4 ms·

Your dad is partly right. The main reason though is that we don’t care. Most people don’t care. That’s the dark truth of it all. Don’t worry about your kids o

Your dad is partly right. The main reason though is that we don’t care. Most people don’t care. That’s the dark truth of it all. Don’t worry about your kids or yourself. As usual most people won’t think so deeply about the matter and they will come up with some excuse to lie to themselves. A few people will actually care enough to help. But these people are a tiny minority. Among the people that don’t care most will be lying to themselves. Out of these people a small portion will be able to face their own intrinsic evil and literally say it like it is: I just don’t give a shit. I’m one of those people. Anyone else like me?

jareklupinski 2y ago
> That’s the dark truth of it all. dont pull us into despair
- ninetyninenine 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - johnisgood 2y ago
    Wow.
    - ninetyninenine 2y ago
      I think you’d be surprised how many people are like me but don’t admit it. I’m just be honest here. Maybe I’m a bit more evil then normal with the reply but I think my original comment is quite commonplace.
      - johnisgood 2y ago
        I know, I do realize that. I worked in healthcare before. Regardless, I am not judging, live and let live. I still believe your comment was unwarranted, unnecessary, and inappropriate.
  - jakkos 2y ago
    > If you were dying I’d probably let you die and would be happy about it. This is an insane, sociopathic thing to say in a reasonably civil internet discussion. > Another dark truth. I think a lot of people are like me. I think there are far fewer than you believe.
    - ninetyninenine 2y ago
      How many lives have you saved in your lifetime? With the amount of money most people make with concentrated effort you can pull at least one person out of poverty. I would say most people haven’t done this. Because what I said is essentially true.
  - echelon 2y ago
    You still have time to edit your comment.
    - ninetyninenine 2y ago
      I won’t. The original comment I replied to was far more vicious and he edited it massively. He was directly disparaging my attitude. So it did incite a bit of hatred in me. I changed my mind: I’ll edit it
      - johnisgood 2y ago
        S/He edited it? What was the original comment to which you replied?
        ninetyninenine 2y ago
        Yeah it was several lines long and directed to single me out as completely different and evil. It was trying to make me feel alone by saying no one is like me. Said comment pissed me off. So I replied with a pissed off comment. Then he edited it. So yeah…
        johnisgood 2y ago
        Well, "no one is like you" is definitely false, and people try to rationalize it away to avoid feeling guilt or whatever.
        deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
        deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
  - tinyplanets 2y ago
    So edgy...
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - gosub100 2y ago
    I'm more or less with you. I don't care about homeless people and I was truly upset when the city installed a new light rail connector in my neighborhood which 1) brought plenty new homeless to my area and 2) didn't check for paying customers (no turnstile with manned stations, but if I tried to ride for free, I could face a stiff fine and criminal mark on my record via "random" checks by security), which actively encouraged them to roam around and distribute their crime and waste products throughout town. It's a reason I'm adamantly against public transit and will always choose to use a gas powered vehicle over a train or bus. I don't want people to starve to death or die of exposure, but it's nothing new throughout history. The infirm deteriorate and eventually die. It's part of the circle of life. It's tempting to think that "if we all just ____" that the problem would be solved, but that's true for literally every problem mankind faces. If we all just loved our brother, there would be no assault, wars, violence! If we all just imagine a world without borders and religion and money we can all just live in perfect harmony! If we all just took only what we needed , and diligently contributed towards the community, why, we wouldn't even need money any more! Imagine how beautiful life would be if we all just ______! Yeah there's a fundamental reason that doesn't happen. It's fundamental to human nature and cannot be solved. There used to be a homeless woman who posted here frequently, and I distinctly remember her being the most aggressive, confrontational, cantankerous poster I'd ever seen. I would never help someone who acts that way.
  - pistoleer 2y ago
    > Your answer makes me not like you in fact it incites hatred. Why are you so aggrieved? What's the big deal?
    - ninetyninenine 2y ago
      His answer was edited. It was much more aggressive. I edited my response in kind.
01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago
Yeah. I just don't want to do small acts of charity. I think "evil" is a strong word for it, though. I see bigger evils than apathy in the news every day. And I vote for policies that are supposed to help these people. Some people are actively voting against them. OTOH I don't call it good when people take care of their friends and family. That's self-interest, that's tit-for-tat. Everyone is kind to people who are kind to them. That does not impress me one bit.
- ninetyninenine 2y ago
  Agreed, maybe evil is too strong of a word. Self interest is more accurate. I admire the people who are good, I’m just not one of them.
candiddevmike 2y ago
If you were homeless, would you ask people for money? For me, the answer is probably yes, and so it makes sense for me to give money to folks in that situation.
- ninetyninenine 2y ago
  I would ask people to give me money, but I don’t care to give other people money. I don’t need any moral justification to help me sleep at night.
  - jacknews 2y ago
    Indeed a percentage of the population have low empathy, and some none at all. The later we label sociopaths.
    - ninetyninenine 2y ago
      The sad truth is that I live in the city with the most homeless people and I see the same thing everyday with not just me, but everyone who lives in the city. They walk by homeless people and not care. Sociopaths are something worse. What I describe is normal people.
- fluoridation 2y ago
  It does not follow that because you would ask for money that you should therefore give people money. There's an implicit assumption that most people who ask for money are in the position you imagined yourself to be in that case.
  - PittleyDunkin 2y ago
    > It does not follow that because you would ask for money that you should therefore give people money. Of course it does. If there is any logic to ethics is that you should behave towards others how you would like to be treated in their position. > There's an implicit assumption that most people who ask for money are in the position you imagined yourself to be in that case. Well, yes. To assume otherwise, or to fall into such deep skepticism that you think you cannot assume anything about how other people pass through the world, is to give up on empathy.
9999px 2y ago
No, I'm not like that. I think myself and millions of others do care and act every day in some small way that adds up to the world not being a dystopian hell-hole.
- ninetyninenine 2y ago
  How many lives have you saved with your money? I’ve saved zero but if I wanted to I can make a focused effort on changing at least one life. I don’t care to spend that effort. And neither do you. I don’t think you’ve saved a single life either.
NoMoreNicksLeft 2y ago
[flagged]
- ninetyninenine 2y ago
  > Blaming or trying to shame me for "not caring" does nothing to change any of this. There is no "dark truth" here. Who says I’m blaming you? I’m not. Just telling it like it is. I feel no shame in the fact that I don’t care or most people don’t care. I think it’s intrinsically evil but I don’t care or feel shame about this. I think most people are like you. They realize the irrationality of their behavior but they still try to use evidence to build a scaffold of logic to justify it all. I don’t need to do that. I just don’t care about people in need and I can admit it. I’m evil and most people are too.
  - NoMoreNicksLeft 2y ago
    > Just telling it like it is. Not even a little. You're just virtue signaling. > I think most people are like you. They realize the irrationality of their behavior What part of my behavior is irrational? > I’m evil I'm not. Assuming there is even something that could rightly be called evil, I'm not that. You should look into medications for cluster b disorders.
    - ninetyninenine 2y ago
      > Not even a little. You're just virtue signaling. Wouldn’t admitting I’m evil be the opposite of virtue signaling? > What part of my behavior is irrational? None because you spent a lot of effort rationalizing your behavior. I was more referring to your behavior prior to the rationalization. I’m the one who is irrational. I live with the contradiction. I like to think of myself as a good moral human being who tips and cares about other people. Yet I don’t care about homeless people and I’m ok with this contradiction. Maybe I’m rationalizing it away by saying I’m evil. But how does that explain me treating non homeless people nicely with great respect? > I'm not. Assuming there is even something that could rightly be called evil, I'm not that. You should look into medications for cluster b disorders. People like me are normal. I think you’re out of touch with how prevalent it is. To advise me to take medication shows this. You feel a strong need to rationalize your behavior. I don’t. That’s relatively the main difference between us because externally our behavior is identical.
n4r9 2y ago
I wonder, what are the limits to that lack of care, and would it persist after some reflection? Presumably if you were walking past a dying person, you would call an ambulance to save their life. (Perhaps not, given your other answers!) Now what if you knew with high probability that they'd die without a little money for a shelter? Now what if you knew with high probability that they'll have a really rough night - get beaten up, raped, mugged etc... - without a little money for a shelter? My personal experience is that the vast majority of humans have a strong innate sense of compassion for others. But many of them have it beaten out of them by social and financial pressures.
- ninetyninenine 2y ago
  I have walked by homeless people in sf who I think probably don’t have much longer to live. I have done this. And I’ve watched dozens of people around me do the same thing. I walked by several people like this for probably about a week. Then those people disappeared. I assume they died because who would spend the money to give them care?
  - n4r9 2y ago
    I see. How much of that do you think comes down to being overwhelmed and disillusioned? I'm from the UK but have road-tripped around California. I've seen areas in SF and LA with intense social decay, and I imagine if I lived there for long I might give up trying to help just because it would take so much time and effort. Conversely, if I see someone in London lying on the street in a really bad way I would probably call an ambulance. But that's not happened so far.
    - ninetyninenine 2y ago
      It’s more not caring. When exposed to massive amounts of it, it becomes desensitized. You saw it yourself when you visited these places and like the others who lived there you chose not to do anything about it. But homeless shelters do exist in the city. So there are people who a genuinely good and who do care. But again people willing to take action on this are in a tiny minority.
morkalork 2y ago
I've been watching Soprano's for the first time and this reminds me of the storyline about Meadow's roommate in season 3 who moved to NY from the midwest and is not adjusting or coping to city life, especially when she melts down seeing the homeless woman when they're out drinking one night. I remember seeing the exact same thing play out with kids when I was in university, and I'll just propose this: People don't care because they cannot care, because if they did they would implode. There is too much out there, we're not in some primate village in the forest where you know every other monkey in the tribe. In a city with millions of sad stories, the only choice is to short circuit that part of the brain.
- ninetyninenine 2y ago
  Agreed. I feel the show you’re referring to was an unrealistic depiction of humanity. Very few people will react like that. I’ve brought many new people to the city many times who’ve never seen homelessness and nobody broke down crying. They left SF thinking it’s more of a shit hole they don’t want to live in then they did crying from all the tragedy around them.
happytoexplain 2y ago
You're sort of implying that anybody who doesn't do something substantive (as opposed to giving out money) for a given cause doesn't "actually care", which is fallacious. You're maybe just frustrated by the conflict between caring and doing, as anybody would be - it feels hypocritical to care and not do, but it often just comes down to basic cruel practicality and individual-scale attention economy, and trying to articulate this "excuse" out loud sounds bad. One alternative defense mechanism is to say, "Actually, I just don't care. That's the simple truth! I think most people don't care, in fact, and just can't admit it." I don't even necessarily think this is a full-blown lie, because "care" is a very subjective term. You can internally assert that the threshold for "care" is higher than what you feel, but using the simplest intuitive definition, it's impossible for most people to not "care" about human misery to some degree just because we are completely detached from it.
- ninetyninenine 2y ago
  I think this is just word play. Fact of the matter is both me and tons of people who live in sf… when we walk past homeless people… none of us feel anything.
zero-sharp 2y ago
I don't give to the homeless because I had a crap upbringing and I cling to my finances. My finances bring me a feeling of security. I don't know if that's selfishness. I wouldn't call it evil though. What's the point of throwing around labels anyway?
- ninetyninenine 2y ago
  Yeah you’re right. Evil is just a label. Either way both of us don’t care enough to help.
safety1st 2y ago
No I think this perspective is a product of your own biases. There are plenty of people out there who care and as the article notes, there's lots of charity in the world. But it doesn't solve the problem. The issue is that people are independent agents, so the effect of whatever we do for them is going to be dwarfed by what they do for themselves. When we examine the roots of poverty and homelessness, we find that in most cases people in those situations keep on making choices that perpetuate their circumstances. This isn't meant to suggest that we should reduce charity efforts or that these people who are suffering "deserve" it, it's just an observation that there is no solution without correcting the actions being taken on the individual level. Unfortunately trying to solve a condition as broad as homelessness is like trying to cure cancer. Why do people repeatedly take the wrong actions? There are a thousand causes. But if you want some broad groupings, you can start with unresolved trauma and a lack of information/education. So if we want to achieve fundamental improvement we need to work on those. By the time we get to the homeless I think trauma is the most common factor that prevents them from pulling themselves out. Trauma from serving in the Vietnam War for example probably created around 75,000 homeless men. I come from poverty and escaped it, and in hindsight I'm able to see that my family and the other people around me were making bad choices repeatedly for years. That is why most of them remained in poverty and some of them died an early death. I'm also able to recognize the bad choices I make today which limit my contemporary success, and I'm not always able to change those habits due to my own issues. Everyone is a WIP. Compassion is worthwhile but alone it is insufficient. People must somehow be compelled to change.
- ninetyninenine 2y ago
  > No I think this perspective is a product of your own biases. There are plenty of people out there who care and as the article notes, there's lots of charity in the world. But it doesn't solve the problem. Plenty of people care most don’t care. Your perspective is unique. I’m talking from a perspective of someone who looks at poverty like a foreign country. Most people have never experienced it.

jareklupinski 2y ago

> That’s the dark truth of it all. dont pull us into despair

ninetyninenine 2y ago
[flagged]
- johnisgood 2y ago
  Wow.
  - ninetyninenine 2y ago
    I think you’d be surprised how many people are like me but don’t admit it. I’m just be honest here. Maybe I’m a bit more evil then normal with the reply but I think my original comment is quite commonplace.
    - johnisgood 2y ago
      I know, I do realize that. I worked in healthcare before. Regardless, I am not judging, live and let live. I still believe your comment was unwarranted, unnecessary, and inappropriate.
- jakkos 2y ago
  > If you were dying I’d probably let you die and would be happy about it. This is an insane, sociopathic thing to say in a reasonably civil internet discussion. > Another dark truth. I think a lot of people are like me. I think there are far fewer than you believe.
  - ninetyninenine 2y ago
    How many lives have you saved in your lifetime? With the amount of money most people make with concentrated effort you can pull at least one person out of poverty. I would say most people haven’t done this. Because what I said is essentially true.
- echelon 2y ago
  You still have time to edit your comment.
  - ninetyninenine 2y ago
    I won’t. The original comment I replied to was far more vicious and he edited it massively. He was directly disparaging my attitude. So it did incite a bit of hatred in me. I changed my mind: I’ll edit it
    - johnisgood 2y ago
      S/He edited it? What was the original comment to which you replied?
      - ninetyninenine 2y ago
        Yeah it was several lines long and directed to single me out as completely different and evil. It was trying to make me feel alone by saying no one is like me. Said comment pissed me off. So I replied with a pissed off comment. Then he edited it. So yeah…
        johnisgood 2y ago
        Well, "no one is like you" is definitely false, and people try to rationalize it away to avoid feeling guilt or whatever.
        deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
        deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
- tinyplanets 2y ago
  So edgy...
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- gosub100 2y ago
  I'm more or less with you. I don't care about homeless people and I was truly upset when the city installed a new light rail connector in my neighborhood which 1) brought plenty new homeless to my area and 2) didn't check for paying customers (no turnstile with manned stations, but if I tried to ride for free, I could face a stiff fine and criminal mark on my record via "random" checks by security), which actively encouraged them to roam around and distribute their crime and waste products throughout town. It's a reason I'm adamantly against public transit and will always choose to use a gas powered vehicle over a train or bus. I don't want people to starve to death or die of exposure, but it's nothing new throughout history. The infirm deteriorate and eventually die. It's part of the circle of life. It's tempting to think that "if we all just ____" that the problem would be solved, but that's true for literally every problem mankind faces. If we all just loved our brother, there would be no assault, wars, violence! If we all just imagine a world without borders and religion and money we can all just live in perfect harmony! If we all just took only what we needed , and diligently contributed towards the community, why, we wouldn't even need money any more! Imagine how beautiful life would be if we all just ______! Yeah there's a fundamental reason that doesn't happen. It's fundamental to human nature and cannot be solved. There used to be a homeless woman who posted here frequently, and I distinctly remember her being the most aggressive, confrontational, cantankerous poster I'd ever seen. I would never help someone who acts that way.
- pistoleer 2y ago
  > Your answer makes me not like you in fact it incites hatred. Why are you so aggrieved? What's the big deal?
  - ninetyninenine 2y ago
    His answer was edited. It was much more aggressive. I edited my response in kind.

01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago

Yeah. I just don't want to do small acts of charity. I think "evil" is a strong word for it, though. I see bigger evils than apathy in the news every day. And I vote for policies that are supposed to help these people. Some people are actively voting against them. OTOH I don't call it good when people take care of their friends and family. That's self-interest, that's tit-for-tat. Everyone is kind to people who are kind to them. That does not impress me one bit.

ninetyninenine 2y ago
Agreed, maybe evil is too strong of a word. Self interest is more accurate. I admire the people who are good, I’m just not one of them.

candiddevmike 2y ago

If you were homeless, would you ask people for money? For me, the answer is probably yes, and so it makes sense for me to give money to folks in that situation.

ninetyninenine 2y ago
I would ask people to give me money, but I don’t care to give other people money. I don’t need any moral justification to help me sleep at night.
- jacknews 2y ago
  Indeed a percentage of the population have low empathy, and some none at all. The later we label sociopaths.
  - ninetyninenine 2y ago
    The sad truth is that I live in the city with the most homeless people and I see the same thing everyday with not just me, but everyone who lives in the city. They walk by homeless people and not care. Sociopaths are something worse. What I describe is normal people.
fluoridation 2y ago
It does not follow that because you would ask for money that you should therefore give people money. There's an implicit assumption that most people who ask for money are in the position you imagined yourself to be in that case.
- PittleyDunkin 2y ago
  > It does not follow that because you would ask for money that you should therefore give people money. Of course it does. If there is any logic to ethics is that you should behave towards others how you would like to be treated in their position. > There's an implicit assumption that most people who ask for money are in the position you imagined yourself to be in that case. Well, yes. To assume otherwise, or to fall into such deep skepticism that you think you cannot assume anything about how other people pass through the world, is to give up on empathy.

9999px 2y ago

No, I'm not like that. I think myself and millions of others do care and act every day in some small way that adds up to the world not being a dystopian hell-hole.

ninetyninenine 2y ago
How many lives have you saved with your money? I’ve saved zero but if I wanted to I can make a focused effort on changing at least one life. I don’t care to spend that effort. And neither do you. I don’t think you’ve saved a single life either.

NoMoreNicksLeft 2y ago

[flagged]

ninetyninenine 2y ago
> Blaming or trying to shame me for "not caring" does nothing to change any of this. There is no "dark truth" here. Who says I’m blaming you? I’m not. Just telling it like it is. I feel no shame in the fact that I don’t care or most people don’t care. I think it’s intrinsically evil but I don’t care or feel shame about this. I think most people are like you. They realize the irrationality of their behavior but they still try to use evidence to build a scaffold of logic to justify it all. I don’t need to do that. I just don’t care about people in need and I can admit it. I’m evil and most people are too.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 2y ago
  > Just telling it like it is. Not even a little. You're just virtue signaling. > I think most people are like you. They realize the irrationality of their behavior What part of my behavior is irrational? > I’m evil I'm not. Assuming there is even something that could rightly be called evil, I'm not that. You should look into medications for cluster b disorders.
  - ninetyninenine 2y ago
    > Not even a little. You're just virtue signaling. Wouldn’t admitting I’m evil be the opposite of virtue signaling? > What part of my behavior is irrational? None because you spent a lot of effort rationalizing your behavior. I was more referring to your behavior prior to the rationalization. I’m the one who is irrational. I live with the contradiction. I like to think of myself as a good moral human being who tips and cares about other people. Yet I don’t care about homeless people and I’m ok with this contradiction. Maybe I’m rationalizing it away by saying I’m evil. But how does that explain me treating non homeless people nicely with great respect? > I'm not. Assuming there is even something that could rightly be called evil, I'm not that. You should look into medications for cluster b disorders. People like me are normal. I think you’re out of touch with how prevalent it is. To advise me to take medication shows this. You feel a strong need to rationalize your behavior. I don’t. That’s relatively the main difference between us because externally our behavior is identical.

n4r9 2y ago

I wonder, what are the limits to that lack of care, and would it persist after some reflection? Presumably if you were walking past a dying person, you would call an ambulance to save their life. (Perhaps not, given your other answers!) Now what if you knew with high probability that they'd die without a little money for a shelter? Now what if you knew with high probability that they'll have a really rough night - get beaten up, raped, mugged etc... - without a little money for a shelter? My personal experience is that the vast majority of humans have a strong innate sense of compassion for others. But many of them have it beaten out of them by social and financial pressures.

ninetyninenine 2y ago
I have walked by homeless people in sf who I think probably don’t have much longer to live. I have done this. And I’ve watched dozens of people around me do the same thing. I walked by several people like this for probably about a week. Then those people disappeared. I assume they died because who would spend the money to give them care?
- n4r9 2y ago
  I see. How much of that do you think comes down to being overwhelmed and disillusioned? I'm from the UK but have road-tripped around California. I've seen areas in SF and LA with intense social decay, and I imagine if I lived there for long I might give up trying to help just because it would take so much time and effort. Conversely, if I see someone in London lying on the street in a really bad way I would probably call an ambulance. But that's not happened so far.
  - ninetyninenine 2y ago
    It’s more not caring. When exposed to massive amounts of it, it becomes desensitized. You saw it yourself when you visited these places and like the others who lived there you chose not to do anything about it. But homeless shelters do exist in the city. So there are people who a genuinely good and who do care. But again people willing to take action on this are in a tiny minority.

morkalork 2y ago

I've been watching Soprano's for the first time and this reminds me of the storyline about Meadow's roommate in season 3 who moved to NY from the midwest and is not adjusting or coping to city life, especially when she melts down seeing the homeless woman when they're out drinking one night. I remember seeing the exact same thing play out with kids when I was in university, and I'll just propose this: People don't care because they cannot care, because if they did they would implode. There is too much out there, we're not in some primate village in the forest where you know every other monkey in the tribe. In a city with millions of sad stories, the only choice is to short circuit that part of the brain.

ninetyninenine 2y ago
Agreed. I feel the show you’re referring to was an unrealistic depiction of humanity. Very few people will react like that. I’ve brought many new people to the city many times who’ve never seen homelessness and nobody broke down crying. They left SF thinking it’s more of a shit hole they don’t want to live in then they did crying from all the tragedy around them.

happytoexplain 2y ago

You're sort of implying that anybody who doesn't do something substantive (as opposed to giving out money) for a given cause doesn't "actually care", which is fallacious. You're maybe just frustrated by the conflict between caring and doing, as anybody would be - it feels hypocritical to care and not do, but it often just comes down to basic cruel practicality and individual-scale attention economy, and trying to articulate this "excuse" out loud sounds bad. One alternative defense mechanism is to say, "Actually, I just don't care. That's the simple truth! I think most people don't care, in fact, and just can't admit it." I don't even necessarily think this is a full-blown lie, because "care" is a very subjective term. You can internally assert that the threshold for "care" is higher than what you feel, but using the simplest intuitive definition, it's impossible for most people to not "care" about human misery to some degree just because we are completely detached from it.

ninetyninenine 2y ago
I think this is just word play. Fact of the matter is both me and tons of people who live in sf… when we walk past homeless people… none of us feel anything.

zero-sharp 2y ago

I don't give to the homeless because I had a crap upbringing and I cling to my finances. My finances bring me a feeling of security. I don't know if that's selfishness. I wouldn't call it evil though. What's the point of throwing around labels anyway?

ninetyninenine 2y ago
Yeah you’re right. Evil is just a label. Either way both of us don’t care enough to help.

safety1st 2y ago

No I think this perspective is a product of your own biases. There are plenty of people out there who care and as the article notes, there's lots of charity in the world. But it doesn't solve the problem. The issue is that people are independent agents, so the effect of whatever we do for them is going to be dwarfed by what they do for themselves. When we examine the roots of poverty and homelessness, we find that in most cases people in those situations keep on making choices that perpetuate their circumstances. This isn't meant to suggest that we should reduce charity efforts or that these people who are suffering "deserve" it, it's just an observation that there is no solution without correcting the actions being taken on the individual level. Unfortunately trying to solve a condition as broad as homelessness is like trying to cure cancer. Why do people repeatedly take the wrong actions? There are a thousand causes. But if you want some broad groupings, you can start with unresolved trauma and a lack of information/education. So if we want to achieve fundamental improvement we need to work on those. By the time we get to the homeless I think trauma is the most common factor that prevents them from pulling themselves out. Trauma from serving in the Vietnam War for example probably created around 75,000 homeless men. I come from poverty and escaped it, and in hindsight I'm able to see that my family and the other people around me were making bad choices repeatedly for years. That is why most of them remained in poverty and some of them died an early death. I'm also able to recognize the bad choices I make today which limit my contemporary success, and I'm not always able to change those habits due to my own issues. Everyone is a WIP. Compassion is worthwhile but alone it is insufficient. People must somehow be compelled to change.

ninetyninenine 2y ago
> No I think this perspective is a product of your own biases. There are plenty of people out there who care and as the article notes, there's lots of charity in the world. But it doesn't solve the problem. Plenty of people care most don’t care. Your perspective is unique. I’m talking from a perspective of someone who looks at poverty like a foreign country. Most people have never experienced it.