Why we are obliged to see beggars on our streets

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Nothing sums NZ up better than beggars outside luxury stores on Queen Street

We are obliged to see the beggars on our streets.

Forcing them from sight is more immoral than giving them money.

As we rush around in our day we should be forced to acknowledge that for many of our most vulnerable, there is a totally different type of reality.

Underfunded mental health services, housing services and health services collide with a welfare state designed to disqualify and punish and explode onto our streets in a grim way that jars.

Good.

Poverty and desperation is ugly and it should jar us from our wage slavery.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

I’ve lived in the inner city for two decades, the homelessness is worse now than it has ever been. I have always bought food, provided clothing, change and a mattress once for those living rough.

There but for the grace of God go I.

Being confronted by the failures of our social services is crucial if middle class voters are to vote for their country over their property portfolio in 2017.

 

35 COMMENTS

  1. Street hawkers annoy me more than beggars. Shops have to pay rents to be in places like Cuba Street and Lambton Quay in Wellington and then they have some one selling some crap jewellery etc in front of them who not paying any rent for the privilege. Bad buskers are a pain too.

    Lambton Quay is particularly bad before Christmas. Every 25 yards or so you have beggar, hawker, bad busker doing Christmas carols, beggar, hawker, busker etc.

    Last time I was in Palmerston North I saw lots of beggars in the shopping centre on a Sunday afternoon, which suggests that the problem isn’t just poverty but complete social isolation with these people actually having no where else to go anyway in terms of what we might know as “home” – no places to call home with any sense of permanence, no other place where they people they socially connect with others.

    • There have only been two political time periods when Palmerston North has had beggars : the last 2 National governments.

      I think isn’t just about poverty – it’s also an accommodation, meanness of benefits (and amount being tossed off said benefits) and probably the precariousness of the mental health service which is starving for funds like all the rest health.

      • People who live on the street don’t get a benefit unless they have a bank account. Which unless they already had the account before becoming homeless, no bank will give them an account if they don’t have an address. If they had an address they wouldn’t be living on the street. Our most vulnerable deserve loving care like anyone else in trouble. No judgements, no anger, no predjudice.

  2. Every time I go into the CBD of Auckland I give $20 to a homeless person.

    It deeply saddens me to eat a meal and see a hungry person rifling through a rubbish bin while I do so.

    While there have always been homeless people in Auckland as far as I can remember, it has never been this bad.

    Our economy is failing a significant and increasing number of people. I see a great many very rich people, and an increasing number of very poor people. The gap is widening.

    Our economy needs to provide work for ALL. This acceptance of structural unemployment so that big business can keep labour costs down is unethical, immoral and inhumane.

    This is what you voted for New Zealand. This is the outcome of 32 years of neo liberal economics. This is EXACTLY what the opponents of neo liberalism said would happen.

    • Right on and well written Lara.
      Jonky Donky has failed this country miserably and then he has the
      watermelon sized balls to lie about it all.

      Lets force Paula Bennett and her master Donky and his lap dog Bill English to spend a night on the streets of the CBD in Auckland and then have the nerve to lie about the economy and the state of affairs.

      • Pretty sure homeless people rifling through rubbish bins are hungry. Pretty sure that money is going to be spent on food.

        And if they want a little luxury in the form of alcohol and ciggies to numb pain and relieve distress? So what?

        We are allowed that luxury. Why do you deny it to them?

        Pretty sure charities would have overheads and costs, and people profiting from running them.

        Nope. I’d rather give it directly to the people who need it. And then not judge them for how they spend it.

    • LARA: You’re a nice person but you’re also a sucker. These are grifters, addicts with a few mental cases sprinkled among them.

      By giving them money you just encourage them to return: In fact it’s just like feeding feral cats.

      • Oh FFS.

        Not all the poor are drug users, grifters and out to rip the system off.

        The reason why they’re homeless is they don’t have a home.

        The reason why they’re poor is they don’t have enough money.

        Both would be fixed if our economy provided jobs for all. But that ‘s not the focus of our government is it. The focus is on growth and interest rates. And it’s not translating into jobs.

        What if we gave poor homeless people money directly? The experiment has been tried. It actually works!

        If a person is rifling through a rubbish bin on a cold night, clearly bloody hungry, then buy them food or give them money for food. Pretty sure most of the time that’s what it’ll be spent on.

        And if it isn’t? That’s their choice.

        Once I give my $20 it’s totally up to them what they do with it. And I’m not going to judge them if they spend it on alcohol or cigars. If that’s what they deem most important for them at that time, to relive distress or whatever, then they’re free to do so. I’m not going to judge.

        Stop judging people Andrew. It lightens your load. Accept people for who they are and have some empathy and love for your fellow human.

        Imagine how beautiful NZ would be if we were kind to each other and loved each other instead of mean, nasty judgment?

        • LARA: Life is all about judgement.

          I am indeed exercising my judgement. By doing so I am coming to a rather different conclusion than yours.

          By the way, are you by any chance interested in investing in a bridge? I am currently selling the Harbour Bridge on behalf of the council…;-)

          • Andrew, your pious judgementalism might make you feel morally superior, but you add nothing constructive to this problem. Indeed, people like you are part of the problem with your closed world-view, selfishness, and unwilling to look deeper into things.

            The reality is that increasing child poverty and homelessness condemns the failure of your beloved neo-liberalism.

            People living rough and begging is a constant reminder of the failures of neo-liberalism and that is what really rankles with you.

            Even at the height of New Zealand’s economic troubles in the 1970s, with two massive oil shocks and rampant inflation, we never saw street-beggers, and food banks were donation-boxes to collect canned pet food for the SPCA.

            That is why you and your fellow right-wingers hate street-beggers, unemployed, solo-parents, homeless people – it is the clearest indication we have that your ideology is bankrupt.

          • I am compassionate.

            I am not stupid Andrew.

            That is an interesting assumption, your comment appears to assume I am stupid.

            Judgement without all the facts is stupid.

      • “Feral cats”? You’re l;ikening human beings to “feral cats”?? Andrew, your vile prejudice shows you up for the amoral person that you are.

        Tell me, is there ANYONE you don’t hate??

        You really are a disgusting excuse for a human being.

      • i took responsibility for feeding a feral kitten born under a gorse bush 3 yrs now we been the best of friends.
        Every encounter is an opportunity.
        Perhaps allow yourself to experience your encounters from a position that would make you feel good about them and also feel good about yourself for seeing them from a higher and better you and your response, words, acts and deeds will empower them.
        A good buz everyone gets to ride.!
        If i were King id give all those willing and able 2 acres with every thing they need to build what ever they were willing to live in and grow their own food. then let em go for it.
        Then id offer the same too any willing and able person or family.
        It would all be free with no land taxes ie rates.
        when you are done living on it all would be handed down or handed back. no more competition of people versus cows and ponies for all the little princes. If you have a fruit tree giving fruit maybe drop one off too a hungry person, it makes for a awsome day.

      • In these neo-liberal days, maybe grifting is just as legitimate as any other, better dressed ways of parting people from their money.

        • The real thieves and brigands wear suits. The guys in rags waving placards are strictly small-time and/or genuinely desperate.

          • Yes, I agree. The free world thrives on the free exchange of goods and services.

            The real sharks are those who use compulsion and legislation to force payment with no promise or obligation for anything in exchange, such as regulators, tax collectors and almost all of the public service.

    • So true Lara, Neoliberalism has created an attitude of look after yourself first and to hell with everyone else. It’s a failed experiment and needs to be turned around.

      • Sort of. It’s actually ‘look after yourself and your family first, then those around us.’

        The conflict here is not whether the masses care about the beggars, they do. Its more about how much care the masses think the beggars deserve. The New Zealand working class already spend over 20% their income to (indirectly) provide a no-fault health and welfare system to NZ citizens.

        The NZ taxpayer does care. In fact, in some cases, eg. the 3rd generation state dependants, maybe they care too much

  3. Yes, I was in the city once again yesterday, and every time I go there, it disgusts me what I see. New developments, new shops, GUCCI, BOSS, endless other luxury shops, and masses of people, most either the office workers based in East Auckland, on the Shore and so, all middle class and upper class, and many overseas students, often also from rather privileged background flock around.

    This is not the NZ I used to know, and I never believed (that is years ago) that we would have beggars sit in the streets asking for a few coins to buy their next bit of food or perhaps, to numb their senses, a bit of alcohol that they need after having become addicted.

    Auckland is a disgrace, and I am furious at the Mayor and others, that go on talking crap like “the most liveable city in the world”. I think we are no different to many other cities with endless problems, and we are going high speed into a future where we will have the same crime and antisocial behaviour rates as any major city overseas.

    Egalitarian rings as a hollow word in my ears, it is something that no longer exists here. When you allow the plutocrats to take over, as this present government has done, then democracy and freedom are also on the way out, as they will make their money rule every aspect of society, and the “riff raff” they see will be swept out or hidden away, or simply locked away, same as in any other place.

    Does Len Brown ever walk Queen Street at night? Or does he live in his own bubble, like so many others, leaving the place in the city to escape to his lifestyle block or comfy home in the distant suburbs?

    I feel ashamed of living in this country, a country not only of inequality, but of endless lies and pretence.

    • Good post Mike. What we are seeing per Keith Rankin post is a repeat of the 1930’s where inequality was bad aswell and we know what happened there. I believe a crash scenario is very close which will level every thing. Those Luxury stores will be very short lived… The politicians need to learn from history.

  4. The linked article does mention that some of the “beggars” think of it as their “days work” and I think this is really important and it’s un-humane to take that away from someone. People have to structure their time. Perhaps for some it’s a way of fitting in, doing the daily commute to the panhandling spot, seeing your “colleagues”, doing the “water cooler gossip”.
    Not everyone can sit in an office.

  5. I’d like to see progressives drop the word beggars – in regard to panhandlers who are obliged to make ends meet by soliciting street donations.

    When elitist politicians, such as Nicola Young, vocally employ the term beggar – on Radio New Zealand National and elsewhere – while simultaneously rolling a plum in their mouths, they are class-dog-whistling in an attempt to wedge voters away from their own real self interest.

    When we join Young, and others, in using the pejorative, denigrating, term, beggar, we aid reactionaries in demoting the poorest of the poor…robbing these folks of their individual identities and reducing them to an undifferentiated mass of sub-human undesirables.

    People soliciting financial aid on city streets may be panhandling, may, in fact begging, but they are not, by my lights, beggars. They are people seeking our aid … and should, for their sake and our own, be spoken of as people. Thanks.

  6. Mazrtyn said

    “I’ve lived in the inner city for two decades, the homelessness is worse now than it has ever been.

    I have always bought food, provided clothing, change and a mattress once for those living rough. There but for the grace of God go I.”

    Heart wrenching stuff Martyn I used to see in Toronto during the 1992 slump and in US during the later 1990’s.

    I feel such anger at this criminal enterprise called National, and they have dragged the worse off of our society through a bad of thorny roses almost as a crucifixion as Jesus was subjugated to by the romans.

    Jonkey and is evil empire are the new romans.

  7. The political right actually enjoy the sight of beggars on the streets of our cities. To them it proves the success of their policies to widen the gap between rich and poor, always with themselves as part of the rich you understand.
    If there were no beggars on the streets the political right would start thinking “oh s..t! New Zealand is becoming egalitarian again! We can’t have that… time to start reducing benefits, cutting government services again or time for another tax cut for the rich.”
    Members of the political right can barely disguise a smirk as they stride purposefully past beggars with a look of self-importance that says “eat my shorts, scumbag!”
    The political right absolutely have to have members of the society that they can look down on, and beggars are perfect, even better than plain old beneficiaries because they advertise their predicaments so plainly.

    • It is interesting that this rant coincides with the application of the first benefit increase in NZ for 43 years….I’m surprised you are so closed minded and blindly anti National that you see fit to complain about that.

      Everything you say will now be taken a lot less seriously.

  8. Some people point out that beggars only go and spend their cash on alcohol, cigarettes or other drugs.
    This is probably because they are addicted to them and the drug addiction services in this country are grossly underfunded.
    Is it better that they beg or go into an shop with a weapon to rob it?

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