I am low on money these days and my life is hell for it. I have to do with substandard everything in my life I recently had an incident where an elderly woman asked me for money while roaming the street with her family begging for money. I had no money to spare, but had I had any, I wouldn't have given a penny to her (Life is tough, I can't give away money I didn't earn)
But, she later said something which melted my heart, "Majboori hai beta!" (Hindi) "We don't want to do this, but we have to do it son" (now add some emotional value to it), I didn't know what to do, I was on my cycle and I could feel their eyes on me as I passed them and I just peddled faster with teary eyes.
I didn't know how to deal with that. i.e., I don't have enough money for medical necessities or to improve the standard of living of my own life, but I was being asked to spare change by a poor family that was demonstrably in a worse spot than me.
I was always taught that if you give beggars money, they will spend it all on alcohol (not blaming them), and given the number of beggars who have come to be smelling like alcohol and death with wobbly balance, it has been a rule not to provide them with money. Also, let's not forget, if you're really poor (homeless and have nothing to lose) and you are really desperate, you are often dangerous i.e., not someone around whom your kids can roam, again, not blaming them. But... I don't know what is right or wrong in this situation!
How do you deal with external problems you can't solve around you? What is the moral thing to do here?
edit: This kinda reminds of a story about Jesus where a prince once came to him and told him that he isn't at peace with himself no matter what he does, and Jesus told him that to get peace he must give away everything to the poor and follow Jesus around and the prince refused (something along those lines).
I know what the most moral thing might be in this case, but even if you tell me that I should give money to those who live in abject poverty, I probably won't do it as often as I should.
I volunteer at a food bank once a week. The woman who runs it knows I encounter a lot of homeless camps while hiking with my dogs, so she has me take care packages to deliver to some of them. We are having a very hard time getting can openers, which sucks because so much food we give out is canned. I try and buy any can openers I see at the flea market. But have also purchased a dozen for people in the last few months.
The hand crank can openers aren't the only kind, there are also cheap, stamped sheet metal can openers with a blade. These are more fiddly but extremely cheap, and do the job.
Here's some army surplus that's 50c a pop
https://www.armysurplusworld.com/p38-can-opener?variant=2086
Yes, you beat me to it.
@[email protected] shoot me a message on where you're at. Depending on the country, I may be able to help and send you a hundred of these can openers linked above.
Edit: Give me the food bank's address please.
Never got a notification you tagged me. Next time I am at my laptop I will send you a message (I cannot see a way to send messages on Mlem)