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Mississippi

Charity both ways

[Thursday: 3.5 miles; today: none]

I was cruising craigslist the other day, still looking at alternative old pickup trucks even after deciding that I can’t afford one right now.

Anyway, I came across an advertisement entitled “IN NEED” wherein a person, a single mom it said, was asking for a bit of help.  Food was running low and things were tight and it was unclear how it was all going to work out.

So I thought about that a bit and decided to send a reply.  I proposed to meet at the grocery store and I’d swipe my card for a few groceries.  That was agreed.  And so this evening I did just that and it all worked out fine.

These types of things are fraught with various perils in our modern world.  Probably not any more than what they were in any previous age, but we are proud and we don’t want entanglements, so it is hard both to ask for and to answer with.  I can see why some people think it is better that such things should be handled by the impersonal processes of the cold bureaucracy and government agency.

What happens if this person asking is some sort of scammer?  Or worse, lures me into some kind of danger?  What if they were to call me again at some future time and push for more?  On the other end, the asker is on the spot not only to step out and ask but to be gracious in accepting some form of assistance that is not what they wanted or really needed.

I had decided before our meeting that I really didn’t want to know what the groceries were.  It would be a bit strange if this person bought a cart load of cigarettes and beer.  But my desire to stay unentangled, shouldn’t it also extend to the other, to not leading them around like a child?

Like I say, it all turned out fine.  A pleasant looking young lady met me, she had already selected the groceries she wanted, just regular food, and we went to the checkout line and conversed a bit while things were bagged up.  Then I swiped my card and went on my way.

4 replies on “Charity both ways”

Cold impersonal bureaucracy has guidelines and standards in an attempt to be fair to all and prudent with resources.

We pay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes each year and it doesn’t all go where I’d like. But some goes to feed and clothe and heal children who never asked to be born – and I don’t have to know who and where they are for them to get it. That’s why I vote for those wishy washy liberals in November.

Our grandfather was cared for until his dying day with money from his neighbors. Taxpayers. As his taxes did for others before him. Not because he asked them directly, but because there was a system in place to attend to him and others like him. A bureaucracy.

I like this idea. We have various needs that crop up at church, some of which are real emergencies and some that are the result of bad personal choices. Then there are the legitimate needs where the person doesn’t want the entire church to know, for whatever reason. We find out accidentally about some of these; usually after the need has been met. It’s nice to be able to help when we can.

Jon, I agree to a large extent. There are some downsides to the bureaucracy method, the biggest one in my mind is a disconnect from those helping and the person being helped. It turns a fundamentally good act into just paying more taxes.

And secondarily, there’s always a layer of waste in a bureaucratic system, being a local government employee I’m allowed to say that :-).

But the “voluntary” method doesn’t work unless there is some sort of widely-understood social requirement to step up and contribute, short of taxes and jail.. which would then get us back to what we have. Our system removes charity, in it’s classic sense in exchange for a baseline of support. I suspect that saves lives in the long run.

I don’t travel much, but I recall in my San Diego days at the border with Mexico where kids spent their days selling chiclets by meandering among cars waiting to go through. That’s the third world and its a reminder of what we don’t see owing to social services. I feel good knowing we don’t have that as a systematic issue. I like to think that people can make dozens of kids when they can’t afford even one yet they all get a lunch at school.

Just like I feel good that kids in my neighborhood have access to the best schools, arguably world class. (I don’t have kids.) I live in a bubble called Marin County where people make a lot of money and pay a lot of taxes and sign up for additional taxes (education bonds financed by property taxes, etc.). If you move here you sign up for that. Of course, great schools keep property values up – so there is a return there in the larger picture. (In San Francisco you pay high taxes but kids go to private schools.)

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