It may sound shocking, but people are profiting off homeless and poverty-stricken people in various ways. It’s mostly not other poor or homeless people doing this, either.
Here’s irony for you.
Recently, whenever I needed to repost my GoFundMe on social media, I immediately get followed by somebody new, whose goal it is to tell me, with the utmost “sympathy,” that I shouldn’t expect to get much help with my fundraiser. Still, they know someone who can help me get the campaign seen by more people and closer to its goal for “only” $100.
Do they get people to pay this? They must, right? Or else, why keep trying?
The first one that I had encountered was posing as a doctor. He said in a private message, “In all honesty, I can only help a little. Maybe $80, but to get you to that goal of $2,000, you need more help. I know a girl that does this. She gets GoFundMe campaigns like yours boosted and seen. She only charges $100 for it. Let me know if you want her contact information.”
So I wrote him back very politely explaining that I am a poverty-stricken, disabled homeless person and I cannot afford to pay anyone to help me. If people want to help me, they’ll help me from their hearts. If not, they won’t. But thank you for the retweet”. Needless to say, he did not contribute $80 to the GoFundMe.
Frankly, it sickens me to have to ask for help, but with so many “fires to put out” at once, I don’t have a choice sometimes.
I don’t know what’s worse: Living in a society that forces disabled people to beg like a dog for scraps or the predators who prey on a group of people who are the most vulnerable and needy in society!
I’ve mentioned that there is no fee if you go to stores around my area that offer cash-back options at the register. But if you go to the dollar store, (or the $1.25 store now), where the poorest members of the community shop, they charge a fee to use the cash back feature.
The group that can least afford to pay a fee for taking cash out must pay it, but the wealthy can get cash back for free. That is only one example of how people experiencing poverty are prayed upon.
Some people who shop at that “more than a dollar” store were driven there by bus services or walked a distance and might be unable to visit stores offering free cash back. You can’t even get cash from an ATM (unless it’s your branch) without paying a hefty fee, often to both the bank providing the service and the ATM provider.
It just boggles my mind. How do people live with themselves who deliberately and knowingly scam and harm others?
Their lack of empathy and compassion is staggering. This complete inability to see how wrong this behavior is scares me.
I read a post that suggested it’s all a question of “godlessness” in modern society. But you don’t need a religious affiliation to have a good moral center.
Children grow up with the messages of being good and doing the right thing everywhere, from Sesame Street to superheroes. The message of helping others, caring for others, caring for the planet, and other ways to improve the world are all around us.
Bullying is not tolerated in most schools, and students are theoretically taught to be kind to others. There is little excuse for anyone not to understand the difference between what is harmful to others and what is kindness.
What scares me most is that people understand that difference but choose to harm others anyway. They rationalize it in all sorts of ways, but it’s the core of so much suffering in life.
In my perfect world, people who do not agree on things simply would choose to “agree to disagree” and show polite respect to each other. Why is that so hard?
It turns out that homo sapiens are driven by their egos and ids – “me first,” “I want it now” mentality. To get what they want, they’ll “run the guy in front of them over with a steam roller” and then justify it by claiming it’s the way nature is designed, citing the “fittest of the fit” theory.
If you believe you should run over the bloody back of someone weaker than you, then you are a bully by its very definition.
What is supposed to make humans “better” than other animals is the capacity to rise above animal nature and use empathy and compassion to create a better world. While we see small examples of it, we also see 95% of the world operating in the most animalistic and brutal way possible.
Many do not realize that most homeless shelters are not run on volunteers and donations. Governments run most in cities nationwide and get paid to have you there.
I was told I had to give most of my disability allotment to a shelter if I stayed there. They didn’t care that it would mean losing my van, storage, worldly possessions, and the critical supplements I must take for my long list of health conditions. Plus, they kick you out in the morning, rain, shine, searing heat, etc.
This is not a place for a disabled, chronically ill person, older people, or mothers with children for many reasons.
Politicians would care a lot more about getting people settled into real housing and not just being in shelters if there weren’t a profit from sheltering homeless people.
Putting people in shelters lines the pockets of people in charge and robs the taxpayer while leaving the person in need of housing in a nightmare situation.
Some shelter rules were designed long ago when it was thought that mostly men on drugs or alcohol were shelter residents. But in 2023, the face of homelessness has become older people, disabled people, and women with children.
It’s time to update to more humane and effective help methods. But that won’t happen if wealthy people continue to benefit from the current system. It turns out that poverty is lucrative for some who live in luxury.
