I was doing him a favor. If I tell him to get a job because I think he is lazy, I might have to shoot him if he attacks me. Besides, I don't typically carry more than lunch money, if that. Is he supposed to pull out his phone with credit card attachment so I can swipe it?
Like I said, if you subsidise something, you get more of it. The homeless problem is as much the fault of the enablers as it is the shitbums.
The last time I was approached I pointed to my mouth and then my ear and shook my head. A sign I couldn't speak or hear.
I usually say I have no actual money - which is true; I haven't had actual cash in my wallet since my son graduated high school and I needed to hand him lunch money. I pay for everything with a card or my phone now. Occasionally I'll tell someone I have no money; I'm married!
I just Tell them the TRUTH: "I ONLY Carry Hundreds"! However if they have $99 in change (all paper currency), I don't mind giving them a Dollar. I am good like that.
I should try that one sometime. I've gotten some good ideas from this thread - although again, when I say I have no cash on hand I don't feel guilty about it, it IS the truth. Back when I DID carry money in my wallet, I would only give it to people who were carrying around everything they owned in a shopping cart. You can often tell by looking at them who really IS homeless and who are just panhandlers. Years ago, my wife gave out some money to some woman in front of a - maybe it was a Wal-Mart, I dunno - who said she was down on her luck and homeless. Just by chance we saw her as we were headed home; she walked into a house that was better than ours! We saw her again the next week and hoo-boy! Did my wife give HER a piece of her mind! Maaan - I'm glad she's on MY side!
tell 'em you'll take them to the diner and feed them... odds are they'll turn it down while demanding cash and then get pissed off when you don't give em any
I know. That is why I always carry a Rubber Band Rolls of C-Notes in my Front Pocket. I don't like to tempt thieves by doing something as outdated and arcane as carrying a wallet. Carry on.
If they are polite and non threatening I usually give them a few bucks. If I am in a really good mood and had a good day at the tables, the track or in business, I give them more. $20, $50, even $100 sometimes. An amount of $$ That doesn’t hurt my life at all can be a really good deal for someone who’s hurting.
i used to do that every holiday season while out shopping, i'd walk over to where a few of were 'living' and give one of em a hundred, then this one perticular year when i handed the poor dude the hundred, as he was smiling & all giddy he got rolled by all the others... it was a bloody mess and as i watched it, albeit lmao, i decided it wasn't such a good idea to 'help' any of 'em so i stopped the practice...
I have donated food and served Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners for homeless people and given out presents to homeless kids, but I don’t usually start pulling out $$ at an encanpmpment. However if there is a guy alone at a freeway ramp or a corner, I usually give some money or a pack of smokes. I believe in KARMA. It seems like every time I hit some guy with a $20 when I am on my way to gamble, I always win a bunch...
Why speak to them at all...? But, in those rare circumstances where it is necessary to say something, I'll usually speak in German... and that precludes the necessity for any further communication.... .Try it yourself... you can also use Russian, Arabic, or any other language with a "bite"....
Me too, cuz its true. I suspect cash donations are suffering substantially compared to back when debit cards weren't common. I rarely see folks paying cash and I only ever have cash myself after I've loaned someone money and they've payed me back, or Im going garage saling.
I saw a creative one at Walmart. Standing in line to check out, I saw this young girl with a baby and a cart loaded with diapers, baby formula, clothes, etc... crying histerically about having lost her money. A kind gentleman offered to pay for it all, and did. She thanked and hugged him. Awesome gesture, I thought. I paid for mine, and left. My wife texted me just as I was pulling out of the parking lot and asked me to get something else, so I went back in, and saw the girl with the cart load of baby stuff standing in the returns line to return it all. Slick scam.
Um, a loaf of bread is $1 , its at Walmart, here is exactly, 1 dollar, that's 2000 calories, have a nice day today, leave me alone. Also, you approached quickly which is frightening to others freely enjoying themselves.
I just got approached a while back by a stranger telling me he needed gas money and his wife was pregnant. I told him to get a job. He shouted back at me that he had a job. Then he started following me and shouted, "Thanks for nothing a** hole." So I turned around and told him to get lost or I would blow his head off. He went to his car and called the sheriff on his cell phone. A deputy came, talked to the guy, then talked to me, then the deputy ran the p*ick off.