Living for a few years in an area that had a somewhat regular beggar population, I think the psychology of begging can’t go unexamined. There’s more at play than just how much money you can get: prominently the dislike of doing “actual work” and the already mentioned suffering of the beggar stigma. From my experience the sort of people who beg are not so much the people who can’t get any jobs (unless won’t = can’t, motivationally speaking), but people with low or uniquely valued enough self-esteem to suffer the stigma, and who would much rather sit on the street corner than do the 9 to 5 day in and day out. Unfortunately I don’t have experimental data on this. Of course they’re mixed in with the people who really can’t get jobs, but giving to beggars for me at least factors in how much I want to reward people who have the above mentioned preferences.
It’s worth pointing out that where I live (a major east coast city) the vast majority of the homeless population seem to have drug, social and/or mental problems, ranging from obviously but mild to incredibly severe. Of course this data is somewhat anecdotal but I have enough friends who are social workers to feel relatively confident about it. There doesn’t seem to be a large class of people making strategic plans to beg based on expected return.
For reference, I don’t give money to beggars (due to concerns about how that money will be used), but I do try to give food to beggars, and I support tax money being used for public health projects. I guess this exposes me as someone who supports interventionist social policies in some cases.
I like the idea of giving actual food away, being something they almost certainly are going to get something worthwhile out of. My father used to keep bag lunches of prepackaged food in his car for that reason.
Living for a few years in an area that had a somewhat regular beggar population, I think the psychology of begging can’t go unexamined. There’s more at play than just how much money you can get: prominently the dislike of doing “actual work” and the already mentioned suffering of the beggar stigma. From my experience the sort of people who beg are not so much the people who can’t get any jobs (unless won’t = can’t, motivationally speaking), but people with low or uniquely valued enough self-esteem to suffer the stigma, and who would much rather sit on the street corner than do the 9 to 5 day in and day out. Unfortunately I don’t have experimental data on this. Of course they’re mixed in with the people who really can’t get jobs, but giving to beggars for me at least factors in how much I want to reward people who have the above mentioned preferences.
It’s worth pointing out that where I live (a major east coast city) the vast majority of the homeless population seem to have drug, social and/or mental problems, ranging from obviously but mild to incredibly severe. Of course this data is somewhat anecdotal but I have enough friends who are social workers to feel relatively confident about it. There doesn’t seem to be a large class of people making strategic plans to beg based on expected return.
For reference, I don’t give money to beggars (due to concerns about how that money will be used), but I do try to give food to beggars, and I support tax money being used for public health projects. I guess this exposes me as someone who supports interventionist social policies in some cases.
I like the idea of giving actual food away, being something they almost certainly are going to get something worthwhile out of. My father used to keep bag lunches of prepackaged food in his car for that reason.