Holiday Myths: Giving to Charity

[The_Q]

'Tis the season for weight gain, party music, drunken slobs, gift giving (and receiving, you can't forget receiving), and most of all, the sense of charity that encompases all of us who believe in doing good for the common man.

Which is why I decided to make this thread. Like many holiday traditions, the tradition of holiday charities is all mixed up with morality and contains only small fragments of logic. The worst case scenario of these mxed up holiday customs is giving to charity.

Charity is a great idea that went the way of stupidity. For one thing, there are way too many kinds of charities that just don't work out well, but only three can really be discussed here. These three would happen to be Abstinence, Donation, and Volunteer. All three of these are very common forms of charity that just work out better if they are performed less frequently.

The worst logic in all of these would have to be Abstinence. In Abstinence you abstain from participating in certain activities (buying a turkey) so that the prices of that activity drop enough for the poor to participate in it in your own stead. The sad part about this is that the person who participates in Abstinence is obviously not thinking about the people who do NOT participate in Abstinence. These people just see lower prices and jump on them, just like good consumers do, and end up making the prices remain constant. In order for Abstinence to work, all consumers must participate in it. Thankfully, this doesn't happen. The most horrid part of this method is that the participant automatically assumes that the poor want to have a turkey but can't because they all can't afford it. This is what they base their price drop scheme on (that the poor need lower prices in order to buy things). In actuallity, the best method that looks only slightly similar to Abstinance but is infinately more simple than coordinating a mass boycott. Raising the price beyond that which a consumer above poverty level would want to buy it for. When a gallon of water is seven dollars, the middle class and rich will not buy it and complain of higher prices. When all that water is left, the poor will humbly pay seven bucks a pop for their water. If you want it to go who it matters to, make sure you charge too much.

Another mythical form of charity is Donation. Sure Donation seems to work well, but so did Abstinence, didn't it? Not donating, in fact, is more helpful than donating. Let's say that a man donates a dollar to the Salvation Army. What could he have done with his dollar instead of having it sent to the needy straight away? He could have bought a candy bar from Kwik-E-Mart and enjoyed the chocolatey goodness. Apu, the owner of Kwik-E-Mart then decides to spend his extra dollar in buying his children toys. Toys R Us uses the extra dollar to buy cotton (for packaging. I don't know, really ). The cotton manufacturer spends it's extra dollar buying more cotton (duh). The cotton picker spends his extra dollar buying his family a Christmas dinner. The cycle goes onward and onward, benefiting more people than if it went directly to the cause.

Lastly, we have Volunteer. This is basically Donation but instead of money you use hours of your life (which is more precious, something you can make up or hours of your life, an unrenewable resource?). Would you rather spend that extra hour working hard for nothing or being productive and getting paid overtime. Etc. It's just the same, but people consider it entirely different and it is therefore addressed differently.

There you have it, the lies of the holidays! Well, not all of them, just the most disgusting and hypocritical. At least, in my opinion.

Merry Christmas, Hannuka, Kwanza, and whatever holiday you might be celebrating right now! Just don't do charity work!

Q