Why Don't You Give Cash to Homeless People?

[Borderlands of Rojava]

Because I don't know if they're homeless fr. When a homeless person asks me for some spare change, I volunteer to buy them something to eat and see how they react.

[Kernen]

Because I don't know if they're homeless fr. When a homeless person asks me for some spare change, I volunteer to buy them something to eat and see how they react.

Also, that's your change, you need that.

[New Jacobland]

If I gave a homeless person $100, I would expect him to spend it on necessities. If he just spends it on drugs (or alcohol etc.),he has wasted my money. He could use that money to buy food, and other necessities.

[Saiwania]

If I gave a homeless person $100, I would expect him to spend it on necessities. If he just spends it on drugs (or alcohol etc.),he has wasted my money. He could use that money to buy food, and other necessities.

If they're homeless, they don't have access to cooking or any other amenities on any immediate basis. They can only keep what they can carry and furthermore, will be a target for criminals if they're carrying cash or anything of value, or may be targeted by the police if the belief is that they clearly stole the money or didn't get it via legitimate means. They're in no position to be getting $100.

[Fedel]

Because then it prevents them from taking actual action to demand what they deserve from their governments.

[Postauthoritarian America]

I do give cash to street people; at least once when I didn't have cash I offered a beer out of a six-pack I just bought. People who have money buy booze, cigs/vapes and drugs all the time. Should we stop them from doing that? Ask any economist: if you want someone to not be poor, give them money. Poor people are not poor because they are less moral, less intelligent, less able to define what it is that they need or less worthy. They are poor because they have less money. Just give money to the poor.

[Intaglio]

Yes, they can reasonably expect the same treatment because they're equally valuable. Your biases don't change that.

They're arguably not equally as valuable, if people are paid what they're perceived to be worth economically for the most part. People have unequal abilities just as they have unequal potential and outcomes. That is fundamentally why people divide themselves into classes and why economic inquality exists.

The elite performers who can earn lots of money very easily relatively speaking, have nothing in common with people who're the opposite of those things and vice versa. Maybe the richer person is just objectively more talented/skilled or is better at business/investing than the person who's living under the bridge.

Many successful people are more highly skilled than the average person, true. However, there are also people out there who owe their success to just sheer luck, especially if we're talking about careers/opportunities where high risks are involved; an investment or a plan that works out for one person at one time could easily be the ruin of another person due to circumstances out of their control, meaning that even someone who's skilled or good at what they do could lose everything.

[Major-Tom]

It depends, really. Obviously, I'd rather a homeless person spend my money on something to help enrich themselves, as opposed to something that harms themselves. Especially given the moral question of "if this person spends it on drugs and falls deeper into a pit/hurts themselves, am I partially at fault?" It sounds irrational, and it probably is, but it claws at my mind sometimes.

But, even then, I usually will give money if they ask, or more often, any food I might have, some water, Gatorade, something to help their material condition that isn't monetary. We have a lot of homeless Navajo people in my town, many of whom were pushed out of their homes by skyrocketing rent increases and astronomical surges in cost of living. I feel a lot of sympathy for them.

[The Emerald Legion]

They're arguably not equally as valuable, if people are paid what they're perceived to be worth economically for the most part. People have unequal abilities just as they have unequal potential and outcomes. That is fundamentally why people divide themselves into classes and why economic inquality exists.

The elite performers who can earn lots of money very easily relatively speaking, have nothing in common with people who're the opposite of those things and vice versa. Maybe the richer person is just objectively more talented/skilled or is better at business/investing than the person who's living under the bridge.

Many successful people are more highly skilled than the average person, true. However, there are also people out there who owe their success to just sheer luck, especially if we're talking about careers/opportunities where high risks are involved; an investment or a plan that works out for one person at one time could easily be the ruin of another person due to circumstances out of their control, meaning that even someone who's skilled or good at what they do could lose everything.

Why are you denigrating luck as a trait? Your luck is as much a part of you as Intelligence or Strength.

[Genivaria]

Because I don't know if they're homeless fr. When a homeless person asks me for some spare change, I volunteer to buy them something to eat and see how they react.

You keep change on hand?

[Bear Stearns]

Maybe if more hobos accepted payments from my AmEx Platinum...

[Postauthoritarian America]

Many successful people are more highly skilled than the average person, true. However, there are also people out there who owe their success to just sheer luck, especially if we're talking about careers/opportunities where high risks are involved; an investment or a plan that works out for one person at one time could easily be the ruin of another person due to circumstances out of their control, meaning that even someone who's skilled or good at what they do could lose everything.

Why are you denigrating luck as a trait? Your luck is as much a part of you as Intelligence or Strength.

I was lucky enough to be born with a penis to white parents in the USA. But I would never claim that absolves me of the duty to treat those who were not so lucky with humanity and compassion.

[The Alma Mater]

After reading a few responses:

How many people actually DO still walk around with cash - and why? Are stores not actively discouraging it?

[Rusozak]

After reading a few responses:

How many people actually DO still walk around with cash - and why? Are stores not actively discouraging it?

I just do it to keep my bank statements nice and neat and limit the exposure of my account information. But it's also useful for the occasional cash-only transaction, or to give to a good cause.

[The Alma Mater]

After reading a few responses:

How many people actually DO still walk around with cash - and why? Are stores not actively discouraging it?

Cash is a mostly-anonymous way of buying anything. Stores may discourage it for the same reason some stores run "loyalty" schemes: to learn all they can about each customer's buying habits.

Cash notes can be traced back to the last place to record their serial number: likely a bank, though police and sometimes shop keepers record those numbers. It's "mostly" anonymous though: the connection between video of you paying with a note, and the number of the note, is blurred by it going in the till with other people's notes. Coins as far as I know, are fully anonymous.

True,but here many stores no longer accept cash - or force you to use a specific "cash" lane to the cashier; meaning you stand in line longer.
Covid and the whole "please limit the passing of money from hand to hand" ofc stimulated that even more.

[The Alma Mater]

True,but here many stores no longer accept cash - or force you to use a specific "cash" lane to the cashier; meaning you stand in line longer.
Covid and the whole "please limit the passing of money from hand to hand" ofc stimulated that even more.

It will be interesting to see if stores refusing cash also drop "loyalty" programs.

They don't. You just get a loyalty card from the store (or an app on your phone) that gives points and discounts.

[Kubra]

After reading a few responses:

How many people actually DO still walk around with cash - and why? Are stores not actively discouraging it?

pay the weed man
I mean I don't, I get mine from the store, but some folks still got a weed man.

[Saiwania]

After reading a few responses:
How many people actually DO still walk around with cash - and why? Are stores not actively discouraging it?

I deal exclusively with cash because I'm unbanked and I like the anonymity. Cash is still most useful for small transactions. The lower economic status you have, the more likely you have at least some use for cash. Useful for tipping, less of a pain than fumbling around for cards credit or debit or whatever else. Don't need to pay fees to use your own money.

Cash has some advantages that not enough people recognize, but it also of course has downsides. But electronic payment isn't just all upside in all scenarios. Some businesses like some restaurants prefer cash over any other method of payment for a reason. Paying fees to credit card processors is burdensome for small business in general.

[The Alma Mater]

After reading a few responses:
How many people actually DO still walk around with cash - and why? Are stores not actively discouraging it?

I deal exclusively with cash because I'm unbanked and I like the anonymity. Cash is still most useful for small transactions. The lower economic status you have, the more likely you have at least some use for cash. Useful for tipping, less of a pain than fumbling around for cards credit or debit or whatever else. Don't need to pay fees to use your own money.

Cash has some advantages that not enough people recognize, but it also of course has downsides. But electronic payment isn't just all upside in all scenarios. Some businesses like some restaurants prefer cash over any other method of payment for a reason. Paying fees to credit card processors is burdensome for small business in general.

Keeping cash in store puts one at risk of robbery, and having to count it and deposit it also costs money.
Also, noone uses creditcards here either. And cheques are not even accepted by banks anymore - everything is electronic.

[The Alma Mater]

After reading a few responses:

How many people actually DO still walk around with cash - and why? Are stores not actively discouraging it?

pay the weed man
I mean I don't, I get mine from the store, but some folks still got a weed man.

Trust me - in Amsterdam people pay weed with their card

[CoraSpia]

I carry supermarket vouchers most of the time. I'm happy to give to homeless people, I'm less happy to give to the organised begging groups.

[Saiwania]

Keeping cash in store puts one at risk of robbery, and having to count it and deposit it also costs money.
Also, noone uses creditcards here either. And cheques are not even accepted by banks anymore - everything is electronic.

Businesses are protected from losses by insurance anyways or those places have adequate security. Like I said, electronic forms of payment isn't just all upside. There are things that can go wrong with it just as it can with physical cash. Cheques are still accepted in plenty of places, just not preferred.

Do you know how many people there are out there who're poor enough to need to go to a cheque cashing business because they're unbanked or because they get paid only once every 2 weeks but they blow most of it all in between?

Also, why wouldn't people use credit cards assuming they're able to pay it off on time? You build your credit score and get fraud protections and etc. Just that for the smallest businesses, its sometimes more of a pain to deal with than getting paid in cash. Tipped work in particular, favors cash overall.

The IRS uses cheques to send people money, if they have no banking information for someone.

You open a checking account with the wrong bank or credit union and you then perhaps have to worry about minimum balances/deposits or fees if you don't have regular income. You leave it alone for too long, and maybe the account will become dormant and its a huge process to get anything back out if you need to.

[The Alma Mater]

Keeping cash in store puts one at risk of robbery, and having to count it and deposit it also costs money.
Also, noone uses creditcards here either. And cheques are not even accepted by banks anymore - everything is electronic.

Businesses are protected from losses by insurance anyways or those places have adequate security. Like I said, electronic forms of payment isn't just all upside. There are things that can go wrong with it just as it can with physical cash. Cheques are still accepted in plenty of places, just not preferred.

I'm in the Netherlands. The last bank that still accepted cheques stopped doing that at the beginning of this year. I have *worked* at a bank and have not seen a cheque in the past 30 years.

Do you know how many people there are out there who're poor enough to need to go to a cheque cashing business because they're unbanked or because they get paid only once every 2 weeks but they blow most of it all in between?

Zero. Employers are required to pay electronically.* The state runs a service for people who are refused by commercial banks due to previous fraud etc.

* All right, there are exceptions, like e.g. for soldiers abroad. But those are rare.

[CoraSpia]

Businesses are protected from losses by insurance anyways or those places have adequate security. Like I said, electronic forms of payment isn't just all upside. There are things that can go wrong with it just as it can with physical cash. Cheques are still accepted in plenty of places, just not preferred.

I'm in the Netherlands. The last bank that still accepted cheques stopped doing that at the beginning of this year. I have *worked* at a bank and have not seen a cheque in the past 30 years.

Do you know how many people there are out there who're poor enough to need to go to a cheque cashing business because they're unbanked or because they get paid only once every 2 weeks but they blow most of it all in between?

Zero. Employers are required to pay electronically.* The state runs a service for people who are refused by commercial banks due to previous fraud etc.

* All right, there are exceptions, like e.g. for soldiers abroad. But those are rare.

Seriously? I've received cheques this year, everyone in the UK still accepts them. Why has the Netherlands abandoned them completely?

[Kilobugya]

I'm in the Netherlands. The last bank that still accepted cheques stopped doing that at the beginning of this year. I have *worked* at a bank and have not seen a cheque in the past 30 years.

How do you handle occasional small-to-medium individual-to-individual payment ? That's the main remaining usage of cheques here in France. It's more convenient that having to deal with setting up a bank transfer and knowing / entering all the IBAN/BIC stuff.