Being anti-charity

[Laurens]

Just as a brief disclaimer, I don't actually hold the views I am about to express:

Most people would say that charity is a good thing and necessary. There are those however who are against it. At first you might be like "wait, what?", but they do have reasons that are based in ethics.

For example they might argue that charity is simply a treatment of the symptoms of social ills, whereas we should be addressing the root causes of social inequality and problems. Some might even say that charity gets in the way of us attempting to solve the root of the problem. In some ways I agree with this, I think we should aim for a society with no homelessness for example, but obviously I wouldn't want charity to cease providing help to homeless people. We need charity, but we shouldn't let it stop us from trying to tackle the root causes.

In some sense it serves the state, because the state can allow homelessness to persist in the knowledge that charities will help people out. Perhaps a solution would be for charities to put more pressure on the government to address root causes, rather than being there to pick up the pieces for the state.

Do you think being against charity is a valid position to hold? Why/why not?

 

[Dragan Glas]

Greetings,

As you say, Laurens, I think charity should continue alongside solving the root causes of problems. It's all very well for people to say they're against charity, and give reasons for such, but unless the causes are addressed, charity is still needed.

The main problem is government policies: policies which divide the community into "haves" and "have nots", into "us" and "them", which marginalise or increase marginalisation of part of the community, are bad policies - those which unite the community, are good policies.

NGOs and charities spring up due to bad policies creating socio-economic problems where the government fails to address the policies' fall-out.

If policies were better thought out, there'd be fewer socio-economic issues, and - as a result - less or no need for NGOs, and charity.

Kindest regards,

James

 

[nemesiss]

Here is another reason for being anti-charity:

The amount given to the charity vs the amount spend.
There are a lot of money to goes to a charity, but how much is actually spend on what it lobbying for.

For example:
you give 100 dollars for a charity that would help provide water purification systems in Africa, but only 2 dollars is actually spend on that.
The other 98 dollars was spend on:
-salaries
-housing
-promotion
-travel expenses of people (not for the actual goal)
-anything else not related

This can be reason enough for some people to not give money to certain charities.

 

[thenexttodie]

Here is another reason for being anti-charity:

The amount given to the charity vs the amount spend.
There are a lot of money to goes to a charity, but how much is actually spend on what it lobbying for.

Follow the money.