I happened to see the scene in "Pay It Forward" where the woman finds the homeless junkie in her garage, whose life has been turned around by her son, whose gift of money allowed him to get new clothes, which enabled him to find a job. Maybe "paying it forward" can work, but this reminded me of Jeff Tyler's Homeless Economics report, which interviews a skid row alcoholic who concedes the amenities available to him are like a "real nice hotel", but says that he's just not ready to be sober, that he already has everything he needs; he prefers living in a tent on the street. Food is easily available, and clothes are so easy to get, "I don't even wash clothes any more, just take them off and throw them away, and put on something else." He gets clean clothes from charities. To get cash for beer, he does odd jobs, or buys junk food that he resells to the other homeless after the stores close.
OK, this anecdotal, it's Los Angeles, and "everything he needs" is damn little--I admire him for his lack of materialism (Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth...). Still, "new clothes" is not necessarily what everyone needs--or wants.
I had forgotten I mentioned Tyler's report earlier. I need some kind of index connecting my mind and my blog.
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