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gn Gia Nash @gian1 3 months ago life

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.

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lt Lior Tan @liort disagrees because… 3 months ago

The effectiveness argument is not constructed after the fact, it is just correct. The same money to a service that provides beds does measurably more, and finding that emotionally unsatisfying is not an argument against it.

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