Yes, all societies/cultures have always had their poor populations for whatever reasons, and helping others follows the religious mantra of ” there but for the grace of god go I.” I am not religious but that saying does pretty much sum things up quite nicely.
I also strongly disagree with any controlling “giving”, such as mandating whether or not one will give actually monies and how they “should” be spent.
If I give a homeless person money, my “gift” now belongs to them and I do not care whether they buy food or booze or drugs or whatever they need to get through their day. I find those that insist on only giving food, or otherwise controlling how their cash “gift” is used to be the pinnacle of arrogance and infantalizing as hell.
Once, when my ex husband and I were young, in our early 20’s, we fell upon hard times and his mother, instead of giving us a gift of grocery money and trusting I would use it accordingly, took me shopping and humiliated me by picking out all the cheapest crap for me as if I was a child.
If one is going to GIVE, you don’t giver crap, you GIVE in a manner that preserves the persons dignity. Giving away old clothing and other, more than gently used, items is not giving.
If I am to “give” I will give items that enhance a persons self esteem, a nice new jacket, pair of shoes, not some ratty discard.
Don’t get me wrong, I love browsing thrift stores and their are plenty of decent items to be found, but…in general, I don’t consider pawning off your crappy leftover anything, to be in the true spirit of “giving.”
If I am going to put together a “care” package for someone ( I have done this for my 20 something daughter over the last few years ) I am not going to further humiliate and add insult to injury by offering up a case of Top Raman and an institutional size bucket of oatmeal. I am going to “give” QUALITY items! Nothing worse than a Scrooge that toots their own horn over a tuppence. Bah Humbug!