This is exactly the kind of shit that conformed my ass from a liberal to a conservative, and eventually a libertarian.

My single mother worked goddamned hard early on. She still does, but it was fucking hard to get where she is today. I was around 14 when we were leaving the grocery store and we saw a homeless man with a sign that said "will work for food". My mom is a softy so she took about $80 and bought him some groceries.

$80 doesn't sound like much, but it was the difference between having gas or paying the water bill and just... Not doing that. Those were hard times but she was still willing to help.

So after we bring the groceries to him, we started to wonder how he was going to carry them all to wherever he was sleeping. We even bought non-perishables because we thought he wouldn't have anywhere to store cold food.

So we waited and watched from a distance. It was genuine curiosity and my mom was going to give him a ride if he needed it.

He didn't though... lol

10 minutes after we "left" he crossed the street and walked up to his fucking car. I shit you not, it had fuckin' chrome rims. Not even kidding. Chrome rims and the car itself had to be less than a year old.

After that I decided I'd never give money to "homeless" people ever again. I'm not taking my hard earned money and handing it to someone that I'm not positive isn't just using me.

The only exception to that was last year. It was New Year's eve. A middle aged black man walked up and asked if I had a few dollars so he could "call a cab to take him to see his family". I asked him if he was just going to buy alcohol. He said, "Alright you got me... I just wanted a drink on the holiday. Sorry to bother you brother". I gave him $5 because why the fuck not? It was the season for giving and he cut the shit and was straight up with me.

Whatever.