When you live in New York City and travel through Manhattan by foot on a daily basis you see both the very privileged and those who desperately require financial help on the streets, in the subway and other experiences. And sometimes even within a few feet of each other.
And yet the richer get richer and the poor get poorer. Of course sometimes the poor get richer and the richer get more poor, but what either side does as a solution to the problem of inequity has not changed much since I first moved from Los Angeles to NYC in 1988. The super wealthy will stage the occasional nonprofit event to help those who have basic living wants that are not being met, while the homeless and other do things like begging for money using a number of different approaches to their soliciting.
The tragic thing is that we as New Yorkers see this everyday and if we help those in need, it is not necessarily a consistent thing because it can become numbing after a while. So much need and so little help. And yet many of us have the impulse of wanting to lend a hand. Ultimately how you decided to save NYC together is up to you.