Feeding Frenzies and Pecking Orders at the Bottom

On Christmas morning, a man showed up in a place where homeless people usually gather so he could hand out $20 bills. He said he used to be out there, but is doing better now and wanted to share. He just didn't expect to share with so many. So he gathered people into groups of four, asked who was the "most responsible and trustworthy" and gave that person the cash with instructions to get change and distribute it evenly. He clearly was street-savvy enough to know how to organize and handle all the people that rushed him. But he did set off any number of small skirmishes among those less able, or less willing, to handle such things.

Over the next several hours, group after group of the goodwilled and generous arrived to hand out clothing, gear and food. And each time, quite a number of people would rush to gather around, excited. Of course the most aggressive and intent are the fastest and first, even muscling others out of the way for position. All too often, people grabbed more than their fair share or hid something behind their backs and then pleaded for another from someone who didn't see their first "score."

Later in the day, I was pulling up to park my rig and had to wait behind an SUV from which people were handing out hot lunches in "to go" containers. I know many people around this area and noted who hurried to get in that line, beating out many of the meeker and less assertive yet truly needy ones. As usual, many of the pushy people who jockeyed to be first in line weren't even homeless. (Or even without sufficient resources.)

In fact, there are quite a few people that typically come and hang out there just to get as many freebies as they can. Even all day, most days. These include a very aggressive group that "commute" from the next city, have later model vehicles, live indoors and collect various "checks" (i.e. Social Security, disability, etc.). This is a very well known phenomenon in lower income areas. I spent some years managing residential properties in such areas and learned the culture.

The point of the story is that we would all do well to realize this Darwinian dynamic, so that we can take some measures to make sure that those in immediate need get their fair share. In more organized distributions, a ticket procedure is often used to attempt to even the playing field. What it really takes is a savvy eye looking out for those less able to fend for themselves.

Photo credit: Atelier Teee