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The more you need help, the less likely society is to be willing to help you. (www.youtube.com)

submitted 2 days ago by DisabledAceSocialist@hexbear.net to c/chat@hexbear.net

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I can't find a link for it but I remember an article where they got a dishevelled, homeless looking man to go into restaurants and ask for leftover food. He was rudely turned away every time. Then they got a man dressed in a smart, expensive business suit to go into the same restaurants and ask for free food (saying he'd lost his job/forgotten his credit card or whatever). He was treated politely and given free food every time.

The link above is to a youtube video, in which an able bodied woman asks for help zipping up her dress and people help her. But when a disabled woman asks for help doing up her buttons, people refuse.

You see the same thing with millionaire celebrities being given free things while poor people are refused the basics of life.

Why is human society like this?

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[–] Monstertruckenjoyer@hexbear.net 26 points 2 days ago (2 children)

because no one wants to be the one that has to deal with additional issues that come along from personally helping others one on one

It's cynical, but like the guy that's not disheveled is less likely to be a hassle for you later on than the homeless guy.

This is not a defense of the thought process, but it's not as simple as hating poor people it's much more of a structural issue. The reality is, that in the states, a good chunk of the homeless population need healthcare to become stable. Interactions between workers, acting as stand-ins for state provided care, and the homeless population in cities can go south and they do. Pretty much everyone has experienced it at least once, and then the cynicism slowly develops.

As far as the celebrities go that's more to do with marketing and the desire to develop a relationship with a famous person than the other things.

[–] Edamamebean@hexbear.net 16 points 2 days ago

There's definitely a lot of classism and discrimination against homeless people at work in situations like this, but yeah, it's hard to deny that this isn't a factor as well. In the restaurant situation for example, it's easy to see how the owners would think that giving free food to a visibly homeless person would lead to them coming back repeatedly asking for more food, while giving free food to a person in a suit might lead to them coming back as a paying customer. It's an unfortunate situation, and evidence I think of why charity can't be the solution to such things. Only systemic change can.

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