Give a homeless guy money if he tells you he'll use it on drugs?

Saph, the second sentence you typed there makes you sound very ignorant. This topic was meant to be more fun than serious, but you’re making me go there.

A vast majority of the people that are homeless either have a severe mental defect, or lost their job and couldn’t get a new one. There isn’t an employer on this EARTH that will hire someone that smells like feces and looks horribly unkempt. In order for a homeless person to get, AND maintain a job, they would need easy access to 1) A shower, 2) Razors/haircuts, 3)Toothbrush/paste 4) Clean clothes and 5) A few sets of clothes.

This is the reason being homeless in the first place is like being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Once a person is homeless for a few weeks/months, it is near impossible for them to get 1 of the above mentioned things, let alone all of them.

There aren’t homeless shelters easi;y available everywhere around here. A lot of times they are only in certain areas, which may be too far for a homeless person to travel to.

Saying they can just go out and get a job like the rest of us makes it seem as though you are incredibly ignorant. It just isn’t that easy.

On top of that, here in Michigan right now, our economy is so shot, that it is actually difficult to get a job in fast food now. There are too many unemployed people compared to available jobs. A homeless person here literally has 0% chance of getting a job.

And yes, there are sometimes people that are well off that dress like homeless people, and beg for change. Those are very sad individuals, and they are the ones that should be locked up for panhandling, not an actual homeless person.

Thankfully here in Michigan, carbonated beverages all come with a 10 cent deposit on the container(glass,metal, or plastic). So a lot of times homeless people will collect up bottles and cans before they’ll result to begging.

To everyone else, I understand what you’re saying about food, but in my hypothetical situation here, food isn’t in the equation. I appreciate your kindness, but you kind of missed what I was saying.

There are 2 homeless dudes, so if you were talking about the one that was lying when asking you for change when refering to taking them to get food, it would have made a bit more sense. The honest homeless guy in my situation…well let’s imagine he’s just ate something, and isn’t at all interested in food,lol.

And there’s something else you all didn’t take into the equation. Some drugs (Alcohol, crystal meth mainly) can actually kill you from the withdrawals. So if he was seriously physically addicted to alcohol, albeit self destructive, by not giving him a couple bucks to get some whiskey, and trying to take him to get food, you could in effect be causing his death.

I have a good friend, who wasn’t homeless at all, but was addicted to alcohol to that point, and one night he didn’t have any alcohol(it may have been a few nights in a row, not sure of the exact amount), and his girlfriend found him the next morning dead. From withdrawals.

I was unfortunately in Iraq at the time, and had to find out about it via myspace. I was pretty sad that day.