Does anyone actually want to help the poor, or is it all just rationalizing?

After reading this question and the responses, it makes me wonder whether any of the people who claim to care about people like panhandlers actually do, or whether it’s simply a case of finding rationalizations for not giving a shit.

As many of you are aware, I am a labour organizer and I’ve been working with panhandlers for more than a decade now. My most recent project, the Utah Phillips Centre for the Hobo Arts, has recently attracted national media attention. Among other things, we have set up programs where buskers will give people music lessons free of charge and we accept used musical instruments to pass on to people who want to busk. Likewise, we will teach anyone who wants to learn how to make traditional hobo art such as spoon rings and walking sticks, which we will then sell for folks in our storefront.

One would think, given how often panhandlers hear “GET A JOB!” and are told to pick themselves up by their bootstraps that people – especially ruggedly individualist conservatives – would be lining up to help us, since we’re doing exactly what they all say people should be doing: “teaching a man to fish” and all that. We’ve been funding this all out of our own pockets so far and doing all the renovation work ourselves to stretch it as far as we could; now we need crowdfunding to finish it off. Yet so far the only people who have donated to our GoFundMe are leftist activists and fans of folk music. Where are all the conservatives who say they care and would like to help, but don’t want to just give people a hand-out and make them dependent?

What do you think, do conservatives actually give a shit? Do any of you? Those of you who say you don’t want to give money to a panhandler, will you support something which empowers panhandlers to learn a marketable skill?

This link will take you to our GoFundMe page where you can see a description of what we’ve done in greater detail and photos of what we’ve managed to accomplish.