A nice girl I work out with made a comment that didn't sit with me well the other day. She said she pays homeless men to stand in line for her for those black Friday door buster deals. At first I thought she was kidding.
"Are you serious?" I asked.
"Yeah. I just go up to a homeless and tell him I have a favor to ask him."
(A homeless?)
"And then what?" I asked.
"I ask him to stand in line for me. I give him a pillow, blanket, 10 bucks, and something to eat."
"What does he say?"
"He says, "Sure"."
Apparently she did this 3 times last year and got an Ipod for $40, among other things.
On one hand, she is kind of giving a homeless person a job, so it could be considered a win-win situation. But on the other hand, it seems, well, icky.
I think she should just give a homeless person a pillow, blanket, 10 bucks, and some food and stand in her own line.
-Lela
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11 comments:
I agree that you can look at it from several points of view. In a sense, she is helping him. However, my initial reaction is that she is lazy and is taking advantage of him.
Um, WOW! Are you frickin' kidding me? This rings wrong to me on so many levels.
I think it's so rude. She is assuming that she can take advantage of someone b/c she thinks he had nothing better to do. WRONG!
Wow! I'm not sure how I feel about this. I am inclined to agree with you, though. Wait in your own line!
I agree with you! Isn't it interesting/frightening that some people can think things like that are totally fine while others (like us) find it kind of disgusting? I wonder if you asked the homeless person if they said they were offended but needed the money.
Wow, I'm not sure I like that at all. That's not really something she ought to be proud of.
I don't like this at all. She should stand in her own line and 'a homeless' really? Sounds really icky to me!
It seems super-elitist and disgusting.
Agreed. Yuck.
I'm appalled. That is HORRIBLE. I posted today and included a link to a post Diana Adams wrote on her Bit Rebels blog about homelessness (she is @adamsconsulting)....
I think you need to tell your friend. I'm not sure I could keep my mouth shut. Unbelievable.
i vote icky.
I'm back. I brought this up with my husband over dinner last night. We both agree that this is definitely wrong on so many levels, ethically in particular. It devalues the homeless person - especially by referring to him as "a homeless," completely stripping him of his human-ness. This is really abhorrable and like many of the other comments...just plain icky!
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