Author Topic: Charity Doesn't Solve Anything (Read 4381 times)

Ben · « **on:** October 17, 2010, 10:40:17 AM »

...According to the world's richest man. Obama should give him a call.

http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2010/10/15/worlds-richest-man-charity-doesnt-solve-anything/

TommyGunn · « **Reply #1 on:** October 17, 2010, 01:10:28 PM »

Oh, like THAT'S gonna happen!!!

It should .... but it won't....

sanglant · « **Reply #2 on:** October 17, 2010, 07:10:04 PM »

he's half right, charity doesn't help people that don't want helped.

the whole give a man a fish/teach a man to fish thing.

RoadKingLarry · « **Reply #3 on:** October 17, 2010, 10:32:24 PM »

Build a man a fire and he's warm for a night.
Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.

Seriously, I don't have a problem with giving someone a hand up.
I'm pretty well done with hand outs.

KD5NRH · « **Reply #4 on:** October 18, 2010, 12:31:46 AM »

Quote from: RoadKingLarry on October 17, 2010, 10:32:24 PM

Seriously, I don't have a problem with giving someone a hand up.
I'm pretty well done with hand outs.

Exactly. IMO, though, he's overlooking some special cases of charity where it does what it should; properly designed scholarships, extra funding for foster care to provide kids with a proper environment that encourages learning and self-sufficiency, and occasionally grants to startup businesses. All three put people on a path to providing for themselves.

tyme · « **Reply #5 on:** October 18, 2010, 01:16:32 AM »

Vaccines, too..

Does public education itself count as a charity? If so, we have charity to thank for the contributions of many productive scientists and businesspersons.

MicroBalrog · « **Reply #6 on:** October 18, 2010, 04:11:33 AM »

Quote from: tyme on October 18, 2010, 01:16:32 AM

Does public education itself count as a charity? If so, we have charity to thank for the contributions of many productive scientists and businesspersons.

A story is told of a traveller bold
Who, being in want of food,
Cut off and ate the tail of his hound,
Returned him the bone, and strangely found
The brute had no gratitude!

De Selby · « **Reply #7 on:** October 18, 2010, 04:22:31 AM »

I guess gifts from the government in the form of sweetheart contracts and monopolies don't count as charity, even though they aren't really payment for work.

I love it when beneficiaries of the largest state welfare programs in the world go on record about hard work and developing business.

MechAg94 · « **Reply #8 on:** October 18, 2010, 10:42:47 AM »

Quote from: De Selby on October 18, 2010, 04:22:31 AM

I love it when beneficiaries of the largest state welfare programs in the world go on record about hard work and developing business.

You do have to ask sometimes what business some people are actually in. Some people claim to be businessman and not politicians, then you realize they made their money on govt contracts so you have to wonder if they were actually a good businessman or just a good politician.

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #9 on:** October 18, 2010, 05:15:20 PM »

Quote from: tyme on October 18, 2010, 01:16:32 AM

Does public education itself count as a charity?

No.

Quote from: De Selby on October 18, 2010, 04:22:31 AM

I guess gifts from the government in the form of sweetheart contracts and monopolies don't count as charity, even though they aren't really payment for work.

No, they don't.

What the frog?

MechAg94 · « **Reply #10 on:** October 18, 2010, 07:20:09 PM »

Yeah, I guess charity and graft/corruption are not supposed to be the same thing.

Public schooling can be a form of govt handout or charity if the people using it aren't paying the taxes that fund it.

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #11 on:** October 18, 2010, 07:23:07 PM »

No, taxes and tax-subsidized services are not charity. Period. End of sentence. No really I mean it.

Ron · « **Reply #12 on:** October 18, 2010, 07:28:46 PM »

It isn't charity if you are using someone else's money. That is called redistribution of wealth.

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #13 on:** October 18, 2010, 09:14:24 PM »

Quote

It isn't charity if you are using someone else's money. That is called redistribution of ~~wealth~~ property.

We've got to stop calling it wealth. That connotes that only the wealthy are being preyed upon.

De Selby · « **Reply #14 on:** October 19, 2010, 12:51:41 AM »

Quote from: Fistful on October 18, 2010, 07:23:07 PM

No, taxes and tax-subsidized services are not charity. Period. End of sentence. No really I mean it.

Charity depends on the giving, not the taking.

If someone robs a bank, and then a year later gives cash to an orphanage, that's still charity...charity pertains to the gift, not the acquisition of money.

On reflection, it wouldn't be strictly charity that made Slim a billionaire, but he's certainly in no position to lecture the world on handouts versus hard work.

AZRedhawk44 · « **Reply #15 on:** October 19, 2010, 01:54:04 AM »

Charity is an act of voluntary sacrifice.

Anything taken by the tax man is taken ultimately by gun point, using the State's monopoly of force as justification. That is not charity.

The State has absolutely no right to ever call any of its actions, charitable.

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #16 on:** October 19, 2010, 06:48:02 AM »

Quote from: De Selby on October 19, 2010, 12:51:41 AM

Charity depends on the giving, not the taking. If someone robs a bank, and then a year later gives cash to an orphanage, that's still charity...charity pertains to the gift, not the acquisition of money.

It is not about the source of the money. Government is not a charity organization.

TommyGunn · « **Reply #17 on:** October 19, 2010, 11:21:33 AM »

Quote from: De Selby on October 19, 2010, 12:51:41 AM

Charity depends on the giving, not the taking.

If someone robs a bank, and then a year later gives cash to an orphanage, that's still charity...charity pertains to the gift, not the acquisition of money.

On reflection, it wouldn't be strictly charity that made Slim a billionaire, but he's certainly in no position to lecture the world on handouts versus hard work.

Actually the orphanage would be guilty of receiving stolen goods.
If you do not have the right to acquire the money you do not have the right to dispense it, no matter how "charitable" your intents are.

longeyes · « **Reply #18 on:** October 19, 2010, 12:37:59 PM »

Real "charity" is about empowering others, not making them dependent.

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #19 on:** October 19, 2010, 09:54:45 PM »

Education, undeserved govt. contracts, monopolies - if those are charity, then what isn't? Law enforcement? The military? Standardizing weights and measures? Roads? Customs enforcement?

grampster · « **Reply #20 on:** October 19, 2010, 10:36:24 PM »

Hey I deduct every dime I take in as a charitable contribution, especially the taxes withheld since Obama is giving to po fok. It must be an act of charity when I give my money to a merchant. I don't have to, so it must be charity, no?

sanglant · « **Reply #21 on:** October 19, 2010, 11:23:03 PM »

oh, the geithner method.

Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas · « **Reply #22 on:** October 19, 2010, 11:25:25 PM »

Quote from: Fistful on October 19, 2010, 06:48:02 AM

It is not about the source of the money. Government is not a charity organization.

You'd better tell them that.

MicroBalrog · « **Reply #23 on:** October 20, 2010, 03:45:38 AM »

Quote from: MechAg94 on October 18, 2010, 07:20:09 PM

Yeah, I guess charity and graft/corruption are not supposed to be the same thing.

Public schooling can be a form of govt handout or charity if the people using it aren't paying the taxes that fund it.

Not if they don't have the choice.

Behold, the charity of the state.

It probably isn't charity if you need to force people to accept it at gunpoint.

Nitrogen · « **Reply #24 on:** October 20, 2010, 04:06:18 AM »

The greatest charity you can give a man is an opportunity.
--Don King (at least I have it attributed to him)

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Author Topic: Charity Doesn't Solve Anything (Read 4381 times)