Watch what happened when a homeless man tried to give money to people
The video of the social experiment has gone viral with over 2 million views on YouTube
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.How would you react if a homeless person handed you some spare change? Walk on by, abuse them for being so presumptuous, or tell them to keep it because they probably need it more than you?
One man decided to try to answer this question on the streets of LA – and the results were surprising...
In the five-minute video entitled ‘What if the homeless gave you money?’, YouTuber Yousef Saleh Erakat poses as a homeless man. Holding up a piece of cardboard reading “No one has ever become poor from giving”, he tries to offer some cash to passersby as he sits on the street.
Yousef gets various responses from the strangers but they appear to be mainly negative. During one particularly shocking exchange, a man throws the money back in his face before yelling, “I don’t need your f**king money, you a**hole. I could f**king buy you.”
In another exchange a motorist tells Yousef, “Well, let me give you something. You see that? That’s a Benz. You gotta earn your way up, pal,” after he offers to pay the man’s fare for the parking metre. The two nearly come to blows after Yousef tries to question him about why he would make such a statement.
The only glimmer of hope comes when a woman ends up giving money to Yousef and tells him, “You know what, I have a few dollars. Why don’t you take more? And make me feel richer for the day. Thank you.”
In the description underneath the video, Yousef wrote:
“Going into this video, the end goal wasn't quite sure. You can never be sure because you can never know how people will react. It's a completely different video depending on if people react positively or negatively.”
“This video wasn't one of those, "oh let's see if people offer us money." It was, "let's see how people feel about themselves when someone who is classified as "lesser" than them on societies class ladder offers them money." The results were not expected and not wanted.”
“It doesn't matter how much you have in life if what you have in life takes away from you being humble. At the end of the day, even the most poor man can be the most rich depending on how much love he has in his heart.”
The video has gone viral since it was uploaded on 19 April and has amassed over 2 million views on YouTube.
Video courtesy of fouseyTUBE
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments