Was I Wrong to Buy Beer for an Unhoused Man?
An invitation to a discussion on ethics
A few days ago, an unhoused man asked me for some change while I was leaving the grocery store early in the morning. Having none on my person, I asked him what he wanted so that I could go back into the store to buy it. He asked for one can of a specific brand of beer that I did not know, so I told him to come with me to pick it up.
After choosing his can of beer, I asked him if he wanted anything else, secretly hoping he would ask for something I perceived as more practical. Unfortunately for me at the time, he asked for a second beer, to which I agreed. A stop at the cash register, and then I went on my way, confused about how I felt about the ordeal.
This leads me to the point of this article: Could you help me figure out if I was right to buy this man beer at 8 a.m.?
Why I Was Wrong
Everyone will have slightly different answers to the question of what is right and wrong. On my part, I will do an oversimplified and innocent summary by saying that wrong is when my action causes more harm than good to the “World.”
Now, forget the many holes you could poke into that definition of “wrong,” Let me argue about how this action might have been wrong, or we will be here for hours.
The American Addiction Centers organization mentions that “around 1/3 of people who are homeless have problems with alcohol and drugs, and around 2/3 of these people have lifetime histories of drug or alcohol use disorders.” Following these statistics, there are considerable odds that I have given alcohol to a potential past or present alcoholic. In the scenario where he was, I did something that harmed his short-term health.
In addition to his short-term health, I have also potentially started a horrible day in which this man might have gotten drunk early and done multiple harmful acts to his person (and even others).
Finally, I could also have told the homeless man that I would buy him anything that is “useful” and “healthy,” ignoring his request. This might have started his day better, and other potential good things might have happened to him because he was fed and in the right state of mind.
Again, these are all potentialities that came to my head before I could think more deeply about the situation.
Why I Was Right
Although my thoughts were of regret at first, I decided to think deeper into my dilemma. Were my feelings of guilt because my decision was wrong or because the consequence of it could be?
First, after a few minutes, I realized that all these negative thoughts were only potentialities and that I think this person should be able to make their own decisions as they know themselves a lot more than I could ever do.
Even then, I was still not satisfied with my conclusion.
We often evaluate past decisions based on their outcomes: “I should not have gone to that party. It was so boring!” “I’m happy I tried a new author; the book was amazing!”. I argue that this is not the right way to view our decisions, as many of them have results influenced by things we could have never foreseen or have outcomes that cannot be predicted.
Instead, let us evaluate our decisions based on the information we had at the time. All I had to make my decision was that a homeless man came to me in front of a grocery store to ask for change. Empathy, compassion, charity, and good faith are values that are dear to me, and I want to give more to others. The few euros that this cost me do not affect me at all, so in this case, let us forget about the cost to myself.
Given the information available at the time, my decision was correct. Regretting it would mean accepting the opposite: I should ignore every unhoused person I meet on the street.
I want to help, and despite the odds that my decision may have harmful consequences, I will happily take those odds because I believe saying yes will do more good than bad most of the time (and that’s all I really need to know).
Conclusion
Writing this article made me more confident in my decision and taught me about a bad reflex I often have: thinking of the consequences as a barometer of the quality of my choices.
We always have a limited amount of information at our disposal; our aim should be to do our best with it.
And you, dear reader, what do you think? Should I have bought him those two beers?
