Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Hey brother, can you spare a couple of hundred?

Now I didn't know this but they were talking about panhandlers on the radio the other day and apparently alot of them are raking in the big bucks, sometimes $300 in a single day! Now I'm not overly judgemental about the homeless, there but for the grace of God. I know Sean and Rush take the position one should never be without a place to live, that they don't want to work. Wanting to work, that's a poor framing of the issue. Like Beth and I were talking the other day and we both agreed who exactly loves to work anyway? ain't the issue but they may have a point that they've stretched to an overgeneralization. You never really read or hear about some homeless guy having to be talked down from a bridge 'cause he's been out of a job for a couple years, maybe that's Sean's point, as long as they have a soup kitchen to go to and a place to sleep maybe they prefer it to your 9-5, dunno but I don't want to lose my compassionate conservative edge either...

10 comments:

  1. I've often thought about what it would be like to be homeless. A friend and I were driving along one day and there's this homeless guy always wandering the main drag with all the stores and malls, sometimes plastic baggies on his feet and my friend made at the time a puzzling comment at least for me, "look at him, he doesn't have a care in the world." Now I have a very respectable bank account at the moment so I could probably live the homeless "lifestyle" rather comfortably, you never know, don't have to go to work, might be less stressful and live a longer life and if you've worked long enough in your life and you're getting on up there in years you can pick at your social security in addition to the occasional handout...

    ReplyDelete
  2. When its as cold outside as it is today, I can't imagine being homeless. I feel bad if they can't help it but there are many who got in the predicament from their lifestyle (be it drugs, gambling, alcohol).

    A blogger I know recently talked about beggars at his blog, mentioned that the ones who try to sell something or do something for your money, those are the ones in real need. The ones who just expect it because they have their hand out, they are the ones giving panhandling a bad name. Of course I asked him how that differs from people on welfare, he didn't reply.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You're right about the homeless and the cold and that many lost jobs because of bad habits but let's say you're in a warmer clime and you've lived a good life, here's a de-stresser. Many, probably most people, put up with jobs they hate because of what I call the worst-case scenario, being homeless and so imagine your worst-case scenario, you're homeless. It wouldn't happen in my case because I have a good family who would help out but ok, so now you're homeless, there are places to go and places to stay, you can even put it in a romantic context, I retired early from work you say to your fellow homeless. As long as I have my cognac I'm fine.

    I mean this is humorous yeah but it's a good mental exercise to imagine your worst-case scenario, you wouldn't want it to happen of course but on the other hand too many people feel trapped in their jobs, a mortgage, whatever, and so they put up with crap, the stress builds and maybe they die an early death or their health is otherwise affected, all because of they're imagining they're worst-case scenario. Now even if you do become homeless maybe you can get on track too and get a good job again, am I making any sense here?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Perhaps, but even a bad job is something stable, whereas jobless/homeless is way too uncertain for my taste.

    ReplyDelete
  5. No you're right Beth, I was just making a point about how jobs can adversely affect our health, like which is worse, to be a homeless man at 48 but who somehow ekes out a survival or a 39 year old ad exec who suffers a stroke and has partial paralysis as a result. Re mortgages I wouldn't want to have one, you have to pay them off of course and that means working your butt off even more than you would to pay the rent. Re worst-case scenarios here's another example of what I mean. Used to be mine, that I wouldn't have a car and couldn't do the things I used to enjoy like fishing but you know something? it doesn't matter to me anymore, I've taken public transportation before. A bad job may be a stable job indeed but is it a healthy one?

    ReplyDelete
  6. ...but I think Sean's point is a philosophical one and if you can summarize my blog in one word it'd probably be philosophy so Sean's point seems to be that maybe being homeless ain't such a bad existence especially to the savvy ones who know how to panhandle and where to bathe and get a bite to eat. Sean's point, if I may put words in his mouth, also seems to be that the homeless is saying in so many words "I'm not going to live by society's rules and work my ass off like everybody else and get an ulcer, I've already made the decision to retire and well before 65 I might add." I'm not talking about people who got dealt a bad hand by Life and can't help their situation, at least not right away, I think it's a matter of perspective but personally I have no desire or intention to become homeless,

    just thinking out loud here folks.

    ReplyDelete
  7. To conclude my credo here I think all too often we let our worst-case scenarios form our thinking and conclusions on things like jobs, so important in our lives especially to those with families. My point - maybe we don't leave jobs that we should because of the homeless scenario but what are the chances of this really happening? You see stories on the Jim Lehrer Newshour about people losing their homes in this bad subprime market but they're not homeless, maybe they're living in an apartment or relatives point being good strong families and communities are key here. Leaving a job may be a risk but so is staying at one sometimes (coal mining, eh?). Well that's enough philosophy for one day.

    ReplyDelete
  8. If you take your worst case scenario to the extreme, and everyone decided to stop working their ass off and panhandle instead, well you can't have that happen because who could you panhandle from if everyone was doing it? This is kind of the theme in Rand's Atlas Shrugged, when the looters have no one left to loot from, what happens.

    But your overall point of work being healthy or not is something to consider, no job is worth your diminishing your quality of life.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I was really being provocative in this blog, wouldn't want to be without a home and a job but often wondered how it would be but I think Sean and Rush's point is why don't they apply for jobs? you'll always have somebody who would take pity on you unless there's an underlying philosophy to their homelessness that Sean seems to imply (not all of them of course just some of them). You know I went to work tired a few times recently, dragged through the day like alot of people, regardless you're still getting paid for it. I've heard stories of actual homeless people who do work at jobs and yet don't get paid enough to even have a place to call home but at least they're working, might be a model for the other homeless.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I guess one of the few silver linings to being homeless is you can get up in the morning and practically blog all day if you hit all the right libraries. Wonder if there are any homeless bloggers out there, it'd be what I'd be doing.

    ReplyDelete