At the grocery store, a man in the parking lot asked me for gas money. Anyone run into this?

[hunter]

45. I experience it most days I happen to drive anywhere.

If I have time, I'll listen to their stories and give them whatever cash I've got, which usually isn't much.

The regulars smile and wave at me, and if they hit me up for money it's usually because they need it, maybe just for a beer, who cares? The strangers sometimes avoid me because I frequently look as shabby as they do, especially driving my mid-'eighties car that I never wash, except for the windows.

Many people like this are unemployable in their present circumstances because of addictions, mental illness, or various personality disorders. A woman who stands on the street corner throwing trash at passing cars and yelling obscenities at the drivers is not going to "get a job" even if she's cleaned up and taking her anti-psychotics. But maybe she won't be a further victim of violence and die on the streets.

We really ought to be spending more on social services and less on our military misadventures. The welfare system ought to be generous enough to provide a safe place for everyone to exist, no matter how obnoxious they might be, or how resistant to treatment their addictions or mental illnesses are. Even the violent people deserve safe, comfortable places to be. Punishment is useless as a tool of rehabilitation. It only makes everyone meaner; both the punished and the punisher.

Such programs ought to be federally financed too otherwise the homeless who have broken all contact with their families and home communities, for good reasons and bad, migrate to places where the weather and streets are not deathtraps.