Poor not allowed to have cash on them?

[Swatopluk]

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/533889/minnesota_gopers_want_to_criminalize_poor_people_carrying_money/

Hey, you non-rich looking guy over there! Are you on the dole? Yes? Empty your pockets! What's that, a nickel? You are under arrest!
Stuff like that was once good for radio satire or dystopian plays.
Btw, German lawmakers currently discuss, whether people on welfare can play lottery legally or not.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

They're just trying to prove themselves to... the Dark Lord.

[ivor]

They're just trying to prove themselves to... the Dark Lord.

What makes you think I have anything to do with it???  Gosh!!!  Sure I'm not a Boy Scout, but if you're looking for who's behind, "pure evil," please check with my ex.

DL

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

Oh FFS.

[Griffin NoName]

The poor would not be poor if they knew how to handle money properly

[Lindorm]

Hey, if poor people are not allowed to have cash on them, how are rich people supposed to be able to give them alms, to display their charity and compassion? Special Visa cards made out of sackcloth and ashes?

[Aggie]

Not a factor in the US, maybe?  

On a serious note, though, I've wondered how feasible it would be to set up a payment-card program for the homeless that allows online donations by slacktivists.  Instead of hitting you up for spare change, a street person would hand you a card with their username, a reference number and optionally a photo, and ask you to donate a few bucks.  The account could be used towards stays at a shelter (which usually charge a few bucks) and other necessities.  

[Griffin NoName]

IMHO, from what I see of the homeless in London, this would be fraught with difficulties.

[Aggie]

Definitely.   I like the idea in some ways, find it insulting in others.

I generally am most inclined to give to panhandlers who flat up tell me they need the money for beer, especially if I'm going to/from spending my money on beer.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Too complicated, and ignores the mindset of the target. In the US at least one third of homeless people suffer from serious mental health issues (and I wouldn't be surprised if many of those classified as substance abusers also have some mental pathology). Whatever is done it has to be simple enough (and with some clear motivation) to involve the target in this case.

[Aggie]

If you could use it to cover prescription costs and medical treatment, and have a central website giving some profile information for each user (without too much personal info, which is a challenge - what they need it for, what their requirements are per month, who is furthest behind) I see it as a viable way to raise funds for that aspect, too.

Atrocious amounts of money would need to go to administration, however.  You'd need a central way of covering that.  From the user's end, they'd get handout cards, and possibly (but not necessarily) a card to carry for payment.  It'd be better to have a photographic database that could be used at point of service to verify identities.  It would need to start small with dedicated staff that actually knew each client.

[Griffin NoName]

Nope, that still doesn't add up to me. ( and the administrators would need to be homeless too).

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Not only that, individuals with mental health issues are incredibly difficult to deal with, and many are in denial about their condition. People in the streets are there in part because they don't fit with the "organized world" that surrounds them, and a portion of them have seen so many different efforts to help them fail that they are quite skeptic and -in the worse cases- take advantage of the system as much as they can. That's why I talk about motivations, which in many cases are very concrete but not necessarily in the same priority levels that we would think logical.

You should talk with someone working on a local shelter to get a better picture.

[Darlica]

My personal and perhaps not entirely balanced reaction:

For F**k's sake!

I'm so bloody tired of people who read 1984 and think it's a instruction to a functioning society and a dystrophy! 




W W DD said?

[Aggie]

Not only that, individuals with mental health issues are incredibly difficult to deal with, and many are in denial about their condition. People in the streets are there in part because they don't fit with the "organized world" that surrounds them, and a portion of them have seen so many different efforts to help them fail that they are quite skeptic and -in the worse cases- take advantage of the system as much as they can. That's why I talk about motivations, which in many cases are very concrete but not necessarily in the same priority levels that we would think logical.

You should talk with someone working on a local shelter to get a better picture.

I will not disagree with the difficulties, and I concede that the idea is focused primarily on how to get money and a bit of intangible goodwill flowing from the "organized world", and less on how to make that money work most effectively for the people who need it.

Homelessness is one of the subjects that I generally sit quietly and keep my damned mouth shut on how to 'solve', because I really can't see any way to do so and don't consider myself a qualified opinion (aboriginal issues are another notable in this respect). 


With regards to the original post, I agree with Scrib and Darlica - Abies Vulpes Merluccius