I wrote the following in response to a news post, and I wanted to save it to refer back to later...
What do you think?
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1) Health care should be a common good, in the same way that roads, public education and defense is a common good. Denying treatment unless a person is dying is not American, it's just fucked up. If the rest of the industrialized world can take care of ALL of their citizens, even the poorest, then America can as well.
2) Health insurance companies must die. You're entirely missing the point when you defend them, or judge them, one against another.
Health insurance companies siphon off 1 out of every 3 dollars in our health care system to pay for bureaucracy, their own salaries and corporate profits. People are dying of cancer and it costs 1/3rd more to take care of them because of health insurance companies.
Stop buying the hype! Health insurance is just a massive tape worm in the gut of our health care system. It's time to unplug their life support. The entire industry needs to be dis-intermediated and removed from the doctor/patient loop.
Please, for the love of god, I'm begging you guys to stop giving money to people on the streets. If we had an infestation of rats you guys would be the ones spreading kibble all over the sidewalks. Our homeless shelters, many of whom supported the panhandling ordinance, will tell you the exact same thing: DO NOT GIVE MONEY TO PANHANDLERS!
When you give money to beggars, you're encouraging criminal behavior and you're wasting money that could be used to provide real help for people that need it. Panhandlers are taking money that could be used to help homeless people that actually need assistance (and not just a beer).
I was naive once too. After all, everyone wants to help their fellow man (or woman), especially if we truly believe they're in need.
In my early twenties I kept running into a guy panhandling off of the I-264 ramps at Breck, Bardstown, etc. I kept asking him if he wanted some easy work, I'd pay him generously, get him a meal, etc. but I could never get him to bite. His lame excuses began to piss me off. You see, I had the best of intentions, but I hadn't realized he was just a crook.
Ahhh... sweet youth. Where does our innocence go? :-)
One day in Dupont Circle, after making the offer again, I had some time to blow so I decided to just wait it out and see what this guy would do. After about an hour, he folded up his sign and walked over to the parking lot that I was in and (surprise) got into an old station wagon.
I followed him over the interstate and into Schnitzelburg, where he parked his car in a driveway. I parked a few houses down and got out and walked down the sidewalk. He proceeded into the front door, and not a minute later came out the side door, which was behind a chain link fence separating the driveway, with a beer in hand. An old lady in a muumuu, I presumed his wife, was hanging clothes in the back yard. He began yelling at her so loudly and so viciously that I was afraid he was going to attack her. I didn't hang out but I noted the address before I left.
A few weeks later I ran into him at the end of a ramp (joy!!). I motioned him over to the car and when he came up I pulled the piece of paper out of my visor and said, "You live at such-and-such number on such-and-such a street, right"? He was surprised and asked how I knew. "I know because I followed you home one day, and if I ever see you out here begging again, I'm going to visit you one day and I'm going to rip both of your arms from your body." He turned around, hurried off, and I never saw him again.
Look, I was young and it was a long time ago. Please don't judge me harshly for the words or reaction of a disenchanted twenty-something. Actually, I haven't changed much, I still have an unhealthy disdain for criminals.
About four weeks ago...
I frequently run into the panhandlers at Grinstead and I-64 and if I'm not busy I'll always offer to give them a ride to a shelter. (It really goes without saying, but women, please do not try this. A young lady was viciously raped under the Baxter trellis a handful of months ago by one of the bums that made it his home.)
I used to offer the sign-guys work and a meal, but I was actually accused of being creepy, so I stopped, figuring I'd let the experts deal with the problem. I would just be a helpful intermediary supplying transportation.
Anyway, one of these guys was there and had a sign that read HOMELESS / VET / HUNGRY. I rolled down the window and asked if he wanted a ride to the shelter and he said no, to which I nodded to the sign and said, "But it says you're homeless". He looked down and said, "Oh, well, I've got a tent back here, I'm OK." I said, "Alright, but what about a meal, you can get a meal at the shelter." He actually looked at his sign again and said, "Oh, I'm not really hungry, but thank you", to which I replied, "So you're hot homeless or hungry, you're just a bum, you just want to sit here and beg?" He came back with "I just want to be free, man!".
The light changed so I didn't get an opportunity to explore his military service history, but I'm guessing it was about as bogus as the rest.
I've lived that same story in about 100 different variations over the years.
If you really want to help, start by not contributing to the panhandling problem.
Give your money or time to well run groups with clean facilities, transparent audits and results and good programs and counseling. Most any group that doesn't make you say a prayer in order to get a room and a meal will probably work. You'll actually be contributing to the greater good this way.
There was a guy who used to troll the parking lots on West Market in the evenings and try to pass himself off as an "out of town firefighter". He had some sort of laminated badge and needed exactly $59.44 for some sort of hose broken on his car.
So I ask him, "Firefighter, huh? Tell me what a Level One RIT is 'cause, you know, there are a lot of scammers out there..." (something ANY firefighter TRAINEE should know). He gets scary belligerent and starts saying I'm insulting him, etc. and storms off.
Most of the guys asking for money for food are scammers, particularly the ones downtown. Downtown you are short walking distance from several churches and shelters that will feed you for free, no questions asked. You could show up in a suit or in underwear and they'll give you a meal. But lots of people give 'em money...when you watch them it usually doesn't take more than five minutes of work to get a handful of change, just for asking.
A guy on Bardstown Road once told me he needed a couple of bucks for gas so he could get home. I told him that I wouldn't give him cash, but I'd help him push the car and get the gas for him.
We walked about three blocks before he realized I wasn't going to give in to his game, started stuttering and hopped on a Tarc bus that was getting ready to pull away. It was freaky, you'd think he was making a getaway from a bank robbery.
While this type of stuff is mildly amusing to me, it wouldn't be necessary if folks would just stop giving money to these people. I feel most of all for the women, as aggressive male panhandlers can be very frightening to them, whereas I'm more likely to enjoy it.
A guy I worked for last year doing Landscape Construction was working down in louisville one day and was short a guy. He seen a Begger on the corner at a stop light so he called him over. He told him he would pay him a 8 dollars an hour and buy him lunch if he wanted to work and to get on in the truck. The guy just looked at him really funny, like work? u want me to work for money?. And he said u got untill the light changes to get in the truck. The guy just stood there looking at him like he was an idiot untill the light changed....
I really admiring you for actually engaging with people and asking them about their situation and needs. Honestly, that's more sensitive than tossing a couple of quarters at them.
I will say though, that their reluctance to get into a car with a stranger may be prudent, more than actually indicating a lack of need. Although over all, the body of evidence you're reporting indicates that the need was, at the very least, far more minimal than they're suggesting.
I know I really shouldn't give, but I have on occasion. It's not because I'm naive enough to think I'm getting the full story, but I guess I just figure that even if the guy isn't in as dire straits as he is suggesting, he clearly needs money more than I do if he's willing to stand around in the hot sun to ask people for dimes and stuff.
Still, from a public policy standpoint, I realize it's not helpful.
A related point: How to talk to kids about this? When you say something like: "Sorry, I don't have any money." And then they ask you: "But I thought you did have money." So what do you say: I am not quite cynical enough to want to tell a little one -- obviously a pre-teen is different -- that I thought the guy was lying but... (Especially given that this is in the same conversation that I have to confess that I was, ahem, lying about not having money.) It's one of those moments as a parent where you never feel like you handled it perfectly.
My friends and co-workers know that I'm a huge fan of Consumer's Union (and Consumer Reports). They champion all sorts of excellent causes. Their most recent success was the consumer credit card legislation which, when fully implemented, will be a boon to consumers in protecting against the most blatant abuses of the credit card companies. (I gave $20 and sent a stack of letters as part of that issue, and I'd encourage everyone to do the same for every good cause you come across.)
Here is the link to their petition to the FDA (click me) to entirely remove BPA from our food. This might even be more relevant to those of you with children, but I encourage you all to take a look, and if you agree, please sign the petition.
PS. Check that box to stay involved and receive their emails, you'll be delighted at the great causes this group champions.
I just read Gill Holland's "Brave New World" article and it reminded me again that he's one smart cookie. Two takeaways that I don't want to forget:
(I paraphrase) If our government and "business friendly" representatives hasn't kowtowed to the car industry, we'd have been making consistent mileage improvement requirements over the last 30 years. Instead, when gas goes through the roof, our car companies nearly implode while Toyota sells the snot out of hybrids and Priuses. American's end up spending billions of taxpayer dollars on programs like “Cash for Clunkers” in an attempt to prop up the failing domestic industry....
..and this gem...
"In terms of getting our metaphorical carbon clock cleaned, Chu reminded us that China is spending $12 million an hour on clean energy and developing a 1 million volt, high-transmission line that transports energy from the West (where China's renewables are plentiful and harvestable) to the population centers of the East. For those of us worried about how to present this to the business community, he also recalled that a similar cap-and-trade, market-based system solved the problem of acid rain. It did not destroy the economy, as some in the business community had feared. By 2007, sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions were reduced by 50 percent from 1980 levels. The Waxman-Markey bill is the same type of carbon emissions/cap-and-trade bill."
As a nation, it seems like we're so obstinate and ignorant (or "independently minded") that we can talk ourselves out of any good idea. We have to stop thinking about the short term, and resisting any change that might cost us an extra dollar today, or we'll be the "biggest loser" in the long term.
cars
homes
jobs
health
Gumbo in progress
Please, for the love of god, I'm begging you guys to stop giving money to people on the streets. If we had an infestation of rats you guys would be the ones spreading kibble all over the sidewalks. Our homeless shelters, many of whom supported the panhandling ordinance, will tell you the exact same thing: DO NOT GIVE MONEY TO PANHANDLERS! 
