Makes me think of the Pink Floyd song “Us and Them”.

“Down and out
It can’t be helped, cause there’s a lot of it about
With — without
And who’d deny it’s what the fighting’s all about?

Out of the way, it’s a busy day
I’ve got things on my mind
For want of the price, of tea and a slice
The home at night…”

I will admit, even though I give money to homeless people a lot of the time, I do avert my eyes sometimes when I don’t have coins to give, or I don’t want to be accosted and have to explain why I can’t give money to all of them, every day. I avert my eyes not out of revulsion, but out of guilt.

Because I feel like I should be giving to all of them. And I don’t know how to tell them no. Because I have my own things I need to buy, things I need to save for, etc. But then I start to question any discretionary purchase, under the eyes of a homeless person I feel selfish for buying a smoothie for breakfast, when I could have given them that money instead. Where do you draw the line? What is “enough” to give to be a moral person? When you have your own life to live also, and it’s not your responsibility to solve the world’s problems? And no matter even if you gave all your money away it would be but a drop in the bucket of systemic homelessness?

It’s a hard concept to grapple with. I do feel guilty about it.