I was walking down the street today when I was accosted by a man wearing tattered old clothing and feebly shaking a styrofoam cup with a couple coins in it. As I approached—and eventually left behind—this beggar, I thought about whether or not I should give him money. I quickly reached a mental impasse. Part of me wanted to give him some change, and part of me did not. As I explored my thoughts further, I realized that my mind is divided into four relatively equally-proportioned segments:
The part that wants to give the man money so that he can eat
The part that doesn’t want to give him money because
He’ll spend it on booze
I’m cheap
My money is hard to access
The part of me that wants to shove him into a puddle because
He smells
He’s annoying
He’s in my way and I’m in search of breakfast
The part of me that wants to come home and blog about what I think about beggars (and to nest unordered lists)
Clearly, one of these compartments of my mind dominated the others. That particular compartment also noted a small child begging her father for a dollar to give to the beggar. My thoughts eventually led me to the following theory of beggars.
A Theory of Beggars
What is it that makes me not want to give money to beggars roughly 75% of the time I see them? Why is it that a child wants to give a beggar money so badly that she pesters her father until the 75% of his brain that operates like mine finally concedes?
The theory is this: children and adults have entirely different reasons for giving money to beggars. As adults, we must deal with the world in a very pragmatic way, just to live out our daily lives. We are thus concerned with the tangible aspects of giving a beggar money, and this is also where most of our objections arise. The common arguments against giving money to beggars are that they’ll spend it on alcohol and that it only encourages them to clutter up the sidewalk in an otherwise pleasant part of the city. Strictly speaking, these arguments are probably correct.
Even the 25% of our brains that tell us to give the man money are caught up in the tangible. We consciously conjure up feelings of empathy; what does it feel like to be hungry and to have no money? When we do give a beggar money, we hope that he goes and spends it on a hamburger.
Children take a simpler and more pure perspective (or so I assert). In the mind of the child, the argument in favor of giving money to a beggar is something like this:
The beggar desperately wants money
The beggar will be happy if he is given money
You will be happy if the beggar is happy
You should give the beggar money
For the child who has no solid sense of what a dollar is or signifies, money is not mentally linked to anything tangible, and is thus linked to the intangible. Have you ever seen a child exclaim in excitement when they’re given $5? They have no idea what sort of material goods $5 corresponds to. All they know is that having money is good. So when a child sees a beggar in need of money, they apply the above logic and conclude that giving money to a beggar is very important.
An Alternate Hypothesis
Later, an alternate hypothesis occurred to me. I thought of it when I was accosted for the second time that day; it was not by a beggar this time, but by an activist. He approached me and said something to the effect of “Do you want to help end world hunger?”
Well yes, I do want to help end world hunger, and I said as much. He asked me how much I wanted to donate, then stared blankly when I informed him that I didn’t want to donate anything. I hadn’t lied; I really do want to help end world hunger. It wasn’t even a money problem—I’d be glad to donate money to help end world hunger. The problem was him. I didn’t want to give him money because of the way he’d approached me.
It’s the same way with beggars. There’s something in their tone and attitude that isn’t quite belligerent, but a little goading. Something that makes you think that their goal isn’t really to get money to buy a hamburger, but rather to make you feel bad about not giving them anything.
This alternate hypothesis is consistent with my observations about children giving money to beggars.Perhaps the part of the brain that deals with beggars is no different in adults and children; perhaps children, who are never verbally assaulted by guilt-instilling persons, have no qualms about giving away money if they think it’s for a good cause.
Children are never assaulted in this way for a simple reason: children are off limits. Whether it’s common sense or a survival instinct, people do not mess with kids.
Conclusion
I’ve found the best tactic for countering those of beggars and activists is to simply walk on the opposite side of the street. If you can anticipate their position, you can make strategic road crossings and avoid moral dilemmas altogether (unless you have a peculiar conscience that finds avoiding beggars to be immoral or at least morally ambiguous).
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 at 12:57 am and is filed under Social Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Beggars
I was walking down the street today when I was accosted by a man wearing tattered old clothing and feebly shaking a styrofoam cup with a couple coins in it. As I approached—and eventually left behind—this beggar, I thought about whether or not I should give him money. I quickly reached a mental impasse. Part of me wanted to give him some change, and part of me did not. As I explored my thoughts further, I realized that my mind is divided into four relatively equally-proportioned segments:
Clearly, one of these compartments of my mind dominated the others. That particular compartment also noted a small child begging her father for a dollar to give to the beggar. My thoughts eventually led me to the following theory of beggars.
A Theory of Beggars
What is it that makes me not want to give money to beggars roughly 75% of the time I see them? Why is it that a child wants to give a beggar money so badly that she pesters her father until the 75% of his brain that operates like mine finally concedes?
The theory is this: children and adults have entirely different reasons for giving money to beggars. As adults, we must deal with the world in a very pragmatic way, just to live out our daily lives. We are thus concerned with the tangible aspects of giving a beggar money, and this is also where most of our objections arise. The common arguments against giving money to beggars are that they’ll spend it on alcohol and that it only encourages them to clutter up the sidewalk in an otherwise pleasant part of the city. Strictly speaking, these arguments are probably correct.
Even the 25% of our brains that tell us to give the man money are caught up in the tangible. We consciously conjure up feelings of empathy; what does it feel like to be hungry and to have no money? When we do give a beggar money, we hope that he goes and spends it on a hamburger.
Children take a simpler and more pure perspective (or so I assert). In the mind of the child, the argument in favor of giving money to a beggar is something like this:
For the child who has no solid sense of what a dollar is or signifies, money is not mentally linked to anything tangible, and is thus linked to the intangible. Have you ever seen a child exclaim in excitement when they’re given $5? They have no idea what sort of material goods $5 corresponds to. All they know is that having money is good. So when a child sees a beggar in need of money, they apply the above logic and conclude that giving money to a beggar is very important.
An Alternate Hypothesis
Later, an alternate hypothesis occurred to me. I thought of it when I was accosted for the second time that day; it was not by a beggar this time, but by an activist. He approached me and said something to the effect of “Do you want to help end world hunger?”
Well yes, I do want to help end world hunger, and I said as much. He asked me how much I wanted to donate, then stared blankly when I informed him that I didn’t want to donate anything. I hadn’t lied; I really do want to help end world hunger. It wasn’t even a money problem—I’d be glad to donate money to help end world hunger. The problem was him. I didn’t want to give him money because of the way he’d approached me.
It’s the same way with beggars. There’s something in their tone and attitude that isn’t quite belligerent, but a little goading. Something that makes you think that their goal isn’t really to get money to buy a hamburger, but rather to make you feel bad about not giving them anything.
This alternate hypothesis is consistent with my observations about children giving money to beggars.Perhaps the part of the brain that deals with beggars is no different in adults and children; perhaps children, who are never verbally assaulted by guilt-instilling persons, have no qualms about giving away money if they think it’s for a good cause.
Children are never assaulted in this way for a simple reason: children are off limits. Whether it’s common sense or a survival instinct, people do not mess with kids.
Conclusion
I’ve found the best tactic for countering those of beggars and activists is to simply walk on the opposite side of the street. If you can anticipate their position, you can make strategic road crossings and avoid moral dilemmas altogether (unless you have a peculiar conscience that finds avoiding beggars to be immoral or at least morally ambiguous).
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 at 12:57 am and is filed under Social Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.