The inevitable capitalist consequence to homelessness

They will move to a barter system based off of cigarettes. It has already begun. Think about it. They all accept cigarettes, yet they never smoke them (or rarely do you see them do so).

There's definitely a market somewhere.

It's almost like they'd have to go out and get jobs or something

There's campaigns in my city to discourage people from donating change to the homeless. The argument being that donations in that manner tend to be poorly used, re: drugs, and don't actually help people re: it's enough to keep stringing along on the street, but not enough to actually get them upwardly mobile again. According to those campaigns, this should be a good thing.

Giving coins to the homeless is simply the easiest way people have found to lessen their guilt for not actually caring. If you really want to help, donating some of your time is a far more valuable commitment.

Still, I must admit I'm torn as coins do allow day-to-day subsistence...

I've thought this too. I used to / would more if i could volunteer for a homeless charity, can't say we ever brought it up though...

I just give the food and a card with directions to the nearest shelter, but not money, it will be used to buy booze/drugs. In fact, there's a guy who camps out in front of Port Authority with a sign saying "Need cash for Beer, not going to lie", true story. A huge percent of homeless are untreated mentally ill (maybe 25%) so the long term fix would require institutionalization and treatment.

Actual hobo communes (yes, they are real) don't function on a capitalist basis and have no use for currency, so it kind of doesn't matter whether or not currency is physical. More than anything else, they scavenge.

That having been said, cash is never going away in our lifetimes

Solution: Government cell phones for the homeless with Chase Quickpay. You can even say what the transfer is for ie. Shower

I don' think cash is going away and you will just see the homeless up their game. Create a donation system where homeless have those square little zebra codes on them, you can scan them and donate to a central location and the bums can take the money out, minus a cut.

You can also have drug and shelter services at this area since all the bums will congregate.

Donate to a shelter or soup kitchen, don't give money to them.

If you want to get rid of a stray cat, don't feed it any Kibbles. Let them flock to their natural habitat in search for mice.

For the vagabonds, that's New Jersey.