Interesting thread, sad that it is a recurring theme here.
I think that I have similar feelings to many here. The normal sympathy that you have felt for disadvantaged people has been eroded over the past few years. This erosion has only been aided by the unmistakable fact that a highly visible percentage of the people that are homeless are of the 'give me a $5, not food because I want booze' or the 'walk up and down the same street for 4 hours bumming change, but doesn't want to work for 'the man'' variety.
I don't think that anybody speaking in this thread would say that all homeless people are bad. I know that I have made a distinction in my mind between 'homeless people' and 'street people'. Homeless people are folks that don't have a permanent place to live. Many of them work, many of them are trying to better themselves. Those are the people that Barb Higgins wrote about, and there are a few people that I manage that are right now homeless.
Street people, OTOH, are the people who panhandle, who are operating outside of society, who are trying to 'work the system' or who are not wanting/able to function in society. Some of those people have a genuine debilitating mental illness and deserve our help. But many are like the guy who worked for my company for a week, then quit because we have a policy of doing direct deposit instead of issuing cheques. He didn't want to pay out child support.
Bottom line, I have no problem helping the people who want a hand up. But those who just want a handout of exactly what they want when they want it? Not from me.
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