You are judging me on my suit trousers and recently bought winter jacket. You are making your assessment on the basis that I am carrying a Moss Bros bag which contains my “new” ex-hire morning suit. You don’t like me because I won’t buy your last Big Issue of the day. It’s a shocking evening for me too. You ask me once, I say I’m sorry. You ask me again, I say no thanks. You ask a third time and I keep walking.
“You’re not sorry”
You think I’m being ungenerous because I am not buying a copy of a magazine which I do not want to read. In your mind I’m just an evil Scrooge, a rich bastard keeping my money close and for my own hedonistic enjoyment. But I won’t be made to feel guilty.
I won’t be made to feel guilty about spending a tiny portion of my money on myself. You don’t know me from a bar of soap. You don’t know how much I give to charity. You don’t know how much of my income gets spent on people who do less well than me.
I know that others weren’t blessed with the awesome set of genes that I have. I know that others didn’t get the best possible start in life as I did. That is why I try to help others. That is why I give up the equivalent of ten working weeks a year of my spare time to do voluntary work. I try to be a good person. I work hard and make the best of what I have.
What do you do to help yourself? Is screaming at people in the street the way to improve your lot? I’m sorry that you don’t have the best existence in the world. But you hardly have the worst, either. You look well fed and your clothes look warm. I’m sorry you aren’t as comfortable as I am, but what can I do about it? I can’t help everyone, not even these shoulders are broad enough. I can’t give any more than I am already. There would be nothing left for me.
“I hope you die”
I can’t help wondering which of us would be worse off if I did. You’re welcome.
On the way to our meet I bought a Big Issue. Off of a chap in New Bond Street. He’d been there 4 hours and only sold one.
Begging is one thing I don’t miss about London. The thing that gets me about these big issue seller is how crap they are at selling. “Bigizu”, “Bigizu guv”, don’t they get any basic sales training? Why not try telling people what’s in the damn thing? “Interview with Kylie” etc?
Superb post!
Sorry to say that there are also a few wandering around, with old copies, trying to make out they’re bona fide.
Chum and I got the same on Monday, in Oxford Street!
I’ve got a friend who buys a copy of the Big Issue every week. He only ever buys one and gets very annoyed with incidents like you describe above.
I very rarely buy the Big Issue, my problem is it is a rubbish magazine. Perhaps that isn’t the point, but it makes a difference to me.
Reminds me of a scene in the movie ‘Falling Down’, and (I think) Life of Brian!
The thing is, for me at least, it’s a very strange and unseeable line between helping yourself and helping others. And if you help others, shouldn’t your loved ones come first?
So there is the grey area in both human terms/compassion and also in the framework of a country with high taxation. How responsible are you to this person selling the Big Issue? Are you responsible for helping him try to make some money after he has failed (oooh can I say that) in life?
Then there is the separate issue of this person’s sense of entitlement:”You must help me!” Says who? That could probably turn political in terms of what the welfare state has become, and the sense of entitlement it has spawned, but that’s a very long issue.
I personally don’t give money to Big Issue sellers because it seems to reward them for being homeless/begging. Yes they’re selling a product, but it isn’t one that i’m interested in buying, so if I give them money, then I may as well jsut give them money for nothing, so then I see it as begging.
I do wonder if I’m an ar*ehole though:(
We have a Big Issue seller in our village who’s been here for years. He’s Eastern European by the sound of his voice. He appears to be young, fit and strong, so why he’s never been able to find work I do not know. I won’t give to him for the reasons that you stated – I refuse to be embarrassed into giving to him. I decide which charities I support – and he isn’t one of them!
Surely selling the Big Issue is a form of work? A bit of a useless one, but there you go. It’s still doing some kind of exertion.
The person who sells The Big Issue in Stoke city centre is the really hearty, boisterous sort. Anyone who refuses him is told “No worries!” in a really cheery voice & he generally comes across as the sort who’d slap you on the back & buy you a drink. But I always think he’s going to totally flip one day & go into a violent rage at passers-by.
The best we do is give a little small change to each of many worthwhile charities on the street. However I have never bought a Big Issue – and for reasons stated here I do not intend to acquire the habit.
When hassled for a pound simply ask “Is that the latest with the Nietzsche article” to which he unthinkingly responds ‘yes’ and is then clean bowled with “Oh, I have that one.”
Winchester City Council and the city’s Chamber of Commerce tried an interesting thing some years ago.The shops all got together and, supported by the Council, signed up to make regular donations to the towns charitable organisations that were specifically working for the homeless. Collection boxes, well secured, were placed outside the shops with notices thereon, explaining what the money was intended for. I have no idea if this is still in operation. Up here, in’t Poshnortherntown, most of our BI sellers are pretty much all polite. The one who ripped me off outside Leeds railway station isn’t one of them. When I didn’t get my BI from him (it was his last one and he was `desparate`)I politely explained that he had just pissed in his cornflakes as I was a regular train traveller and would have supported his sales. He couldn’t have cared less and neither could I.
I did say to a beggar “See all this litter ? Pick it up, put it in that bin over there and I’ll give you a quid.”
“You’r ‘avin’ a larff in’tchya ???”
No I wasn’t ‘ ‘avin’ a larff ‘
Last person I gave any money to was at Charing Cross. He had a sign that read ‘need money for booze fags drugs and sex’
Don’t we all, but he got some anyway.
You are right, BE. I am told they just change the cover but the content remains the same: I don’t know as I very rarely buy the BI. It is a worthy cause and I prefer the homeless to be selling than having to step over them in doorways, but I suspect sales are not the publisher’s principle funding source, as grants and advertising are more lucrative. However for the individual seller, sales are of prime importance and most have chips on their shoulders having fallen down the slippery slope of losing work, lacking money, breaking up relationships, possible substance abuse and subsequent poor health.
The most effective reward system is an intermittent one apparently, so once a year I will buy a BI from a disagreeable old man on a cold wet winter evening. If everyone did that, the sellers should be happy (estimating £10m revenue divided by 1,000 sellers gives £10k pa each). Everyone doesn’t though, but aka your post, that’s not my look out.
I know that others weren’t blessed with the awesome set of genes that I have
Indeed.
I wasn’t aware that anyone bought the Big Issue because they really wanted the magazine.
We have similar here “Strassenfeger” and “Mötz”.
Up to two or three years ago, the sellers were a right mix of Germans, Turks (not many), and East Europeans.
NOW, however, I have not seen a German seller for at LEAST 18 months. They are ALL Turks. Plus, now, there is hardly a supermarket without one of these “Penner” standing outside.
Like “door-men” and “security” here, the whole kit and caboodle has been “organised” by a certain “interest group”.
I give nothing,nowt,sfa, bugger all,and I don’t feel a thing. I could say I refuse to support their drink,drug habits but it is mainly because I just don’t care.I choose my charities carefuly and feel happier in the knowledge that my money goes to those who do need my help.
For the most part they’re an organised ring of scammers. Don’t give them a penny.
For genuine beggars – if your moved (and I am not, five years as front line social worker) go buy them a sandwich. Or even a bottle.
Please, please don’t give them money.