This strikes me as the same as saying “but the homeless person might take my $5 to buy whiskey instead of a hot meal.”
Or, possibly more apropos to your example, “how do I know my medical debt relief payment goes to someone who truly Deserves It because of bad luck and not someone whose poor diet and exercise habits lead to their stroke?”
The system is designed to turn bad choices into bad luck - and the opposite - and to pass moral judgements on those who need help. Reject the framing and help people; most are good and deserving.
If you want to think of me in that tone, then fine, but I never caveated the medical debt. As the sibling comment to you said, medical debt in a civilized society is just wrong. So I really don't care why the medical care was needed. Helping people out of debt for medical reasons is commendable.
The thing I specifically caveated was people making bad financial decisions on their own. Sure, maybe giving an 18 year old $5k credit limit is not a smart thing on the creditor's part, but not everyone financing retail therapy sessions via credit is an 18 year old. The whole 30 thousandaire outspending their earnings for FOMO or keeping up with the Joneses or whatever does not seem like something we need to bail out.
Frankly the vast majority of people with credit card debt I know still deserve relief. Even people who are under significant credit card debt due to frivolous spending— they likely need therapy or time to budget or similar but now they cannot due to the crushing weight and stress of credit card debt. Or they could’ve been able to pay it off but an emergency happened and they got laid off or they were already barely scraping by and now their car broke down or something.
I think we worry too much about what if undeserving people receive help. Most people are good people who just got caught out on something and could use some help getting themselves out of some goddamn 25% interest craziness.
There's a huuuuge difference from being poor serfs in the feudal lord's fiefdom than someone that can't say no to a sale but can't actually afford it and buys on credit.
Not the parent commenter but to chime in: I don't want to be a moral judge but I'd rather give money to someone actually poor than to someone richer than me that just lives beyond their means.
I said that I wasn't familiar with the concept of buying credit debt, but specifically said I was familiar with buy medical debt. I then compare and contrasted how I feel they are different. I also said that buying credit debt isn't necessarily a bad thing, but due diligence should be applied to whose debt is getting wiped out.
You've spun into something it's not to make a point. Which I'm still not sure what it is
if you're talking about the random person that approaches you on the street, then yes, that's a high possibility. but there are homeless that are not addicts and don't necessarily live on the streets.
i think this confusion is something holding back progress on homelessness.
When you say “don’t give cash to homeless people” obviously you’re talking about beggars and street vagrants, not whatever demographic some NGO has decided to formally define as “homeless” in order to game the statistics.
First, I didn't say "don't give cash to homeless people" because I do have a very different interpretation of being homeless. The view you take sounds like you've been privileged enough to have never been homeless yourself. I promise you will think of homelessness in a very different manner if you ever have the misfortune of being homeless. I specifically modified the comment to call out addicts.
I have on multiple occasions helped someone out that was facing some very difficult decisions because of not having a place to stay. People that are not addicts can be put in making choices that they would never even consider in a normal situation, but we faced with sleeping in a car/street/public shelter, those choices suddenly start to look more acceptable. Even more so if you have kids.
> First, I didn't say "don't give cash to homeless people"
Sorry, I meant “you” in the general sense, not you personally.
> The view you take sounds like you've been privileged
Stuff it with the personal comments.
> I have on multiple occasions helped someone out that was facing some very difficult decisions because of not having a place to stay.
I have as well. And in my experience, at least with street people, it’s much better to give them bottled water and food than to give them cash. If it’s a family member or someone you actually know, that’s a completely different situation than what most people (not you, to be clear!) are talking about when they say “don't give cash to homeless people”.
Or, possibly more apropos to your example, “how do I know my medical debt relief payment goes to someone who truly Deserves It because of bad luck and not someone whose poor diet and exercise habits lead to their stroke?”
The system is designed to turn bad choices into bad luck - and the opposite - and to pass moral judgements on those who need help. Reject the framing and help people; most are good and deserving.