cont.
... because they have basically *chosen* their station in life.  (In his case, from the smell I suspect he was sleeping next to a dumpster instead of a government flop because they wouldn't let him drink as much indoors as he'd like ...)

Sad?  You bet!   Greek tragedy, even.  But is voting in laws that oblige your responsible neighbors to be routinely parasitized by this sort of behavior really a 'great thing', such as you describe?

"... What are we, animals on the savanna? ..."   Paleoanthropologists will tell us that we're not so very far away, actually.  But the animals tend to be more honest.

Thank you for the exchange of views.