To give or not to give!? (Part 1)

I have to say this is an interesting phenomenon here in the US. I am talking about the homeless people and charity organizations. One of the first odd things you notice about this country is the enormous number of young homeless people around, even in their 20s! How is this possible? Where I come from (Italy .. surprise!) there are very few homeless and either they are very old or they are not italians but come from other European countries. In this second case they stay homeless only for the time needed to collect some money and move on with their life. Even the people coming from Africa illegally try to make a living selling illegal copies of DVDs and CDs. Granted, this is NOT what they should do, but at least they do no beg, they have some pride. They organize themselves so that they can earn a living by actively doing something; even though illegal, they find it better than begging. If they were not illegal, they would find a normal job.

Things, however, seem to be different in the States. Almost all the homeless people I see are americans, all immigrants (illegal and not) actually work!!! Isn't this ironic? For some reason being homeless seems to be a choice here. You prefer to be homeless because you do not want to work. I always see the same people begging, can't they collect some money and try to move on? Nope. Why? Because thay got accustomed to that lifestyle and now they are comfortable. "You are young! Go get a job!". But as I said, here, for some reason things work differently here.
The other day I saw in the subway a mother with her kid, she sat and started reading a magazine while her kid started to sell candies in the subway. WHAT? Are you really letting your kid sell candies in the subway for him to make some extra money? Are you KIDDING me?