In Defense of Panhandling

“First, the beggar provides us with the opportunity to perform acts of personal charity. I was in San Francisco several years ago with a woman who gave money to every beggar she encountered. After a while she turned to me and said, “You know I’m doing it for me, not for them?” “In this vein, I would ask you to conduct an experiment. Take four five dollar bills and give them to four panhandlers, receiving from each his cheerful, "God bless you brother", in return. Then, take another four five dollar bills and go spend them buying four drinks in one of the Mayor’s gin joints. And then ask yourself, “Which made me feel better?” “Who else in your day says to you, “God bless you brother”?

-Professor Thaddeus Tecza, Defending Panhandling before the Denver City Council