| "I want to [know] their situation before I hand them my money". If you give to a charity how do you know who your money is going to and how it is being spent? Do you actively seek out the beneficiaries and make sure that they're getting a good deal? Apologies if that wasn't intended to be taken literally but I don't see what else you could mean. It baffles me that so many people complain about paying taxes but then happily throw money into the pot of a faceless organisation with the vague assumption that it will be put to good use. Is it because tax comes directly from wages whereas donating to charity involves an act of generosity? As for people "who don't work, have never worked, and probably never will" I again feel the need to point out that this is probably a small minority. Those who survive on a government cheque will rarely lead a comfortable life, so any notion of them strutting aroung flashing their cash should be put to bed immediately. Whilst I concede that they need to be encouraged to work, removing the financial safety net could potentially strip them of what most of us would consider to be fairly basic necessities - access to food, clean water, accommodation, etc. As I see it, the problem here is that whilst there probably is some co-operation between a number of charities, they are still too disparate and, above all, collectively distanced from the government. The result is an uneven distribution of finances leading to hugely disproportionate budgets, allowing some charities to address certain, often more "popular", issues whilst others go entirely overlooked. At the very least governments should work with charities to even the odds, perhaps by facilitating outreach programmes or by helping to raise awareness of issues. I would happily go one step further though and suggest that charities should be incorporated into governments. Charities would then benefit from guaranteed financial input; people like yourself would have no complaints as to how their taxes were spent; additional government funding could be supplied; and we would see a far more co-ordinated charitable effort. |
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