A Strange Aeon posted:

I give to food banks at the grocery store, donate to public radio, donate to the animal shelter where we got our cats from, give some money to the Women's Law Project every year, and some random stuff to Goodwill. Still feel I should be doing more, though.

Like, this is sort of related--a few weeks ago I was getting gas and this guy came over with a can and asked if he could get a little gas since he was out. And I just immediately reacted with "no, I'm not going to do that" and he shuffled off and asked the older lady pumping gas at the opposite pump, and she without question agreed to give him a few bucks worth of gas from her pump and I kind of just felt like a shithead. What did a few bucks worth of gas matter to me? I wouldn't have missed the money and it would have helped that guy out.

Like, why the gently caress did I just reject the dude immediately? Why am I so concerned with being ripped off or tricked by a pan handler that I become cold towards people who actually are in need and who I could help? It's like when we talk about how if the wealthy just gave up a little bit of their money that they wouldn't even miss, so many problems could be solved in the world--but then, when we're the wealthy ones compared to other people, we don't give them poo poo because we're so cynical about how they'll spend it, or we're so protective over an insignificant percentage of our wealth. Like, I have a 401k and poo poo, is spending 2 more dollars in gas really going to affect my life in any meaningful way?

I think I'm arriving at a point in my human journey or whatever where it really doesn't loving matter how they spend the money. If we can talk about the world we want to live in, it involves helping out your fellow men when they need help, when they come up to a stranger and ask for help, which takes some big balls in the first place. And sure, I don't have millions of dollars, but giving some panhandler a dollar isn't going to ruin me financially and might help make that guy's life a little better. So why not? Instead of avoiding eye contact and ignoring the sad signs, why not put some change in the cup?