A thing I cannot resolve about giving money to people begging. The argument against is well rehearsed and mostly correct: it may fund an addiction, it does not address the cause, the money would do more good given to an organisation set up to help, and the impulse is partly about how it makes me feel rather than what it does. The argument for is much shorter and I keep finding it harder to dismiss. Someone in front of me has asked for something I can trivially provide, and every framework I use to say no is a framework I constructed after the fact, sitting comfortably somewhere else. What I actually do is inconsistent — sometimes yes, sometimes no, and the variable is mostly my mood and how much of a hurry I am in, which is the worst possible basis. I would rather hold either position honestly than keep operating a policy that is really just weather.
1 response in depends
The honest answer is that both arguments are true and they are answering different questions. One is about outcomes at scale, the other is about what kind of person you are in the moment. Neither dissolves the other.
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something you reckon. a gripe, a hunch, a hill you will die on. serious or not.
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what all this does to your head, and what to do about it.