I think you missed one thing; in a world where no one cares, it gets exhausting if you care.

I used to live in an area (San Francisco) with a lot of homeless people. I used to stop and talk to them, make sure they were ok, and budget about $300 a month to give to people on the street. I even gave a man the socks off my feet once, because they were bright green and he liked them and I’d heard homeless people often need socks.

After 1-2 years, I became tired. So many homeless people were happy to have someone to talk to, but I started resenting people when they told me their life story because they were so lonely and they had no one else to talk to. I started avoiding conversations and just giving money, so I didn’t have to keep hearing about how much suffering they were having.

Eventually, I quit my job and didn’t want to budget for giving money anymore, so I stopped giving money too. At some point, I found myself avoiding eye contact with people, because deep down I was ashamed at how heartless I’d become. And I felt so angry; if everyone on the street helped a little bit, I wouldn’t have needed to give so much, but no one was helping. I felt how much these homeless people needed, but also how tired I was of being the one to give it. Also, sometimes small bad things happened to me too - like, I got pick pocketed once and sexually harassed frequently - so I didn’t like dallying about on the street longer than I had to. I faced personal risk trying to help people on the street, as a single woman.

Suddenly, I was the person stepping over people, or looking away and pretending like I didn’t hear them asking for money. We’re at a point, where the need is so high, if you’re willing to give, you will be pressured to give beyond what feels comfortable to you. You will be trying to tackle alone a problem the size of society. And, society won’t be grateful, but will punish you (pickpockets, cat calls, etc) for trying to help. So, you take care of yourself. And, there’s not really a way to say to everyone “I’m willing to do my share to fix this, but I can’t do it all.” So, I can’t blame everyone for ignoring people; they’re just like how I am now. Maybe they even tried a few times, and realized how hard it was. I tired for years, but it wore me down.

There is no help for people, and no help for those who want to help.