[News] Evacuees Spend Relief Money At Strip Clubs
 

I have mixed emotions about this because who knows how much is actually being spent. I mean as hard as it is to believe a lot of fraternity men at my school go for the no cover, free buffet, with the purchase of a $1.75 longneck. Strip clubs are about the cheapest lunch in Houston but I don't think people making donations had this in mind when they found it in their heart to donate to relief efforts.

/edit: forgot to comment

Re: [News] Evacuees Spend Relief Money At Strip Clubs
 

I can't even imagine what kind of person would judge someone for going out to have a drink after he or she might have lost EVERYTHING -- home, work, possessions, pets, LOVED ONES -- for crying out loud, who freaking cares how they're spending the money?

I agree with Val, I would have been mainlining the alcohol if possible :p

Maybe they just read James' dating advice :p

As with ANYTHING, you will always a have few people trying to get over - no matter how foolproof you try to make it.

I'm sure the majority of evacuees are using their money to rebuild their lives. No need to stop giving over this.

Exactly. It's the same with the welfare system. There are some who abuse it but the great majority use it to help maintain a liveable income.

That's how I see it - I'm still glad I gave and wish I could have given more.

If that's the way a small portion of these people want to spend the money, so be it.

I remember the Red Cross lady saying on the news that the Red Cross cards cannot be used to buy alcohol, tobacco, or firearms. But, of course they can just go to the ATM and get cash to buy these things.

Honestly, yeah I suppose they can spend the money however they want... But I would be bothered to think that my donation is going to help someone get smashed or possibly buying drugs. I don't think that is what any of us intend when we donate money.

It goes along with the story about some woman using her debit card to buy a Louis Vuitton purse.... I'm sorry, but that bothers me. Is there really nothing better that she could use that money for?

I'm not saying that people need to be TOLD what they can and can't spend this money on.... But is it too much to ask to show some consideration to the people who have donated their hard-earned money to help you rebuild your life?

i have a friend who's husband is a red lobster manager. he had a large group of evacuees who came in and ordered a crap load of food and drinks and announced to the entire restaurant that they were from NO and were using thier new card on this. i can't blame them too much for buying a good dinner, but did they really have to announce to everyone who they were? and they also said they didn't tip the waiter b/c they were poor NO evacuees and the waiter should consider it charity work. come on people! they have been shown decency and respect so THEY need to show a little too!

^^^^^

You know what, I have children. And if they had gone through 5 days of hell - seeing dead people float by, watching people die in front of them, bleeding women having miscarriages - but still standing in bus lines afraid they'd loose their places, no bathroom facilities, no food, water, etc... then I might have thought to take them this one time to a restaurant so that they can have some feeling of normalcy again. And may have to apologize to the waiter for not having the $$ to tip right now (even though I would hope that he'd have the decency not to expect one...). I don't know if there were children there, if this was the case or if they were tactful, embarrassed, or whatever. Perhaps they were tactless in how they did it. We all can think - the best thing would be to spend the $$ in a more thrifty way, but after a terrible experience like that people respond in different ways. The point is - once you donate - just be happy in your own heart that you know that you did what you thought was best. If you don't have $$$ to contribute, or feel like someone will abuse it - donate items instead.

The poor are too stupid to know what to do with their money.

Hate them, pity them, love them.

-Rudey

F*ck the beer, I'd be doing straight shots of Grey Goose.

Honestly, I've seen so many articles like this (evacuees spending money on strip clubs! alcohol! Louis Vuitton!) and it's like . . . whyyyy do people care? Ninety-nine people out of a hundred are spending it rationally, so why do we need to freak out if a random lady is buying an LV with her evacuation money?


Besides, that LV purchase might not be as stupid as it sounds . . . if she takes care of it, that's an investment. ;)


(As a server, though, you better be tipping me. WTF, not expecting a tip from evacuees? If you can afford to go to a restaurant, you can afford to tip. I don't get why people don't understand that most servers, especially at chain restaurants like Red Lobster, DO NOT GET PAID WAGES, so tips are all they make . . . You not tipping = us working for free. So no matter how "poor" you are [I don't consider anyone poor if they're going to a sit-down restaurant], you better be leaving a tip. You can't afford a tip? Go somewhere you don't need to leave one.)

There was a memo at Pottery Barn (where I work), and it gave us instructions on how to process the Red Cross and FEMA debit cards if anyone wanted to spend them in our store. Granted, I live a loooong way from the Gulf Coast and it was a company-wide memo, but I just remember thinking that if I was homeless/foodless/jobless I would NOT be shopping at Pottery Barn or Williams-Sonoma. I'd go to Target or Walmart and buy $2000 worth of stuff that would actually help me start over.

Just to go along with the crazy things bought with relief cards....

A couple of days after the FEMA debit cards were handed out (but before the practice was stopped), there were reports of a couple of purses bought at louis Vuitton. (I have no clue if I speeled that right....)

All I could think is the people walking around going, "I'm homeless! But don't I have a great LV purse?!?"

I definitely have to agree here. People from all over banded together to make those donations from their own hard-earned money.

A LV purse????? I've been working since I was 16, and I don't even own a LV purse.

I can't say I liked the story about the big group of evacuees who went to Red Lobster, ordered a ton of food, then announced to the restaurant that they were not going to tip b/c they were poor evacuees. Maybe I'm a heartless *****, but give me a break. It's one thing to quietly tell the waiter that they are thankful for the services, but they cannot afford a large tip, and it's quite another to announce it to the entire restaurant that they are not going to tip just because they are from NO. Like someone else mentioned, waiters LIVE on their tips, so even if it was just going to be a very small tip, I think the waiter would have been grateful for it. (Side question: Don't most restaurants have a built-in tip if the party is big enough?)

While I know (or at least hope) that these kinds of stories are the vast minority, I can't help but feel that some of these people are taking advantage of the whole evacuee thing (Being given places to stay, food to eat, money to buy necessities, even JOBS), and to be pretty honest it makes me mad.

If someone has a FEMA issued debit card and wants to spend it on Pottery Barn or LV or Bart's Bottomless Donut shop, I guess there's really nothing we can do except to marvel at their lack of practicality.

If, however, they can go back and get *another* debit card after they essentially wasted the first one, then that's just wrong.

Regarding the group at the Red Lobster...These folks probably didn't turn trashy overnight - they were probably loutish, poor tippers BEFORE the tragedy. As for the waiter having the decency to not expect a tip (someone upthread mentioned this; can't remember who), I think that's ridiculous. The waiter is there to do his job and to get paid for it. Not perform works of charity. Maybe he already gave to the Red Cross; you never know.

Besides, the table of evacuees could have thought ahead and forgone an appetizer or a dessert or maybe the add-on crab cluster so they would have enough left for the tip.

[off-topic]doesn't the restaurat automatically put the tip on the bill for a large group? They do it down here for groups bigger then 6 people.[/off-topic]

Some places do, but some don't. Some places, it is only for parties of 8 or 10 or more I believe.

What should the 9/11 families have done with their money? They got enormous amounts from private citizens ad the government.
I am sure they used some of their money frivolously . . . from our points of view.

THANK YOU!!! There was a lady on Dr. Phil (I think) that was crying because she went through the $ 5 million :eek: (not $2,000) within a year or so just buying crap.

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/defens.../randon911.htm

I didn't realize that the average civilian survivor's family of 9/11 got 3.1 million dollars and that the police and fire fighters got 4.2 million on average.

It seems unfair to me in the abstract that EMS personel got more money than the civilians. Although I understand that their unions and organizations were very effective in gobbling up charity money.

I think what happened was that EMS personel got shares of the money that were earmarked for "Victims" but that the civlian victims didn't get money that was deliberately solicited by the unions and associations of EMS people.

In fairness, either both accounts should have been merged or else the EMS personel should have only benfited from their own fund.

Although maybe I am wrong? Did EMS receive full shares of the charity geared towards general "victims" as well as the government pay out?

Given the discrepancies in pay outs . . well katrina victims can buy as many purses as they like and as many lap dances.

Places could refuse to accept the cards (i.e. only for use in grocery stores, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, drug stores, and clothing stores). Seems to me their profiting just as much as the people that are abusing it.

Not to mention there were tons of them that tried to get over. I had to take a supervisor call once from a NY fireman. He was highly upset because he wanted our company to delete his entire $2,000 cell phone bill. Yes, during & after 9/11 we gave them $0 bills because they had to use their phones to communicate to clear up the mess - and rightly so. But this guy had a bill over $2000 and had been calling running up his bill in the thousands since then and getting sympathetic reps & sups to delete them. The date when he called me & cussed me out - over a yr later.

If large companies that are run by MBAs and so forth have major problems with "misapropreating funds", then I don't see why we're suprised when the averaged Joe does it. If they didn't want funds spent on things like that, then pehaps they should have gotten them all Wal-Mart gift cards. I'm not defending their actions, because I think it's pretty stupid how they are using that money and I know whomever donated probably didn't have that in mind as their reason for donating.

I read somewhere where the firefighters' widows received somewhere along the lines of $500,000 just for having a spouse die within the line of duty in addition to the firefighters' salaries for the rest of their lives. That doesn't even consider the 9/11 compensation fund. These women were getting boob jobs and buying Escalades.

I'd like to think that these people are merely practicing retail therapy (or stripper therapy), and that others never had the best priorities when it came to money, are the extreme minority.

Whatever helps you sleep at night, but the reality is that this is probably not true. And it's not just them...I think about 80% of Americans (myself included, sometimes) do not have the correct proirities when it comes to money. But I think the sometimes is the key here. This is not a good time for them to be spending frivolusly.

That's your opinion. Personally, I find it perfectly reasonable that somebody might go to a strip club or buy a Louis Vuitton handbag (is this even documented anywhere or is it one of those "OMG you guys I heard somewhere that..." things) after suffering the kind of loss people have suffered as the result of this hurricane. Seriously, who freaking cares? You can't police it and if you don't like donating money and not being able to approve how every cent of that money is spent, don't donate money. I'd rather have money I've donated go to Louis than to Wal-Mart, but that's a-whole-nother discussion and I don't donate to the Red Cross or Salvation Army anyway.

The thing is we don't know - who knows what percentage are spending their money like that. Also, does that mean they're spending all that money like that, or are they buying those items after buying necessities?

If anyone has that big of a problem with this, they can donate to the Humane Society or another cause. You can control your donations that way and make your own statement if you don't like the way the money is being used.

And you know this because of what? All of your experience in post-disaster living?

Like others have said, it's not really your place to determine what people can spend their money on. If there weren't restrictions placed on the debit cards like other assistance programs (I'm sure you're familiar with WIC), then they can do what they want.

I don't "know" it for a fact...I said "I think" indicating that it was my opinion. And I have never lived through a disaster, but I have lived through times where money has been tight and there was no extra to spend, (i. e. losing a job) and my respone was not to go out and get drunk or buy something ridculous like an over-priced handbag. I made a tight budget and stuck to it. I realize that this would not have been everyone's response, but then again, America is not know for it's people being logical and responsible.

I didn't say that I thought that I should determine what they spend...they can spend it however they want to, but then in a month when it's gone and they still have nothing to show for it, I will have absolutely no pity for them. People who used their money to try to put their lives together, but are still lacking, I will have pity for.

And I think the WIC program is excellent. I like the fact that moms must use the assistance for the basic needs of their child. I used it and it got me through losing a job, and now that I have a good job, I've stopped using it (athough I probably still qualify as it takes a good bit of income not to qualify).

I have to be honest, I think that spending the money at a strip club is somewhat wrong b/c there are others that could use it for food, water, diapers, etc.

That being said, I also think of it like I think of many asking for change on the street. If that drink is going to make them happy, then why can't they have it? It is a tough call.

Here is a website that has some very emotional images...

http://www.watchingkatrina.com/

First off, it's ridiculous that people are spending money that was donated to help them start over on strippers and designer fashion wear.

I really hope FEMA is only giving out XX amount of money and once it's gone, it's gone. Of course then we will still have all these poor bastards running around crying how poor they are and they lost everything to the Katrina....while they are wearing designer clothes I'm sure.:rolleyes:

I don't see why the gov't can't keep a tighter leash on thes idiots. In the military we have debit cards for certain expenses. For instance gas. When I fill up a gov't vehicle I can only use low grade gas and I have to make record of what the mileage is so they can determine if I'm getting the proper mile/gal and not just stealing gas for my own vehicle. If you get caught filling up with premium you have to pay the difference, and if you get caught stealing you get charged with an article 15 and have to pay all the money back (the entire credit card charge) plus interest. Fair in my opinion.

There are a number of refugee's about a half hour where I'm from. Needless to say I don't want the staying here b/c of the trouble they bring.

I have a few brothers and friends that got called up to help with base security. They confiscated guns, drugs, knives, etc. They also had to keep all the single women in a seperate barracks so they wouldn't be harrassed/raped at night. Additionally the MP's had to constantly patrol to keep them from fighting/stealing/destroying property. Needless to say I don't want people like that living in my area. Send them back down to the slums.

Such compassion!

Well, I may be incorrect, but I believe FEMA money comes from the government -- not donations. So, it is entirely possible that these folks are using money they paid in taxes in some cases.

I have trouble believing the last comment.

SMH

:(

Lord have mercy......

Ignoring any other concerns, why is this some sort of surprise to anyone?

Since the dawn of time, people have been coping with rough times by blowing cash on booze, hookers, gambling, luxury items, and etc. Instead of being scented oils or whatever shit Odysseus would buy as a beggar, it's a strip club in yeehaw, Arkansas.

I like to get drunk. I'd imagine Coramoor, even in his temple of wisdom, has said the words "I need a drink" at some point in his life - and I also doubt he's needed the assistance of others to get it.

So why do we have a dilemma at the intersection of "I Need Help Blvd." and "I Could Use a Drink Way"?

Also, think about buying a Vuitton handbag with your Red Cross funds - if you want to be all beligerent about it, word up, do just that . . . but why be outraged? Instead, this is the ultimate form of social Darwinism, if in fact your rampant classist/xenophobic fear of the poor is justified. Right?

If we're being judgemental here...I'm not really sure how I feel about this.

On one hand, I feel it is wrong for people to be spending their money on strip clubs and frivolous things like LV purses. That money was given to them with the intention that they would use it on food and clothes and necessities to survive. I almost feel that a restriction should be imposed on where they can spend their money.

On the other hand...these people just lost everything. Some have lost their loved ones, their houses and everything they've ever owned...are you really going to deny them a drink or one day away from all the pain they're feeling? I know that I go shopping sometimes when I'm feeling down; perhaps these women buying the LVs are merely trying to preserve their very last shreds of dignity.

If people want to spend their money in this fashion, let them. I can't really say I approve, but I just don't feel like I should be one to judge them.

The problem isn't the act of how you spend it. Poor people are generally stupid. It's why they are poor and will always be poor and will die facing hardships.

The problem is the intention of people giving the money, prior to the act, - whether it is through FEMA or private donations.

In a sense, it's almost like false advertising.

-Rudey

I'm not against helping them get back on their feet. For one, if we don't give them anything they will more than likely just turn to crime and make things even worse.

However, spending hundreds/thousands of dollars on a purse or on alcohol is extremely excessive. If that view makes me 'uncompassionate' so be it.

There has to be a limit. Yeah, they lost their worldy possesions, but they are alive. I don't see why living through a hurricane gives people a reason to cash in on other's charity or gov't money.