Again, I'm not saying it's impossible. But you have to understand a problem before you can fix it.
You have to ask yourself why the addiction even starts. You have to ask yourself if someone who's lost everything in their life is in the correct state of mind to stand right back up. Losing everything is a huge blow to the psyche, not to mention self confidence and self esteem. Some people just aren't strong enough to deal with that on their own. Hell, look at alcoholism among the nation's stressful professions. The cop that lives next door to me drinks several cases of beer every week. What about retired service men and women? I know a few guys who always say that the most efficient thing the Air Force does is produce alcoholics. Serious addiction isn't only limited to the homeless and poor.
The few guys who make a lot of money pan handling don't represent the entire homeless population and are often times not even homeless. They're people who recognized a money making avenue and are exploiting it. Other people
are caught in the spiral of addiction and won't just quit without a lot of help and a real light at the end of the tunnel. To treat the addiction you have to treat the root of the issue.
That's why I have a goal of opening a business where I can employ people until they get back on their feet. Build the self confidence to the point where they feel like worthwhile humans again instead of the sub-human scum that so many people treat them like. And then *BAM*, you have contributing members of society again. Until that point, I'll do what I can. If kicking back with a 40oz. is going to make the long and cold night a little better, here's $2. I've given more than one to-go box to a homeless person. I don't for one second believe that the vast majority of homeless people are homeless because they enjoy being spit on, treated like shit, and sleeping under bridges. I don't for one second believe that they became homeless one day and never gave an effort to change that.
Hell, let's take a look at one of California's new laws that requires convicted sex offenders live 2000ft. from a school regardless of their conviction but they can't leave the city either. Where I live that's completely impossible and so all of these people on homeless whether they had good paying jobs or not. And on that note, instead of knowing where they live, now we don't know where they're at all other than "in the area". We're creating a throw away society in private while we publicly condemn the rest of the world for many of the same actions. It's flat out hypocrisy.
Now, I'm not saying that every homeless person is the same. In fact, I'm saying quite the opposite. The point I'm making is that these are our fellow Americans and yet most people would rather build a nation or give to some religious children's fund for kids somewhere else. Kids are dying on our own streets but it's alright because they're just lazy bums and so are their parents. Don't want to give a homeless person money? Buy him/her a fast food meal or a sandwich from the store you're walking into. Treat them like human beings instead of pieces of walking garbage.
And I'll end my involvement with this topic with this...
YouTube - Stone Sour - Inhale
YouTube - lazyboy - underwear goes inside the pants 2004