I wonder why people seem to be more “moved” to show up when it’s about bills than monthly groceries needs; it’s literally for food for a month. I wonder if people are quietly demanding others to perform hunger before moving to redistribute resources. It’s really sick if you have a conscience and a presence of mind to think about it.
#mutualaid #mutualaidspace #mutualaidrequest #fediverse #fedihelp #poverty #healthcare #solidarity @mutualaid @mutualaid
I don’t know if your observation can be universally generalized but I would guess that the short answer is that people may excessively use utilities through carelessness but the margin of error is small. Food however can have a wildly different budget from person to person and is much easier for the giver to feel taken advanatage of.
Example: If someone asks for $200 to pay their electric bill and I later find out that they run their AC cooler than I do, that’s maybe a little annoying but the difference it made in their bill is maybe 10-20%.
If someone asks for that same $200 for food, they may blow through that eating fast food for a couple of days instead of getting a cart of groceries that might have lasted two weeks. It is really easy to quickly waste a lot of money on low quality food. Here I as the giver am way more likely to be upset that my generosity was ‘wasted’ on needlessly expensive junk food instead of making an effort to stretch the funds responsibly (imo). I speak from experience.
The uncertainty that one scenario brings relative to the other is probably part of why people are hesitant to just pour cash into a situation where someone needs food.