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I think you are taking a wide range of beliefs and summarizing them in the worst sounding way possible. I certainly believe that most homeless people have made

by anm89 6y ago

I think you are taking a wide range of beliefs and summarizing them in the worst sounding way possible. I certainly believe that most homeless people have made some bad decisions to get where they are. I think many if not most of them probably have poor financial skills. I also believe that many of them were born with a range of disadvantages and could have done very well under other circumstances. A lot of them also do struggle with addiction and mental illness and it is worth considering that this can mix poorly with handing people a bunch of no strings cash. I don't think that's a reason not to do it at all but it shouldn't be ignored either. I'm certainly not the worlds biggest expert on homeless people but I volunteer at a needle exchange and have encountered more than most so I'm somewhat speaking from experience. Sweeping this stuff under the rug doesn't make it not true.

542458 6y ago
Two things: I was mostly addressing the post I was replying to that claimed that nobody was opposed to direct cash payments - which I think is not true at all. Also, I’m not trying to sweep it under the rug, and I’m not saying that many homeless people don’t have poor money management or addiction issues. However, there is a theory that giving homeless folks direct cash is a waste of time/money due to these issues and will produce no positive outcomes - which the experiment linked seems to contradict. In other words, while these issues do exist, direct cash payments do still seem to be at least somewhat effective. (Also, thank you for spending your time and effort volunteering at a very non-glamorous but very important service!)