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You say "desperate"; I say lazy (and entitled). Inflation's a good excuse. Everyone's hiring. There was a time we'd ALL have cut off our right arms, or at least taken a second job, rather than publicly beg. Those days are obviously gone!
You say "desperate"; I say lazy (and entitled). Inflation's a good excuse. Everyone's hiring. There was a time we'd ALL have cut off our right arms, or at least taken a second job, rather than publicly beg. Those days are obviously gone!
You have to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff. It is not all that and there are some genuine situations. NextDoor does police the scamming.
One of the first beggars in our area asking for a large amount of money said it was for veterinary care for their pet. Lots of details and sounded legit. People asked for the practice name so they could pay directly. No, the practice doesn't want all kinds of people calling up paying (as if, right?). OK, so then they asked please post the bills so we can see them and we'll send you some money. Well, I don't have any bills, I just know how much I owe. And so on. I couldn't believe anyone would want to give money at that point and I stopped reading the thread.
Next people moved into the biggest old house in town and started asking for every single thing you could imagine. Money, clothes, food, plants, a vehicle. Then stuff for the niece or granddaughter or something, like a Cricut machine. Then the inevitable GoFundMe for the spouse, because the first spouse couldn't work because of one kind of cancer after losing the job they had because of another kind of cancer and driving back and forth to see the inlaws who had a third kind of cancer, but the spouse only had diabetes and the supplies were so expensive and the parent was in debt and needed help and it was amazing because you couldn't tell who needed the money and what they wanted it for if you read to the end.
It makes me sad because the one person who will post and really need help will be lost in a sea of scammers.
I think a lot of people are perfectly capable of discerning who's really in need and who's grifting, but that's not the point. The point of my post was to remark on the increased presence of beggars on social media. My original post mentioned the increase in requests for luxuries. Here is is again:
Quote:
Not asking for advice here or opinions on how NextDoor is a toxic cesspool; we all have our reasons for using or not using it. Just want to discuss the prevelance of online panhandling there; people claiming that their cupboards are bare and that their children are starving, their pets are at death's door, their evil landlord is about to lower the boom, etc. I'm sure some of it's sincere, and I'm sure some of it is just racketeering, but if NextDoor is someone's last resort, well, then I guess it's their last resort. But the current trend seems to be requests for luxuries; one woman wanted someone to buy concert tickets for her, another was "fundraising" because her teenage daughter wanted to go to Europe. My favorite is a guy who who was looking for someone to "drop him off a blender." Is anyone else seeing an influx of this sort of thing?
Last edited by Metlakatla; 09-21-2023 at 06:49 PM..
You say "desperate"; I say lazy (and entitled). Inflation's a good excuse. Everyone's hiring. There was a time we'd ALL have cut off our right arms, or at least taken a second job, rather than publicly beg. Those days are obviously gone!
Agreed. I'm so prideful, I wouldn't even ask my family for financial help unless I am pretty much destitute. You want to hear entitled? In my neck of the woods, there was a single mom with kids enrolled in an extremely expensive sports, like a travel sports teams, on local internet groups asking for ROOMS to live in or strangers willing to take her and her kids in because they can't afford their rent. Yet, she can afford to walk around in every piece of team clothing available, hotels and plane tickets to watch her kids play. PRIORITIES right Use your money for a room over head, not an unnecessary extra curricular activity..
People are mentioning the affect this has on the general population and how the more we see the less remarkable it seems. I've got an example of that, a lifelong friend who has always been very liberal in her way of thinking.
She called me one day asking for my opinion. She needed a part-time housekeeper and hired a woman who was very efficient and self-directed. She jumped right in.
The very first day she was there she announced she was thirsty and had to go get something to drink. Left for a short while and returned with a bottle of vodka which she put in their kitchen cupboard and sipped on for the rest of the day. This went on for a couple of weeks before she called me.
After a week or so my friend thought perhaps some of her private items were being sorted through and mentioned it to her husband. He wanted to let the housekeeper go but my friend thought that was wrong because the woman needed the money. What did I think?
She had become so blind in her need to help others it seemed like she was totally unable to see her situation in a realistic way. You have to wonder who the giving was actually being done for.
I can't help but wonder how much of her attitude was acquired from social conditioning. It's like "Help them in spite of their flaws" but sometimes those "flaws" are exactly what keeps them in their needy position.
You can't fix that. But sometimes consequences for the flaws lead them to a helpless state when they are ready to make change. Then you can help them and much more safely for you.
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Use your money for a room over head, not an unnecessary extra curricular activity..
