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Beggars, and life; it’s all about choices
I've got a friend who always gives money to beggars on the street and at supermarket entrances. He says it's because they're people in need and that he doesn't like to see people down on their luck. I keep telling him that he's a sucker because people do take advantage of his generous nature, especially when they tell him any kind of hard luck story because the regulars know it'll result in him giving them more money.
There was a time I used to give away money to street people, but I don't anymore, because the way I see it, it's a choice in life they've made to let other people support them, and I choose to not give them that support. Maybe it's a cynical point of view, but life is all about choices. I could also choose to not work but instead stand on the street corners and ask for money. However I've made a choice to work as a wage slave so I can support a lifestyle that I want to have. It's not my dream job, it's not even something that I really enjoy doing all that much, but I do it so that I can live a certain way in the society I've chosen to live in.
I don't believe there is any such thing as being stuck in one place; there is only, not wanting to do what's required to get out a place that you see yourself stuck in. Choices are always there, but sometimes we just don't like the choices we're faced with, or how much work is required to see a choice through. Either way, no individual is ever forced to remain a beggar, or a wage slave, or anything else.
It's just about making a choice!
Padwanna!
Posted: June 14th, 2007 under General Rant.
Comments: 2
Comments
Comment from pippi
Time: June 14, 2007, 9:33 am
He Padwanna,
Interesting point, i do find your conclusion a bit to easy, You always have a choice, so also not to beg. Living in Amsterdam i have a different experience. A lot off the beggers that I see, seem to have either pshychological problems or drug related problems. I beleive that that way off live is not a choice but a question off bad luck and biological unbalancy. I agree with you that they do have a choice to make the best off a bad situation and just begging for money is not it. So i choose to give my money to them who choose to either make music, or give something back to the public otherwise. And like other people some off them i do like and others i don’t. I also sometimes have talks with them and sometimes that can be very entertaining and eyeopening. Not every begger is lazy and dumb, some are very interesting and intelligent. I don’t want to teach you a lesson in ethics i just find your opinion a bit right wing for my taste. I do agree that working is probably not what everybody prefers to do but if you have the capacity, talents and oppurtinity to tribute then it’s not that bad, i think. It’s true that Holland has a pretty good social system in comparisson to other countries. A lot off people who seem to need it don’t know or are not capeable to use that system to there benifit. So they find themselve in a cycle off no adress, no welfare, so that leaves them begging in the street. How is that in Australia? Got any travellingplans by the way? If i saw you begging in the street i would surely give you a dime or a cup off coffee, or i would teach how to juggle so you can be an streetartist.
Groetjes en kus Pippi
Comment from Padwanna
Time: June 19, 2007, 6:35 am
Hi Pipp,
Nice to hear from you. And it’s very interesting what you say about life here. I do understand what you are trying to say, but I don’t agree with you. Being a drug addict, is a choice, like anything else in life. Maybe you are more heavily influenced in that choice because of physically and emotional dependancies, but the individual is the one that takes the drugs, you’re not born with a smack needle in your arm. People can overcome anything if the desire is there. Of course there are individuals that have been drug addicts and rehabilitated themselves and gone on to have meaningful lives! Why? Because the desire to be more than just a drug addict gave them the drive to change. So they made a choice to not do drugs anymore and then they went about achieving that goal. Just because you’re a drug addict, doesn’t mean you don’t have a choice. It just means, you have more to overcome if you make a choice to change that situation.
Of course not every beggar is lazy and dumb, again it’s the choice of the individual to spend their time doing something other than what the mainstream do. Which isn’t right or wrong, it’s just a choice after all. But it means that if you don’t want to work, you have to find some other way of supporting yourself, which in the case of a beggar is by the generosity of individuals like you and me that do work. Is it wrong? No, it’s just the way they want it to be.
I don’t see this as a matter of ethics or morality, simply one of personal motivation. For those people though that have psychological problems, that is something else, because these individuals do need help and should recieve it if a society is to call itself civilised. But I’m not going to get into that debate because it’s too big for this comment space 
In the end, it’s touching Pipp that you would give me money as a beggar, but I’d never be one because I would never make that choice. I’ll use the power I have in my mind and body to make my life go in other directions. But it’s really sweet of you to support me like that.
No travel plans just yet Pipp. But a trip to Budapest in on the horizon, and also a move back to London for a while I think. But that’s a whole other story!
Padwanna!
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