This is not the first time. He once said that he simply had zero sympathy for homeless or unemployed people, because there are mentally disabled people who can get work.
Let me explain why it bothers me. On two occasions, I have given a 500-rupee note to homeless, vagabond children on the streets. Both occasions saw people around me looking at me in anger. One occasion was near college, when a physically and mentally disabled person mouthed from the corner of his face, “I have nothing. Please…” I gave him money, and gave no further thought to it. One college friend later told me I should never have rewarded a charlatan. I simply told him that if that man had to commit chicanery to get by at all, surely a lost virtue like honesty demanded some compensation.
I don’t pretend to either be an extremely charitable person or an extremely emotionless robot. It was simply no big deal - on a single derivatives trade, I could easily make a Rs. 40,000 profit. 500 rupees was nothing.
But other people’s third party anger and obsession with it is incredible. If they don’t like it, they can simply choose not to do it. Why such self-righteousness? I speculate two reasons.
Thomas Sowell was born in an extremely poor household with many members under one roof, and gets annoyed at seeing anybody who doesn’t work his way up the way he did.
Nearly every Indian in an urban area had parents or grandparents living in rural poverty, and also gets annoyed at people who don’t choose to avoid handouts the way their families did.
Ha Joon Chang of Cambridge called it “kicking out the ladder from underneath”.
I don’t give to random strangers. Who knows what they’ll do with it. Sowell is a humanist through and through, I think you’re badly misconstruing him. The only quibble I have with Sowell is that he hasn’t taken into account the extent to which the government is responsible for the absolute level of poverty and homelessness to begin with. While that isn’t an “excuse” for poverty/homelessness, it does mean that we should be even more indignant with the government for all the needless suffering it causes.
Even if a panhandler is a charlatan he is still providing a service by letting people feel good about themselves; either by being able to think of themselves as charitable and/or by giving them a sense of superiority. And if a panhandler is willing to sacrifice a good image within the community for the ability to make money, in some cases quite a bit, then that´s his choice.
Are you in India? I have been there! (Mainly Kerala and Goa).
The problem, I believe, with this (as I am sure you know) is beggar kings. Beggar kings organise a most elaborate system of fraudulent deception where they take homeless children from the streets and physically disfigure them (blind them, cut off their limbs and so forth) so as to envoke sympathy, particularly with wealthy western tourists (such as myself), and gain charity which they collect at the end of the day. Its rather disturbing. Giving them money does exaggerate this problem. My mother told me ‘Always give them food’ - if they are really and truly poor and starving they will not reject the food. Sometimes they reject the food in which case you know it is a scam.
Indeed not everyone has the opportunities to do so. I have never been poor though so I cannot comment on such a thing.
What are your thoughts on the Hindu cast system in India?
I agree with this. I would only ever give my money to a highly reputable charity that knew the exact right place to direct that money. I never just give to homeless people on the street.
I’m against non-specific charity. In 1932 you could have dropped a coin in the hat of a man named Adolf. I’ve been a dreary bugger at times myself and this is my take. The difficulty raising yourself mostly comes from the stigmatism that always goes against anyone that was ever in a questionable period. This is why once before I pointed out the contradiction underlying political beliefs. On one hand, people hate you if don’t have status. On the other hand, people want to bleed you dry if you do. Coin-Hatter’s Syndrome: You drop a coin in the hat of someone whose presence you would hardly bear for 10 seconds and think you are good for something. You ain’t goin’ nowhere when nobody gives a rats ass about you and your “friends” describe you as a “bum”. Tommy Douglas Syndrome: You are a friend of KKK and want to give the poor-ill free health care, such as sterilization.