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You'll downvote me for saying this but...a lot of people can't manage money. You give someone $100 or pay off all their debts or whatever and they'll just be right back in a mess in no time. I'm not saying don't help them, I'm just saying it is a difficult problem. They need behavioral reconditioning, not an easy task.

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This is an empirically testable statement and people have tested it. A huge number of people use financial or other assistance for only a temporary amount of time.

"Some people will waste the charity" is a terrible reason to avoid charitable giving.

do a little bit of more research on this, there have been handful of real studies on this, and they all showed people are more well off when they are get paid cash. no one better than you know your needs. and also you are not going to have the overhead and administration cost of providing services. one of the best government programs is tax credits, it gives cash to the poor and it is the only thing that left and right can agree on !!

Could you provide sources? Search results are not so clear.

Should You Give Money to Homeless People?

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/03/should-y...

"The short answer is no. The long answer is yes, but only if you work for an organization that can ensure the money is spent wisely."

Reversal of Fortune is a 2005 Showtime documentary that asks the question "What would a homeless person do if they were given $100,000?"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversal_of_Fortune_(2005_film...

"When asked by Oprah how much of the $100,000 he still had, Ted replied "none." Ted also mentioned that he is homeless again, and content with his current circumstances."

http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/10/25/240590433/what-...

one thing that I remember, we are not talking about $100,000. I can see your point that giving that much money to a homeless people is a bad idea, but giving them $300 a month is better than food stamp. giving them $2000 a month is better than a shelter! and so on

> Reversal of Fortune is a 2005 Showtime documentary that asks the question "What would a homeless person do if they were given $100,000?"

That sounds like such a great film about this issue. Ted sounds like a really hard-working recycling bum. Since Ted is employing himself, Ted is an entrepreneur.

A good thought experiment to put this into perspective is: what happens to the average employed person when they are given $100,000? Except we do not have to do a thought experiment; this scenario occurs thousands of times a year all over the world for lottery winners. The largest study of lottery winners that I know of found that receiving (average) $100,000 doubles the chances of a person going bankrupt: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/REST_a_00114

Some people who win the lottery and go bankrupt end up worse off than before winning the lottery (also worth looking at: http://brandongaille.com/22-lottery-winners-bankrupt-statist...). Ted, on the other hand, after spending a few months living the high life, went back to his old recycling business.

A lot of former tech entrepreneurs who gave up their dreams of running their own business (even some who went through Y Combinator!) can stand to learn a lesson from Ted's perseverance and positive attitude.

A sample of one!

Agreed. The large majority of people are in debt due to society telling them to spend more and people wanting to live beyond their means. As a society, if we were taunt how to be financially responsible, the large majority in general would be more financially stable. If you have excess finances, you are more likely to be generous. The main issue is that since everyone is in debt - even millionaires we feel we have more wants and needs that availability to give. 68% of Americans have non-mortgage related debt. That tells me that republicans, democrats, liberals...etc are so self wanting that we are willing to go into debt amd over spend and only willing to help others when our way of life is not directly affected. "(Scrolling down Facebook wall..) Oh those poor kids in Seria! ..I'm going to do my part by commenting and then go to bed"

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/29/eight-in-10-americans-are-in-...

I'm not sure in aggregate everyone is able to save their way to prosperity. There must be places for the capital to be deployed. A lot of savings end up going in to speculation which basically could be classified as gambling or waste. Take a look at China right now, a country with an incredibly high savings rate but much of it going to speculation.

The better problem to look at is what the savings are being spent on: investments that raise the quality of living for everyone.

I believe there has been a fair bit of research into this, and poor people are more likely to be good at managing their money than those with significant disposable income.

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