Babe, same. What gives me a bad feeling about it is that Twitter is not just encouraging and enabling grifting, they’re normalising it. I don’t want to sound all tin foil hat, but I get a feeling it could have serious social and cultural repercussions. It’s hard to explain, it’s just one of those gut instinct feelings.
And of course, as others have said, people that are genuinely in need will be too ashamed to ask, and the ones most likely to donate are those that don’t have much spare themselves.
Sidey B, I know what you mean. It's this culture of tipping and donating that is on some level fundamentally wrong. Of course I tip waiters and taxi drivers, etc., because that's how our society works, but actually, it would be much better if everyone would just earn enough from their job. Same with foodbanks - I give to them but still think they shouldn't exist.
Anyone who has ever spent any time in the USA knows how crazy it gets. Yes, you don't pay income tax (or very little compared to most EU countries), but fundraisers are everywhere and you are absolutely expected to give to the local school, the girl scouts, the neighbour with cancer, etc. All well and good, but that's how society becomes unequal. In a nice neighbourhood people have lots of money to do a massive fundraiser for the local library. In a poor neighbourhood not so much.
Tipping a person may make you feel good, just as giving money to a homeless person does, but it really isn't the most effective or fair way to deal with the distribution of wealth. And in relation to our favourite poverty princess, it just enables a grifter.
