side. They're gonna get their money from someone else, or their drugs or whatever it is they're after.

you don't have the time to assess the situation most of the time... so what, you just stay sceptical of everyone?

Rich or poor you just give the fucking money unless you have visually confirmed or over heard them say they're gonna use the money for "bad"... or if you just straight up don't feel like it.

otherwise just GIVE it to them, or if you need it or you're a stingy ass mother fucker (poor or rich) THEN KEEP IT... there's no need to think.. they're gonna do this or that.

you're just fucking dreaming up any scenario you want at that point.

if you don't feel like it, it needs no deeper explanation. but to go ahead and be like ... theyre gonna use it on drugs, fuck them. or im just gonna go give them food to make sure they can't use the money on anything else... LOL wtf. what kinda weird game are you playing? like WHAT do you think you're gonna change by doing that? u think they're gonna quit drugs (that is if they even do drugs from the beginning, maybe you're just being a paranoid fuck right?)... it sure as hell ain't gonna change anything in reality or anyone's future actions other than you saving 5C. lol.

assholes take advantage of goodwill. yes...

how about this... there is a mirror perspective to this...

scepticism takes away goodwill and turns you into an asshole as well.

LOL. it works both ways.

so the fastest way to assess it is, are you in the mood to donate? yes? donate.
no? don't.

the details of your reasons don't matter.

replace money with a empty soda can. someone comes around and asks you for your can, you say yes or no. there's not all this deep sceptic thinking or whatever going on.

it's the same shit with chump change.

the only reason ANYONE would halt and think about giving 5c to a bum on the street if they asked nicely would be if they were in a rush, or they didn't have 5c, they needed the 5c themselves, or they're super sceptical and immediately doubt the ability/class/goodwill of the beggar.

5c dude.

do you really need to think about a REASON?

if u dropped 5c in a puddle would you even fucking go pick it up?

it's a real easy yes or no decision.

we're talking about the lowest denominator of currency that exists in canada. i can lose it and not even notice. literally.


in the most summarized simplest way to say this... why are you wasting so much fucking brain power over this menial situation?

there's a compassion spectrum

some individuals just completely ignore the homeless, for some like you it's a simple binary decision without much thought (donate: yes/no)...then there are some that will go out of their way to buy them food and may be even chat them up only to walk away 10 min later and still think about how they might brave tomorrow's cold weather or how they might feed their dog.

Anyone that comes up to me with a sob story I flat out refuse because they're typically not the ones in need of my help.

You can say without giving the addicts resources they'll just eventually steal from someone...to me it's the same idea behind not feeding wild animals...give an inch and they'll take a mile. You can say my tax dollars are funding injection sites anyways, but at least I know I'm not directly supporting/enabling crack users.

I've had one person ask for money, but instead givin them some awesome take home from a Restaraunt, then as i had walked 20 feet away i see he threw in the trash! But i've had a ton of people who were INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL as i gave them food. It feels good helping feed someone who's hungry.

You do know that everyone that panhandles receive a government cheque for around 1000 a month right? And if they get subsidized housing they get 600.

Not a lot but basically the people that give money to the panhandlers aren't doing much except feeding their drug habits.

I've talked to social workers at the DTES, most pandhandlers aren't stupid, they might have some mental problems that keep them away from holding a steady job. But ALL of them are persistent. They know as long as you keep asking everyone, anyone they will get enough for the day for their daily drug intake.

Not to say that giving or not giving them money is a good thing or not but it generally boils down to our social system is busted anyways.

We pay for their housing/welfare cheques and they still beg for money from us for their drug addictions. And we supply it.

This is not totally true, i have talked to many different panhandlers, yes i enjoy getting into conversations wit them some time, and the vast majority of them (i'm talking quite a few of the ones i have encountered) don't get a dollar from the Ministry, they say something to the extend of "too many hoops to jump through." Or "They won't give it to me" I guess some of them are soo lazy that won't even try to get on Welfare, that says something maybe. I can say for one that i try not to look down on less fortunate people because a lot of them are just prone to failure, and have come from being raised in horrible conditions (molestation, severe abuse, horrible neglect,etc) that its next impossible forthem to rise up from the pits. This could be small percentage but its true for some.