Should you give money directly to homeless people? - a podcast by Ant and Jake

In this episode, Jake and Ant look at the ethics of giving cold hard cash to street beggars (who we typically assume are homeless).

We begin by exploring a bit around how people end up in the situation of begging for cash and the difference between giving people cash vs giving them goods and services. We go on to examine the tradeoffs between your own satisfaction and the actual consequences of your giving cash to someone who's potentially unstable; what are the limits of your moral agency for the actions of others? Also, do we demonize consumption of drugs and alcohol in a group who have perhaps the most reason to search for escape? If homeless charities insist on treating sober people, but substance abuse is an overwhelming problem in this group, then have we structure our charitable infrastructure well to deal with this issue? What are the reasonable limits of our generosity - if £1, why not £2? If £2 why not £5?

What is your go-to in this everyday situation? Do let us know and chat to us on our facebook group :)As always, reviews really help us, please follow and review on your podcast platform of choice and contact us on your social media of choice. Sign up to our newsletter here to receive a breakdown of the arguments presented, some memes and updates on future episodes: https://moedt.substack.com/ If you'd like to support the show, checkout our patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/moedt
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Further episodes of The Morality of Everyday Things: An Everyday Philosophy Podcast

Further podcasts by Ant and Jake

Website of Ant and Jake