@ForwardRanger
AmberItsACertainty
Almost everyone has an income of some sort from somewhere, it's upto them what they spend it on. Very few people are in genuine need. 99.9% of the time when people are skint it's because they've chosen to spend the money on something else.
Well that is an interesting statistic, where did you find that?
My research tells me that 20% of people in the UK live in poverty, defined by having £152 or less left over each week after housing costs. Despite the tabloid rhetoric that every poor person is a drinking, smoking layabout, the reality is that most of them are dealing with physical disability or mental illness, or are refugees, or are simply the faces of a country that promotes elitism and neglects its vulnerable. And that's crappy enough without the likes of you judging them for being poor. You don't have to give, but it would be so much nicer if you would not be cruel.
I'm not being cruel and I'm not judging people for being poor. I am poor! Officially anyway, I've been worse and don't feel poor. I'm well aware of the causes of being poor. I'm also well aware of the rubbish life decisions a lot of people make.
I'm starting the facts as I see and experience them. I speak from my own life experiences past and present. I'm not interested in government statistics. I'm not saying I disbelieve what you've said, just that what I posted has nothing to do with that. People can be poor but managing, like I was, making sensible decisions about their lives in order to keep managing and coping. Or they can be poor and feckless, which might also be the reason they're poor in the first place for some of them.
In terms of people having some sort of income, I've seen that, even homeless people on the streets usually have income from benefits (or they could if they claimed them). I've lived in poverty myself, both in the official sense for most of my life and in the unofficial sense of being way below the official poverty line, literally having to choose between soap and toothpaste, regularly going round the supermarket with £10 for a week's shopping for two twice - once to put the necessities in the basket and once to put back the things I can't afford. I've been broke to the point of not being able to afford food. It still didn't cause me to scrounge off my friends, there are other solutions including eating cheap food you don't like and going on half rations for a week or two to make it last, or using food bank when they existed. We don't have to trouble others with our problems. In my own personal experience, the majority of people openly weeping and wailing about their latest drama are the ones who routinely choose to dump their problems on others as their method of getting through life.
My experience is that with almost all people, their "skintness" is caused by choosing to spend the money on something else. Drugs/alcohol/cigarettes/cars/holidays /clothes/nights out/takeaway/ beauty stuff/taxis/scratch cards and the biggest one - running up debts instead of an emergency fund. With me it was pets, I've been in dire straits and kept my pets, going without myself instead, I never asked favours of friends, didn't even tell them my situation. Not my fault if I'm made redundant or too unwell to work much, not hiding things out of shame when I've nothing to be ashamed of, just don't believe in dumping on others unnecessarily.
I've donated time, money, advice and items to various people at various times. Never asked them to justify themselves, believed them when they said this or that was their situation. Lent precious things to people who "needed" them only to have them returned, after many excuses, broken with no offers to replace/repair. Lent money for a limited time when they knew I couldn't afford to give outright, then had to argue for it back repeatedly after the deadline they'd offered for repayment had passed.
I've never been someone who has much myself, even when doing ok, but I believed in helping those in need. Still do, it's just I've realized a lot aren't really "in need" so I no longer help those, which is most people. At some point during their "crisis" I'd realise that they didn't really need what I'd given, that they'd have coped just fine without my generosity and often they'd have coped even better if they'd only made better choices in the first place. It's not for me to live others lives for them, obviously. In time I began to realise this also applies to sorting out their self-inflicted problems, the consequences of their actions. I'm not responsible for others behaviour or lives, whether they're friends or nearly strangers. It's not about being cruel, it's about not being taken for a mug, expecting people to stand on their own two feet where possible and solve their own problems, instead of taking the easy option to lean on someone else.