[INTP] Do you hate homeless people?

[Tallulah]

I'm kind of surprised at the reactions on the first 3 pages. I kind of took the OP to mean, "Are panhandlers annoying?"

What a bizarre topic.

I will say that, living in the Bay Area, it's impossible to walk two blocks without someone lunging forward and demanding money, then screaming after you if you decline. (Seriously, anyone who's even visited San Francisco knows what I'm talking about.) So. I don't like that much.

I don't hate them at all, but I also don't give them money and dislike it when they come up to you and try to play your friend and assume that they should get something for it. I often end up being the jerk for not giving them anything when they impose themselves on you like that. I don't enjoy attempts at manipulation.

Weird thread. Why would someone hate people just for being homeless?
I only have a problem with those bums (not a synonym) who are obnoxious and harass people. I doubt I'd appreciate such people if they had homes.
I do dislike panhandlers on the trains and the people who enable them.

All of this. When I lived in NYC, I'd pass probably 75 homeless/panhandlers on my way to work every day. There is NO WAY I would be able to give each and every one of those people a dollar or my spare change every day. Add to that the guys that said they were homeless, but were wearing complete Sean John outfits and such, that would make their way through each subway car, make a big speech and then wander through with a cap or jar or something so you could donate to them. I'm sorry, but I'm on my way home from working all day, I've had people in my face the whole time, I would like you to leave me alone, thx.

A local newspaper in NY interviewed a former homeless guy that lived on Roosevelt Island, where I lived at the time, and he said for him, homelessness was a bit of a choice--he had one leg amputated at the knee, and it was easier for him to go and sit at Grand Central Station and panhandle all day, clear $100 a day, and then try and find a friend's house or shelter at night. $100 a day. That's about what I was making working, and a chunk of my paycheck was going to the government (and of course, bills). He was clearing substantially more than I was. (He eventually got a job and an apartment.)

 

[am_i_evil666]

If you are talking about panhandlers, I have to say that I despise them. Maybe some of them are really poor, but most of them make tons of money, so I have heard from one of them in person. And I encounter them each day, in the tram or the bus, it's just annoying, one goes down at one station and another comes up at the next.
I usually don't give them anything, mostly because I don't feel good giving them my money, because, hey, it's mine and what the hell did they do to earn it? Just come by and say "I have 7 brothers and nothing to eat".

Plus that they are so creepy, I just hate those who gather on the way to my home, I'm usually afraid to pass them by.

 

[Feops]

Here when it's below 0°F the homeless usually ride trains or buses when they have to.

Possible I suppose, but not something I've observed. I ride the bus a fair bit and I've never noticed homeless around train yards.

Again it's probably my local situation skewing my perspective. I've seen some news stories of people in the states being forced into tents and forced to beg for basic goods. If you offered them jobs they'd jump for it and be productive. I feel empathy for these people. Even if they may have made some poor financial decisions that put them in that situation, they are able workers and it seems such a waste.

Most of the street people here are not joe and jane down on their luck and looking for food. They are the ones giving off a weird vibe, disheveled, mired in addictions. They are not starving, so where does their extra money go? Alcohol, cigarettes, solvents.

 

[Valiant]

I think homeless people are the result of failure on society's behalf. They should not be allowed to become like they are in the first place... If the shit hits the fan, forced rehab and a big ol' re-programming therapy.

Edit: I think that they deserve empathy. It's not their fault, at least to a large extent.

 

[Verfremdungseffekt]

In theory, yes. In practice, in my experience in this particular region, I just want to be left the hell alone. I'm poor myself. I just barely pay the rent from month to month. I don't want people in my face, giving me a hard time because of their own personal issues.

But yeah. The Bay Area is a little weird in this regard. It's where every other city on the continent sends its homeless, so even though San Francisco does its best to account for and house its homeless, it can never keep up with demand. There are always people out there, and they know how to get what they're looking for.

Again, the people who have legitimate issues -- that's a shame. It's doubly a shame that they're undermined by the entitled hosers who drum up all the resentment. If I give money, as I have done, I'm being nice. Don't expect anything! The moment you get out of my face is the moment I'm willing to think about helping, to the extent I'm able.

 

[Jaguar]

I think we should take anyone who hates homeless people,
and make them homeless.

Let them walk a mile, in another man's shoes.

 

[sleepy]

I think they are great for disrupting structure. I'm skeptical to this super controlled society.

 

[Wade Wilson]

I think we should take anyone who hates homeless people,
and make them homeless.

Let them walk a mile, in another man's shoes.

I agree.

Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes, that way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

 

[Frank]

I guess i should clarify my response due to the upset pm I received. I do not think we should try to find a way to use them as fuel. I really didn't believe anyone on here was dense enough to take that statement at face value. I was simply answering with a level of absurdity that I thought was equal with the absurdity of the question. Seriously, why would I hate anyone based on their position in life. I don't know why they are there or the circumstances that led to it therefore I am not qualified to judge them.

 

[Sentura]

yeah homeless people are the layer that should not be. they are a disgrace to mankind.

...

what kind of question is that? how can you hate someone whom you most likely will talk to 5-15 seconds out of your day with?

 

[FDG]

No, I'm fine with them, but it's not really like I feel strong emphaty towards them. Nevertheless, I would like it best if they were not homeless, everybody would benefit from the lack of homelessness.

Of course, if we're talking about those homeless that scream at you if you don't give them money, then I'm not that much pleased by them, but luckily it's not a big social problem in Italy, especially in my zone.

 

[am_i_evil666]

Ha ha, it's hard to feel empathy towards them when they creep you out.

 

[Blank]

Can't you feel empathy toward the idea of being homeless?

 

[InquisitiveCow]

I have sympathy for the ones who are there due to circumstances beyond their control but not at all for the ones who wound up there because of lifestyle choices.

 

[Spartacuss]

I really didn't believe anyone on here was dense enough to take that statement at face value.

Er. You don't come here often, I suppose.

As for the topic - I don't have a problem with the homeless per se. Odd thread.

 

[wildcat]

I was homeless once for 2 weeks and someone lent me and bf a van to sleep in. I was also heavily pregnant. I had never been so hungry in all my life.
Not good.

So if i do see someone homeless i will give them some change.
There was some bloke that was always sitting in the same place on my way to work most days. One day i went to a shop and brought him a cup of tea and a bacon roll. He really appreciated it.

Saying that though, i am weary of some people. A friends older brother used to go into town and pan handle. He was a student. That's just wrong.

People are afraid of the homeless.
If you help them, they stick.

It is the opposite.
They vanish only if you help them.

Most people cosmetically help them. If that much.
They do not like it when the homeless stick around.

The conservatives in America say it is not for the state to take care of the poor.
It is for the individual.

The individual does not take care of the poor in America.
Responsibility is a collective enterprise.

Historically, a collective enterprise is a clan. A large family.
Industrialisation scattered the clan?

Not in Japan, or China.
They do not have homeless people in the street.

 

[Lucifer]

There is always a way out, some people are not prepared to go that far.
Excuses are embodiments of your inability to try or weakness of mind.
I have been poor, and I have made my own way.
You say they can't pay their credit card bills, why are they so big?
They don't have a job? There are ALWAYS jobs, some are just not acceptable to peoples false high standards of themselves.
Some homeless people prefer being homeless. The enjoy the freedom and having no bills to pay. They just get their money from begging.

I do not hate the homeless, but I hold no empathy for them, they are what they are and whether it is or is not a design of there's where they are it is their responsibility to get out of it.

 

[ColonelGadaafi]

No.. because that would not make sense at all, there is no underlying basis for me to hate them at all, and even then it doesn't make sense to hate person based on their dwelling status. However i am not inclined to sympathy either.

 

[Punggung]

Empathy, but I try only to talk with them or support them if they are selling something.

 

[Laurie]

I just hate people. Who cares where they live?