Supposing someone didn't want food, I don't see that it changes the fundamental reality that they are homeless and begging. In fact it's hard to blame them for wanting a drink in that situation.

The issue is that someone genuinely homeless will happily take the drink and sandwich and consume them later (thus the "no mayo") if they happen to not be hungry right now.

Someone who is panhandling wants money and they get very angry when you interrupt that process. At least in the US, the panhandlers tend not to be the genuinely homeless--they mostly tend to be scummy people. It's a semi-regular news occurrence for someone to follow a panhandler with a camera to find out they really aren't homeless.

It really makes the political discussion about how to help the "homeless" a lot harder because now you have to deal with "How do we make sure that we help the "homeless" instead of these scummy jerks?" And it's impossible to make the separation--the scummy jerks will always work your system better than the genuinely homeless. It's one of the reasons why I'm generally for the basic income kind of approaches--the scummy jerks can't work your system to the detriment of those who genuinely need it.

In the US at least, the "genuinely homeless" that you could actually help tend to be nearly invisible because they don't want to be seen--getting seen gets you noticed and harrassed.

> Someone who is panhandling wants money and they get very angry when you interrupt that process. At least in the US, the panhandlers tend not to be the genuinely homeless--they mostly tend to be scummy people. It's a semi-regular news occurrence for someone to follow a panhandler with a camera to find out they really aren't homeless.

My belief is that this is a very small percentage of beggars and the videos are so widely shared not because they reflect a common situation but because they make the people share them feel better about walking on by. I don’t actually think that you can determine that someone isn’t homeless just because they don’t want to accept food from you.

Maybe it's different for where you are, but I used to see several beggars park their car and unpack before lunch and repack and drive away once past dinner. One would bring a woman and 2 children to help panhandle. These aren't the exceptions--they're the norm.

Should we be helping these people? Yes.

Is panhandling money really helping these people? Not really.

Is their having a car meant to be proof they aren't homeless? And I would encounter several panhandlers just on a short walk to work in Boston; should this one anecdote from an unknown place be enough to completely change my perspective?

This article tries to find some numbers and should probably cast doubt on the rich beggar narrative: https://invisiblepeople.tv/how-much-do-panhandlers-actually-...