Something Wonderful: How to Hijack Amazon “Prime Now” for Good

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• Ann Barnhardt December 13, 2017, 12:15 PM

  Touching. However, in the (former) U.S., people living on the street are almost all either mentally ill or addicts. A small percentage are con artists, but that is far more common in Europe than in North America. While getting these folks shod and into warm clothes is meet and just, what really needs to happen is re-establishing the paradigm of mental hospitals/asylums, which today would also include detox facilities. And the government should be kept as far away from these people as possible.

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• Rick December 13, 2017, 12:50 PM

  Where exactly is it that the homeless have to go without shoes? What city exists that doesn’t have dozens of churches and free stores set up for the express purpose of helping the “homeless?” Charity is no longer enough if they have to walk a few blocks to get it, now it has to be delivered?

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• bgarrett December 13, 2017, 1:53 PM

  Sorry, but I believe most homeless are homeless by choice and are scammers. Giving them things rewards their behaviour.

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• Gordon December 13, 2017, 3:26 PM

  I agree, bgarrett. But people want to help. A backpack, some socks, long johns: these are not going to be traded for booze or drugs. And who knows? Once in a while, you just might help someone that really needs it.

  Some folks living on the streets do lose everything–their sleeping bag, their clothes, whatever they have, because someone steals it, or perhaps their camp is cleaned out by the authorities. Clean outs have to be done; those camps are dangerous to everyone. But it really sucks to lose your basic stuff. And the gift of a sleeping bag–well, it means a warm night instead of a cold one.

  Yeah, there’s a lot of scammers. And others who choose to be there. And it’s okay to be nice, even to them, in a non-harmful way, now and then.

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• Vanderleun December 13, 2017, 3:38 PM

  Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people

  They’re drinkin’, thinkin’ that they got it made

  Exchanging all kinds of precious gifts and things

  But you’d better lift your diamond ring, you’d better pawn it babe

  You used to be so amused

  At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used

  Go to him now, he calls you, you can’t refuse

  When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose

  You’re invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal

  ∞
• Casey Klahn December 13, 2017, 4:26 PM

  I felt free like that for a half a minute today. Let’s see, why was I feeling free…? Oh yeah. Other than my family, and God, I have no direct supervisor.

  Hobos have no supervisor. No one to tell: “shove it!” No one to hear from about production, HR, diversity, customer service. Freedom, baby!

  It’d be nice if a one-on-one helping hand could work once in a while. Ever try to talk to the mentally ill? Good luck with that.

  Maybe the drugs/alcohol are actually just self-medication. Maybe that pair of shoes, sold on the black market, will pay for medicating that guy, tonight.

  Jaded. That’s me.

  Except I believe God does give something to the lost and poor beggars. I just don’t know his methods. A little unsure about Amazon, though…

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• mistersurfire December 13, 2017, 5:07 PM

  Love that Bob Dylan lyric.

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• John the River December 13, 2017, 6:28 PM

  Local churches are stuffed full of clothes, socks not so much (like underwear, its personal). Not many shoes either. But if you give a bum a new pair, he will sell it.

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• Rob De Witt December 13, 2017, 8:49 PM

  There’s something desperately creepy about this whole thing. I want to feel good about myself, but I don’t want to do anything but thumb my cellphone….

  Oh what a good boy am I.

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• ghostsniper December 14, 2017, 4:06 AM

  What is this, a narcissistic publicity stunt by a white privilege victim trying to assuage his guilt?

  Eyeballz iz reel and everything virtual is, well, virtually fake.
  Pushing button iz not pressing the flesh.
  Get out there and cohabitate with some, um, peepz.

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• Joyful December 14, 2017, 5:50 AM

  Seems like a “win” for all parties: Amazon, product maker, delivery person, giver and receiver.

  I get y’all… many, maybe most beggers and homeless are there by choice (it’s the streets or the psych hospital that is no longer open, they refuse family aide or exhausted their goodwill) but in that moment, when only you and God know what you think youre seeing, it matters not how they got there or why. It matters not how i became wealthy enough to be able to afford to buy stranger a sleeping bag or pair of socks without it denting the budget.

  God knows our secrets and our reasons. As long as we are willing to stand for them when it matters does it matter.

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• MMinLamesa December 14, 2017, 6:28 AM

  I know Bezos is a Master of the Universe-Amazon is a cut throat business looking to dominate the world and I’m hardly exaggerating. He bought the WaPo, once one of the most respected newspapers in the country, to give him political cover for his nightmare policies that don’t give a shit about us pee-ons. Yeah I get all that.

  But and there’s that but, I have dealt with Amazon customer service over the many years and it is truly Grade A. Fact is here in w Texas, even the Big City I occasionally hit(Midland) is sorely lacking. Amazon isn’t.

  One more thing, I hardly ever see panhandlers here. If you’re in w Texas and you’re not working, it’s because you don’t want to. Everyone takes a wrong turn and sure, I might give one $10 and he’ll use it to medicate, can’t help that, but to continue down the wrong path is a choice.

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• Suburbanbanshee December 14, 2017, 6:45 AM

  If you often see homeless people or other people who seem down on their luck and not properly dressed for the weather, it’s pretty simple to carry an extra hat or scarf or pair of gloves in your stuff.

  (Of course, some of us do this during the winter because we have a tendency to lose gloves and hats that makes three year olds look good…. But since we have them along, we can act on the observation. And since we live in a world with cheap decent gloves and hats, it’s not onerous.)

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• Kauf Buch December 14, 2017, 6:51 AM

  Meh. Christmas Season notwithstanding…
  HALF of those “homeless”
  look like they were simply
  too f’ing lazy to get a real job.

  Handouts merely *encourage/reward* that behavior.

  ∞
• Gordon December 14, 2017, 8:09 AM

  Actually, one of the interesting things is that “special instructions” are actually noticed by the delivery people. I’ve done that on deliveries to the house, and the drivers pretty much ignore “put the box inside the porch door.” And don’t get me started on Domino’s Pizza. I have to get pizza delivered to retail stores now and then, and if I put “Ask for the XXX company people” on the order, it will be ignored in 30 minutes or less.

  All that and my previous comments, it should be noted: Some guy, well-groomed, sitting on the sidewalk in winter in bare feet? That is a scam. It’s just like the guy who kicks himself around in his stolen wheelchair. People who need wheelchairs know how to operate them, and know it takes less energy to do hands on wheels than kicking the ground.

  One store I serviced in a very trendy, upscale neighborhood, featured a guy, looked about 65 or so. He stood on the sidewalk next to the store, held a modest sign asking for “help.” He was there every day. Then one day, I’m walking into the store, and I see Mr. Panhandler driving through the lot in a very late model Camry. I mentioned it to the manager, who knew well who I was talking about. I haven’t seen Camry Man since.

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• Punditarian December 14, 2017, 8:47 AM

  There is a tension here between wanting to act compassionately towards a distressed person, on the one hand, and wanting to avoid incentivizing non-skillful, counter-productive behavior. I admit that’s a difficult, narrow path to walk.

  The charitable encounter, in which one person responds to another person’s expressed need, offers something to both sides. The softening of the heart, even the breaking of the heart, of the giver, may be more valuable to him than the filling of the belly of the recipient.

  We have heard it was the custom of the Elders of the Jewish community in Vilna to present new legislation to Rabbi Eliyahu for his review. They once crafted a regulation restricting the areas in which beggars could operate. He did not send them a comment. After some weeks, the story goes, they asked him why not, and he replied that it was his responsibility to comment only on new laws, whereas this one was already old – it was “the law of Sodom.” The Sages traditionally held that one of the sins of Sodom was its laws against giving charity.

  The Talmud reports that the Roman governor Turnus Rufus challenged Rabbi Akiva, asking if God loved the poor, why God did not support them. Akiva replied that the purpose was that through giving charity to them, the givers could be saved from the judgment of hellfire. (Bava Batra 10b)

  There is also a legend that the Messiah is hidden among a crowd of beggars at the gates of Rome, distinguished from them because they change and clean their bandages all at once, whilst he changes his bandages one at a time, in order to be ready. (Sanhedrin 98a).

  Beginning with the totalitarian philosopher Plato, almost all socialist states have outlawed begging as a form of “parasitism.” I think that beggars in the Soviet Union, if caught, were transported to work camps.

  So the difference between the supposedly compassionate left-wing workers’ paradise on the one hand, and the harsh, cold, cruel capitalist hell, on the other hand, is that under socialism, beggars are imprisoned and enslaved to the State, but in a free market, free people are free directly to address the express needs of their fellows.

  I’m wondering if the prescription that we are to give to the distressed is not one of the features that characterizes Judeo-Christian civilization, and distinguishes it from other cultures.

  The Masons promise to give charitably to those who are deserving, and I think we are allowed (even required) to make some sort of judgment in order to avoid giving to fraudulent organizations and individuals, but the underlying impulse should always be to help.

  Your mileage may vary.

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• Kauf Buch December 15, 2017, 7:00 AM

  TO Punditarian

  It’s the whole “voluntary vs mandatory” schtick.
  Laying on the Guilt Trip to pressure people to do so (“you don’t caaare!”) is immoral as well.
  But this whole “Be Compassionate Über Alles” CR*P enrages me…
  …MORE than “You’re a SCROOGE if you don’t” (though they’re the two sides of the same coin).

  ∞
• Punditarian December 15, 2017, 8:24 AM

  Thanks, Kauf Buch. You may be right.

  Real charity can be only voluntary. Using the threat of violence to take away Peter’s property to give it to Paul is not charity. Giving because you feel pressured or coerced is not charity. Different communities have different guidelines. In Islam, there is a principle of zakat, which means giving 2.5% of one’s income annually. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, 10% is usually cited as a tithe, since that is the amount that the people were expected to give over to the Temple. In Arabic, zakat, and in Hebrew, tzedoko, are considered more or less obligatory, and something like a tax. I think the idea is to accustom a person to give, so that the actions gradually wear away the hardening and bitterness of the heart. Sort of like the idea of cognitive dissonance. That is, the mind will gradually come into harmony with the actions that are performed. In Hinduism and Buddhism, the cultivation of generosity, of giving without thinking about any return, are also encouraged.

  One might argue that these traditions simply encourage passive acquiescence to taking, and that a beggar’s sometimes aggressive panhandling, which may include a veiled threat of violence, is in fact a form of taking. And that the admonitions to give simply serve to enable taking by the church or by the ruling power. That could be. But it might be that these traditions help create a community that is more pleasant to live in, for all.

  I am thinking here about St Martin and his cloak, which became a relic carried into battle for the French king. Or the story about the man who gave his cloak to a shivering beggar, but then later beat the beggar for having sold the cloak he had been given.

  The contrast in any case is with socialism, which seeks to eradicate the charitable impulse. The State is supposed to supply all the benefits of life to its subjects, and private charity is thus a challenge to the adequacy and legitimacy of the State. Private charitable institutions are extincted in thoroughgoing communist societies, but even in the semi-socialist States of the EU, which uphold a folk-marxist ideal and ethos, charitable giving and charitable associations of freely associating individuals don’t come close to approaching what is still done in the US.

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• Kauf Buch December 15, 2017, 12:57 PM

  TO Punditarian
  I posted this in the thread above, but it *directly* responds to what you wrote here:

  “…being “against compassion” is EXACTLY the Leftist “rationalization” (sic) process which allows them to follow up with, “therefore, I’ll MAKE you ‘care’ by having the Government *force* to you to contribute…via an endless number and variety of degenerate social programs which I, the morally superior one, deem to be necessary and good”.

  Look: I’m 1st generation American. From (1939 fleeing) European parents. I know the Communist fate/reality my relatives LIVED until 1991. I KNOW the reality the Left in America wants; it is NO different…and this CORRUPT “compassion” angle is just another tool in their bag of tricks. REAL compassion is ONLY voluntary, and we get enough SINCERE “calls” for it elsewhere. FORGET this “give a bum a backpack and shoes and he’ll be better I’ll be able to pat myself on the back for moral signalling which doesn’t give a hoot whether or not that bum is a parasite and I’m encouraging MORE of that nonsense, or if he’s really in need (even though I 99% suspect he’ll just keep on grifting as long as he can get away with being a parasite).

  ∞
• Kauf Buch December 15, 2017, 12:58 PM

  TO Punditarian
  I posted this in the thread above, but it *directly* responds to what you wrote here:

  “…being “against compassion” is EXACTLY the Leftist “rationalization” (sic) process which allows them to follow up with, “therefore, I’ll MAKE you ‘care’ by having the Government *force* to you to contribute…via an endless number and variety of degenerate social programs which I, the morally superior one, deem to be necessary and good”.

  Look: I’m 1st generation American. From (1939 fleeing) European parents. I know the Communist fate/reality my relatives LIVED until 1991. I KNOW the reality the Left in America wants; it is NO different…and this CORRUPT “compassion” angle is just another tool in their bag of tricks.

  REAL compassion is ONLY voluntary, and we get enough SINCERE “calls” for it elsewhere. FORGET this “give a bum a backpack and shoes and he’ll be better I’ll be able to pat myself on the back for moral signalling which doesn’t give a hoot whether or not that bum is a parasite and I’m encouraging MORE of that nonsense, or if he’s really in need (even though I 99% suspect he’ll just keep on begging as long as he can get away with being a bum).

  ∞
• Kauf Buch December 15, 2017, 1:01 PM

  TO Punditarian
  Sorry, I’m trying to respond to your post, but I keep getting CENSORED!
  PLEASE see my latest post at the thread above this one, called “Against Compassion”! HA!

  ∞
• Kauf Buch December 15, 2017, 1:02 PM

  TO Punditarian
  I’m 1st generation American. From (1939 fleeing) European parents. I know the Communist fate/reality my relatives LIVED until 1991. I KNOW the reality the Left in America wants; it is NO different…and this CORRUPT “compassion” angle is just another tool in their bag of tricks. REAL compassion is ONLY voluntary, and we get enough SINCERE “calls” for it elsewhere. FORGET this “give a bum a backpack and shoes and he’ll be better I’ll be able to pat myself on the back for moral signalling which doesn’t give a hoot whether or not that bum is a parasite and I’m encouraging MORE of that nonsense, or if he’s really in need (even though I 99% suspect he’ll just keep on grifting as long as he can get away with being a parasite).

  ∞
• Punditarian December 15, 2017, 1:09 PM

  Hi Kauf Buch, very kind of you to point me to your other response, I will try to have something intelligent to say over there. Cheers!

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• Punditarian December 15, 2017, 4:39 PM

  Hi Kauf Buch, I think that what you are saying, at least as I understand it, is correct.

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• DrTedNelson December 16, 2017, 9:09 AM

  Trailer for sale or rent, rooms to let, fifty cents.
  No phone, no pool, no pets, I ain’t got no cigarettes
  Ah, but, two hours of pushin’ broom
  Buys an eight by twelve four-bit room
  I’m a man of means by no means, king of the road.

  ∞