Was Nietzche right about beggars?

Question

Here's a quote from Nietzsche about beggars (panhandlers):

Beggars should be entirely abolished! Truly, it is annoying to give to them and annoying not to give to them.

Do you think he was right? What are your thoughts on this?

Answer 1

You need to be careful taking a short exerpt like that. Nietzsche has a way of talking around the things he's talking about. I think a better snippet would be these few lines, from the 'Voluntary Beggar' in 'Thus Spake Zarathustra' (link 1):

"Then learnedst thou," interrupted Zarathustra, "how much harder it is to give properly than to take properly, and that bestowing well is an ART--the last, subtlest master-art of kindness."
...
"Wanton avidity, bilious envy, careworn revenge, populace-pride: all these struck mine eye. It is no longer true that the poor are blessed."

This gives us a little more perspective on why giving to beggars might be so annoying.

On the one hand, he acknowledges what another user has pointed out here - sometimes the poor, though worthy of sympathy because of their condition, are unworthy of sympathy because of their character. Some of them make it hard to WANT to be charitable, owing to their obvious feelings of spite and hatred. How many of us have been cursed by a beggar for NOT giving to them?

Contrariwise, even if you could find a 'perfect' poor person, giving itself is not so simple an act as it seems. How many people have lived their lives contentedly only to be ruined upon winning the lottery? So too is it not uncommon for a person to want something other than what he truly needs, as the beggar who took money but not food or a job. Sometimes the perfect charity is refraining from charity.

If all this is the case, then one might wonder if the world would not perhaps be a better place with no beggars whatsoever. Let people learn and practice the 'art of giving' when there is not so much to be gained or lost, and let those who would recieve charity do so humbly and quietly instead of with demands. I'm not going to go quite as far out on a limb as Nietzsche on this one, but I have to grant that he has a point.

Answer 2

Nietzsche works are based on a nihilist inversion of the archetypes ( in this case if Christ helps the beggar , good Samaritan . Nietzsche would say get rid of them . ( as remove the soul ) as his attempt at being the anti Christ ( a psychological use of eternal return as ego)
He was not speaking from a original version but by inverting Christan thinking for a ego . A after the fact challenge creating a psychological duel ,solved in the opposite as ego for a power complex ( superman )

Answer 3

Yes he was right about beggars being annoying.
I have been donating money to various charities for the past years, well ever since I started working and I don't see any improvement in the statistics of poverty or neediness.

Answer 4

I think he might have a valid point. There are a few charities that I donate to every year and I've noticed that once I started giving one group money, every group was sending sad letters asking for money. You feel guilty when you don't donate, because you know they need the money. Then you get frustrated when you give money, because you felt pressure to give it in the first place. It's vicious circle.
Whether beggers can actually be banished though, I doubt it.

Answer 5

In my opinion they are truly annoying, most of them panhandle simply because it is the easiest way to receive money. When i lived in Orlando, i was helping my friend with his yard service one day. We stopped at an intersection. A fairly young looking man was sitting there with a sign that said "Vietnam vet, can't work, hungry please help" My friend called him over. He came over to the window, my friend said "Hop in the truck, we have 5 yards left to do today and I'll pay you 10.00/hour. The man said, i don't want to work, can't you just give me some money? So my friend said hop in the truck I'll take you down to MC Donald's and buy you a couple cheeseburgers, the man said, i don't want cheeseburgers can't you just give me a couple bucks? Moral to the story, he either wanted cash for booze or drugs and wasn't interested in working or eating...he was also way too young to have been in Vietnam. Most panhandlers are lazy druggies or boozers. Those are my thoughts.

Answer 6

A lot of cities in my state, have already outlawed street corner & stop sign panhandlers.....They're setting up plans to abolish homelessness alltogether.....It will be interesting to see this feat acomplished while preserving civil liberties....

Answer 7

I dont know about the abolishing part....that may be harsh....sometimes people genuinely are just down on their luck!

But yes it is a no win situation...you give and you are upset because hey what did that "Bum" do to deserve my hard earned $ ?? But you dont give and you feel like a worthless human being without any empathy for your fellow man.

Answer 8

Only if you´re the center of the world, but if you are one more, he can not be right.

Answer 9

what we pay attention to grows.