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If you want to help, give money to a shelter or food bank, where it will really be put to good use. People begging on the streets are often shysters. People make a VERY good living doing that on college campuses here. Pretend to be a hobo during the day, then go back to their nice apartments or homes at night. Many people profit from the generosity and naiveté of others.
I get drunk and smoke pot with em! and rap and dance and have a wonderful night! I'll video tape it some time. I hang out with a 1 armed hobo most of the time!
I gave money to this lady once, and then every time she saw me (she hung out around my work) she always assumed that I had money and would give it to her. I'll buy them a coke or a snack before I'll give them cash...
There's this one really scruffy-looking old guy on my college campus, always in the same faded blue jeans and frayed denim jacket with a white T-Shirt and a brown ballcap. He goes up there everyday to fish soda cans and bottle out of the trash. There are no recycling bins, so the campus lets him do it to 'promote recycling' (read: 'make room in the trash'). Some students give him part of their lunch or something... I don't make eye contact and put on a stern look.
I have a problem with him... Those faded jeans and frayed jacket and WHITE T-Shirt, which he wears everyday, NEVER have any stains. Now, one would believe that if this man was truly homeless, and not retired from GM (General Motors, a former auto plant that basically owned Flint back when it existed), that the WHITE T-Shirt would get stained within a day or two of wearing it. And don't even suggest that he washes it in the river, because the Flint River would make it brown.
Also, his scruffy-looking facial hair never gets longer. AND he has no oil spots on his flesh. I think he's just picking up extra cash, and free food, as well as killing time.
Arranging Hobo fights ftw. Oh yeah, i'd be the one buying them something. Cause if i dropped the money for them, they'd probably spend on something like boozes or drugs.
I gave some of my own money one time to this one real pitiful looking guy near Wal Mart. I just walked out of the car and gave him money.
It breaks my heart to see that. I feel so bad for people like that and regardless of thier life story, I will help em'.
Sometimes I go to Frankfurt and then the hobos always try to sell me pot :(
Some years ago there was this hobo in my town. He stayed here for like a week before moving on. I remember that me and my friends had several conversations with him - he was very friendly and had many exciting stories to tell, plus his dog was cute :) I wish I remember his name and I wonder what he's up to now?
QFTQuote:
Originally Posted by Xaven
Chances are a hobo will use the money for drugs. Food or food coupons are a better idea.
When in london, we were walking through an alleyway, and one of the girls in our group nearly walked over a homeless man. She shrieked and ran ahead and was very upset "it was a lump of a man!"
we all laughed at her, but it was sort of unsettling.
I split my lunch with a homeless man at the mall one day, and after he gave me the abridged version of his life story, I offered him $1.10 for the bus. He called me a saint and took the bus downtown. He seemed more like a misfortunate person than one than some crackhead, and I wanted to help in some way that I could.
I spit on them, apologise, then repeat.
I see them as competition as I am poor myself.
I was in New Orleans with my family for my brother's graduation in May, and in the French Quarter some "homeless" guy came up to my dad and said, "Please sir I'm hungry." Without hesitation my dad responded, "Yeah? I am too." We ended up going in a store around there. Later down the same street we saw him stop in front of these two street performers playing the guitar, and he gave them a joint...
Don't give homeless people on the street money, ever. If they want a sandwich, bring them a sandwich. If they need a toothbrush, bring them a toothbrush. But do not give them money. They're homeless because they couldn't handle their money when they had some to begin with. You can't trust them to buy what they need, and they can't trust themself either.
I'd also like to say in America, unemployment pays more than some of the lowest paying jobs, ie minimum wage jobs. They could easily get some of those jobs, or at least go collect unemployment... some people live off of it and have apartments so why the hell can't they?
THE JACKEL
No it doesn't. Unemployment is based on the pay you received at your last job up to something like ten dollars an hour, and that's a pretty high estimate from what I remember of it. That's not really much above minimum wage.Quote:
Originally Posted by ljkkjlcm9
Each state has different laws governing unemployment. North Carolina, for example, bases the length of time you can draw unemployment off of the length of time you were employed at your last job. Two years evens out to something like 13 weeks, but you can apply for extensions, especially if you have kids.
Also, you can only go on unemployment immediately after your last full time job. Once it's over for that period, it's over.
And I've never met anyone with a minimum wage full time job who could hold down their own aparment. Must be crazy minimum wage in other states.
I avoid giving them money unless they back me into a corner. I'll buy 'em food if I can and they want it, and I'll drop a couple bucks for street performers if they're any good.