The inevitable capitalist consequence to homelessness
Please dont shoot the messenger, i'm starting with an assumption and going through logical consequences and ending up with an outcome.
We're fast moving to a cashless society. Electronic payments are taking over. Fewer people carry cash around on them, particularly the younger generation. Given that you can only give what you have in your pocket as change, and you only get coins from shop keepers as change (you get cash from your ATMs, paper only).
More and more shopping is moving to online/reward card/card related payments, coins are dying out. They are also the lifeline to the homeless.
Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on what people that would be homeless will otherwise do, however its near inevitable that it will happen.
Something to consider anyway.
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.
Just sayin
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/taco-bell-burrito-battery-678451
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/taco-bell-burrito-battery-678451[/q…] LOLing, passed that around, thanks dude
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