Why was it ever alright to rely on charitable donations? If a program is important for society we should ensure it’s socially funded. I absolutely loathe charity culture - I’d prefer we just raise taxes and make sure there aren’t shortfalls for important programs.
It’s kind of how the US is lauded for how much they donate per capita… when GoFundMe is the largest provider of “medical insurance”. I don’t want to dump on charity, or people who are proud of how much they donate, but I also want to emphasize that charity shouldn’t ever be necessary.
Hasan Minhaj Patriot Act: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS9CFBlLOcg
For a lot of super rich people, donations in the US is a tax dodge.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=mS9CFBlLOcg
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
If a program is important for society we should ensure it’s socially funded.
Trouble is that its importance may not be known or understood until a charitable donator proves it is importance to society. The average person focused on making ends meet doesn’t usually have the energy to ponder bigger picture things. They need to see it to realize its importance.
Once the average person who holds the majority rule in our democracy gets it, that may be where said majority should step in and push for a public funding role, but at that point it is also really easy to just sit back and the let the donator continue.
Tragedy of the commons, I suppose.
“There’s still a deep justification of continuing to grow endowments, and paying out very little, while those endowments are inextricably linked to the very things that are causing a lot of the catastrophes,” says Murphy, from the Transition Resource Circle.
That’s pretty gross.
There’s a weird tension: without charity, a bunch of people won’t get food. But charity fills a gap that Canadians expect the government to fill.
Canadaland had a great op-ed about politicians doing photo ops at foodbanks around Christmas. In a lot of cases, the politicians own policies could alleviate the need for foodbanks, but the photo-op is easier.
Yes, but it shouldn’t be relied on as a society for basic needs. Sure, have a park-oriented tree planting day, which is as much philanthropic as it is community outreach. But if parks would have zero trees if we had zero volunteers, then the public parks branch is broken.
