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I like Kant's take on this. He argued (roughly, by memory) that giving to people begging on the street directly was a selfish act, as it's satisfying our own need to feel better about ourselves more than the needs of the homeless population, and would lead to an unfair distribution giving more money to those who are talented at evoking empathy rather than those that might need it the most. He argued that the unselfish thing to do would be to donate to the cause indirectly, responding not to the emotional response in the moment but to a rational consideration of the needs of the homeless population.
I think he has a point. That said, there's nothing wrong with being selfish every now and then, especially not if your selfishness gives someone a warm meal. And empathy is a healthy human reaction.
Your parents seem to have failed to grasp the challenges facing the homeless population. A better take would be "don't give that guy money, start donating regularly to a local charity instead and help make sure that help is given to all those who need it".
Oh, and also, rally for political change.
Kant had a point there, but I think he also fails to address the problem.
The existence of charitable organizations means that the government has failed that group of people. Charitable organizations are extremely inefficient and sometimes are prone to the exact problems he brings up with donating directly to individuals, or they may prioritize certain individuals with certain religious beliefs over others.
Charitable organizations need to be folded and replaced with government programs. We don't need to be paying CEOs salaries when we're just trying to help someone on the street.
I've been involved as a treasurer for a number of "medium" charities in Australia. Most recently one providing free legal services to the disadvantaged, and another running a refuge for homeless youth.
As an aside, bear in mind that I as a treasurer as well as the entire board are volunteers - well qualified and experienced professionals donating their time to ensure that the organisation is run efficiently and is maximising the benefit to the community.
Your comments really grind my gears. They're born of shallow social media type thinking. These falsehoods are commonly used as a "reason" why one ought not to donate to charities.
Certainly there are overpaid CEOs, but these are a minority. Recently the charity running the refuge got a new CEO. He had been a police superintendent. He took a pay cut of about two thirds in order to be our CEO. He said that he had spent most of his career locking people up, and wanted to spend the last part of his career changing kids trajectories before they got involved with the law.
Imagine saying that this organisation would be more efficient of it were subsumed by the government, so the CEO-equivalent could be paid 3x as much.
The CEO equivalent doesn't exist in government. Your entire argument is pointless.
Do you realize how little a CEO does?
Do you realize how little the actual money donated to an organization trickles down to the cause?
Do you realize that there are multiple charities for the same thing, which just means more and more waste?
In fact in pretty much every instance of a modern government taking over a service, it becomes cheaper and more efficient. That's why many governments run utilities, and healthcare.
Look I'm not saying your service is useless, but I am saying it would be more efficient elsewhere.
Sorry mate you're kind of embarrassing yourself a little bit here.
Of course the CEO equivalent exists in government. It's just a management position. Equivalent services will need equivalent management.
I've sat on hiring committees for CEO's. Refining their job descriptions and interviewing candidates. I know exactly what CEO's of non-profits and charities do. I suspect that you do not.
Perhaps you didn't read my comment. I've been a treasurer for a number of medium size charities. I know exactly how much money is needed to support the charities objectives.
In recent years grant funding for charities has been extraordinarily difficult to obtain. Often it's not indexed. Where grant funding is not indexed for a number of years, it becomes impossible to maintain the same services because wages and other costs are always getting more expensive. I've had to have that very difficult conversation with social workers - that their hours need to be reduced and as a result their client numbers will be cut. It's a ridiculous absurdity to suggest that volunteers like myself would be taking those measures without first seeking to maximise the efficiency of the entire organisation.
For example?
You're talking about public vs private institutions. That just doesn't make any sense applied to charities because they're already public institutions.
Sorry mate, this is just an absurd thought bubble borne of naivety. Get involved in a charity and you'll understand why it exists. Until then maybe just start with the assumption that the people who are involved have a better understanding of it's context and it's objectives and how best to serve those objectives than you do. It's incredible arrogant to suppose that entire organisations ought not to exist because the people involved just haven't realised how inefficient they are. Seriously, pull your head out of your ass.
A CEO is not a manager. You're already embarrassing yourself here 😉
I did read your comment, but I kinda assumed you either were lying or getting really defensive. There's a lot of waste that wouldn't exist if they were consolidated into the government.
Yeah sure, since it's already been brought to. The red cross does blood donations, but they're only 35% of America's non profit blood donations, there's also America's blood centers and vitalent and more! So much overhead! If they were all one organization, you could eliminate much of the overhead and more effectively coordinate the blood donations.
Sorry mate, but you've got your head up your ass and you're getting defensive.
I have been involved in both charities and government.
Goodness me. One of us is certainly getting defensive. There's not much point continuing this. Feel free to have the last word while continuing to assume anyone with a better understanding than you is a liar.
I mean you attacked me because you didn't like a logical, obvious, critique of something. Which again, I never said it was bad, I just said it could be improved. And you said things that I just repeated back at you, and now you can't handle your own words?
Goodness me indeed.
On the contrary. Many charities benefit from volunteer work hours that simply would not be possible on a normal government contract. The efficiency of some charities simply cannot be matched by State institutions, as people don't want to volunteer working for the state.
Some volunteer positions could possibly be replaced with well-paying jobs to lower unemployment rates at the benefit of the economy, but people also get a sense of purpose from volunteering. The charitable economy ran by volunteering and donations is an incredible asset for any society, no matter how great the social security net is. And in my experience, a better security net is often correlated with more charity.
That's not to say shitty charities don't exist. But good luck financing all the activities of the Red Cross through a state budget, paying everyone for their work.
So first off, you can totally volunteer for government things. I mean, I can volunteer at my local government library for instance, there's nothing about a government contract that removes the ability to volunteer.
But I wouldn't need to have volunteers if the red cross and all competing charities were swallowed up into one thing.
There are a bunch of organizations that do the same or part of what the red cross does. That's a lot of wasted time of resources, that would be better spent lumped together as a collective unit.
Charity is simply one of the places you absolutely don't want competition/capitalism. You want oversight and efficiency, that's the government.