Beggars in Strand Street

[The Voice of Reason]

1 hour ago, Happier diner said:

No sorry Rox. You are missing the point. Everytime you give money you propagate the industry. If no one ever gave beggars money there would be no begging.

And if people stopped donating to the MSPCA then there would be no MSPCA.

But you’d still have injured, sick and abused animals in need of help.

[John Wright]

9 minutes ago, The Voice of Reason said:

And if people stopped donating to the MSPCA then there would be no MSPCA.

But you’d still have injured, sick and abused animals in need of help.

But you don’t give the money direct to the animals. You give it to volunteer groups who help them. It’s not a good analogy.

[Zarley]

Back in the early '80s my partner and I lived in Manhattan in an SRO hotel on Broadway. Every morning we'd be approached by beggars on our way to the subway for work. They were always the same dozen or so, and we decided to pick a few of them and help one each day. 

There was this one "bag lady", as they were known, who would extend her hand in your direction and say "quaaaarta?" She was always quite disheveled, but very polite and dignified at the same time, so she became one of our "regulars". The only words she spoke were quaaaarta and thank you. 

One morning she wasn't in her regular area and we wondered out loud where the quaaaata? lady was. She suddenly appeared, had heard us imitating her, and refused to take any money from us ever again. Talk about feeling ashamed! 

By the way, there was an explosion of bag ladies on the streets of NYC in the early '80s due to Ronald Reagan instituting the same "care in the community" bullshit that Thatcher did in the UK. Worked out well on both sides of the pond. Not.

 

[Hoops]

7 minutes ago, John Wright said:

But you don’t give the money direct to the animals. You give it to volunteer groups who help them. It’s not a good analogy.

You don't? Oh shit......

[Happier diner]

26 minutes ago, The Voice of Reason said:

And if people stopped donating to the MSPCA then there would be no MSPCA.

But you’d still have injured, sick and abused animals in need of help.

What a load of crap. That's got absolutely nothing to do with what I said. There are organisations that help the homeless. I donate to them. It's an excellent cause. 

What I was saying that giving money to organised crime is bad. It propagates crime. For god sake can't people even read any more on here. 

[Gladys]

8 minutes ago, Hoops said:

You don't? Oh shit......

They don't have pockets. 

[The Voice of Reason]

11 minutes ago, John Wright said:

But you don’t give the money direct to the animals. You give it to volunteer groups who help them. It’s not a good analogy.

I wasn’t putting it forward as an analogy.

The point is that the underlying problems, homelessness etc will still exist if people stop giving either directly or indirectly.

Besides animals wouldn’t know how to spend the money if you gave it to them directly.

A Labrador wouldn’t walk into a vets and say “ I have  a sore paw could you look at it for me? I’ve got a tenner some guy gave me on the street to pay for any treatment “

[Zarley]

1 minute ago, Gladys said:

They don't have pockets. 

Wallabies beg to differ!

[Happier diner]

2 hours ago, Roxanne said:

You’re kind of missing the point. Once it’s given, it’s gone. Whether it goes to flannels, beer, or a tattoo, it no longer belongs to the donator so your gentle scathing is meaningless. 

Next you will be saying that every £2 you give to a begger generates £1000 for the economy🤣 

Now where have we heard that before.😀

Edited July 30, 2023 by Happier diner

[Zarley]

1 minute ago, Happier diner said:

Next you will be saying that every £2 you give to a bigger generates £1000 for the economy🤣 

Now where have we heard that before.😀

Well if a bigger makes things bigger it could well be true.

[Happier diner]

Just now, Zarley said:

Well if a bigger makes things bigger it could well be true.

Corrected😀

[John Wright]

6 minutes ago, The Voice of Reason said:

A Labrador wouldn’t walk into a vets and say “ I have  a sore paw could you look at it for me? I’ve got a tenner some guy gave me on the street to pay for any treatment “

No, and most street people won’t spend it on accommodation or food. Either it’ll be taken off them by their handler or they’ll spend it on drink/drugs,  that may make their situation tolerable for a short time to them, which unfortunately makes the out of control spiral downward worse and deeper.

[Barlow]

I have a load of foreign coins, various cents and stuff including loads of old pennies, 10ps and that. I don't know what to do with them and I can't simply throw them away. Would it be a bit wrong of me to put a good handful in the beggars' cups? 

The 'virtue signalling' would make me look good in the street, and the beggar will experience a nice warm fuzzy glow, albeit a bit short-lived. Maybe it would piss them off enough for them to think "fuck this for a lark, I'm going to get a job washing pans in McDonalds restaurant or picking spuds or something or even working on a building site"

 

[The Voice of Reason]

57 minutes ago, John Wright said:

But you don’t give the money direct to the animals. You give it to volunteer groups who help them. 

Speaking of which.

I’m becoming less and less inclined to give to these groups when you see the likes of Oxfam spending money on lampooning JK Rowling for her views on transgender issues.

Whatever your view(s) on this and other issues it doesn’t matter.

When I donate to Oxfam, or any other aid agency  I always imagined that donation would be used to try and alleviate poverty and hardship, not to promote an ideology ( whether you agree with that ideology or not).

It’s also my understanding that Oxfam use their resources to support Pride week. A good cause which I am all for,  but there are plenty of other charities more suited to this to whom you can donate should you wish to.

No doubt someone will come along and say fighting homophobia will lead to less poverty in the world.  Maybe you can make a tenuous case for that position but that’s no comfort for the millions of people, including infants, currently starving around the world.

But I believe that the likes of Oxfam should stick to their core objectives or risk losing income from those they are unnecessarily alienating. Money that could be put to good use.

 

[John Wright]

17 minutes ago, The Voice of Reason said:

Speaking of which.

I’m becoming less and less inclined to give to these groups when you see the likes of Oxfam spending money on lampooning JK Rowling for her views on transgender issues.

Whatever your view(s) on this and other issues it doesn’t matter.

When I donate to Oxfam, or any other aid agency  I always imagined that donation would be used to try and alleviate poverty and hardship, not to promote an ideology ( whether you agree with that ideology or not).

It’s also my understanding that Oxfam use their resources to support Pride week. A good cause which I am all for,  but there are plenty of other charities more suited to this to whom you can donate should you wish to.

No doubt someone will come along and say fighting homophobia will lead to less poverty in the world.  Maybe you can make a tenuous case for that position but that’s no comfort for the millions of people, including infants, currently starving around the world.

But I believe that the likes of Oxfam should stick to their core objectives or risk losing income from those they are unnecessarily alienating. Money that could be put to good use.

 

The main problem with most charities is they start as volunteer led and most funding goes to the objectives. They then professionalise and employ workers, specialists, CEO’s and most of the time and energy is spent on fundraising for salaries, presenting to the media about how worthy they are, anything but volunteers delivering services to the supposed objects of the benevolence they are supposed to be there for.