Why should we not feed the homeless?

Question

We are doing research in Englsih, and I have to support NOT feeding the homeless... any ideas?

Answer 1

You are going to have to get tough to take this stance on feeding the homeless, but I will try and help.

A program to feed the homeless would have to be a government program and like other government programs it would be open to corruption. The welfare program started out as a good thing to help people who could not work and had children and now we have generations of people who have grown up on the welfare program and expect the government to take care of their housing(DHS), health (Medicare and Medicade) and food (food stamps), not to mention AFDC. The same thing would eventually happen with a program to feed the homeless. More and more people would become homeless to qualify for free food or would find a way to beat the system without actually being homeless. You might think "Why would anyone purposely become homeless to qualify for free food?", but everyday young girls become pregnant and have babies to qualify for welfare, so it would happen. Enough of our tax dollars go now to help people who do not want to help themselves. We have to stop somewhere. Instead of a program to feed the homeless, we should start a program to educate them and find them jobs, or get the sick ones medical help. Healthy homeless people could work for food. Most big cities have enough trash to pick up that they could offer a days work for a days food. People working on crews to pick up and clean up city streets would get three meals a day. Most people would feel better about working for their food then getting it for free. Being made to feel like a charity case is demeaning to some people and if given the chance, they would rather work for it.

Thats all I can come up with and before anyone writes to say I am a mean person, this is not my opinion, just trying to make the argument against feeding the homeless for this paper.

Answer 2

Feeding the homeless does not make them lazy. If you don't have an address, it's difficult to get any assistance. If you don't have money, how are you going to put your resume' together? How are you going to buy a suit to do interviews?

Also, many homeless have mental issues and refuse all help. They'd rather be outside where they can be free, than in a shelter where there's a possibility of being robbed or beaten.

If I saw a man asking for money or food in front of a liquor store, I probably wouldn't give him anything. But I have bought food or a cup of coffee and given it to someone on the street before, because I would hope someone would do the same for me or my child if we were out there.

So I don't have much to help you.

Answer 3

Tough one! I am all for feeding the homeless so I can't think of many reasons why not to but I've heard someone once say that then they start relying on handouts instead of searching for work to try and better themselves. This seems pretty thin to me taking into account the unemployment rate in most countries. What a challenging assignment.

Answer 4

If we listen to the Biblical verse "If you give a man a fish" you are not teaching these people to be self-sufficient.

They will choose to live their lifestyle, yet still expect the government to tend to their needs, needs that they are unwilling to handle themselves or refuse to alter the situation.

They talk about a freedom that being homeless offers, mostly a freedom from responsibility. If they stop being fed, they will have to honestly look at how they live and change it.

I have no problems with helping them back onto the path of a useful life, but you have to stop with these handouts that do nothing to truly help them

[I hope this works for you. It is a very difficult research to have to do, when you believe in the overall dignity of people]

Answer 5

Some people that need taking care of is either homeless or institutionalized. If they don't fit into those categories and can work, then they should. I only feed them if my heart urges me to. But you can feed them sometimes but you don't have to feed them all the time.

Answer 6

By feeding the homeless you will prolong their dependence on people. If you ignore them they will be forced to take responsibility for their own life.

Answer 7

Thats pretty harsh. I believe everyone deserves the opportunity to be fed, unless the homeless are drug addicts and spend all their money on drugs rather than food, thats why I think people should not give money to homeless people. If you are going to give them something is better to give them food and see them eat it. If I see a teen age girl pregnant and homeless I would be more than happy to feed her because she probably was thrown out of her house because she got pregnant she doesnt have a home and no one to feed her. I wuold make sure to buy her something to eat rather than giving her money to do drugs. Doesnt it make more sense.

Answer 8

You make your own moral choices-ask yourself what it would be like if a loved one were homeless. Would you want somebody to help them or ignore them and leave the lying in the gutter?

Answer 9

Of course when you don't feed them they start to smell worse and attact flies and you get that whole plague problem. You cannot not feed the hungry. You don't have to feed them steak but you cannot let the poor die of hunger or exposier. It is your minimum definition of humanity.

Answer 10

yes, when you feed the homeless, it makes them lazy, they have all they need, but when you not feed them they have a motive to go and find a job.