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Saturday morning newspaper conversation
Jun. 21st, 2008 11:16 amI love the internet and my laptop. It means I can read the 'paper in bed AND converse with people about the ideas and thoughts I have been prompted to have by reading an article.
This Saturday's topic is prompted by this article about giving money to charity, or, as the article put it, philanthropy.
Mhy instantaneous response to some charities, is "why isn't the government providing sufficient money for services for; disabled people, poor people, children's hospitals etc" so I don't give those charities my money, and vow that I will write to the government asking for more money on their behalf instead. but I don't.
Charities that raise money to give books and uniforms to school kids are similar - schools shouldn't have uniforms and should set themselves up so kids don't need textbooks either. Textbooks usually just a means for the teacher to slack off and fail to think about how to make a topic interesting to students. So I don't give money to those charities.
[Clarification] My experience with using, buying (and selling) high school textbooks suggests that schools don't often think about the costs to families of these items. They have been variously; unreasonably expensive, unused in class, or changed from one year to the next, making them worthless. I think when I say "kids don't need textbooks" , I should have said, "kids don't need to own textbooks" . Saying that teachers using textbooks are slack, was a piece of unreasonable hyperbole, and I'm sorry if I offended anyone.
The big disasters? They should be coordinated by a central agency (just one) and should be paid for from the government aid budget. Take my taxes - please!
Then there's the small stuff - wells, chickens, goats etc. in poor countries or countries adversly affected by global warming. I'm more comfortable with the multitude of aid agencies and all the different ways they have of getting your money off you and the countries and causes they promote. So I occasionally give money to those.
This Saturday's topic is prompted by this article about giving money to charity, or, as the article put it, philanthropy.
Mhy instantaneous response to some charities, is "why isn't the government providing sufficient money for services for; disabled people, poor people, children's hospitals etc" so I don't give those charities my money, and vow that I will write to the government asking for more money on their behalf instead. but I don't.
Charities that raise money to give books and uniforms to school kids are similar - schools shouldn't have uniforms and should set themselves up so kids don't need textbooks either. Textbooks usually just a means for the teacher to slack off and fail to think about how to make a topic interesting to students. So I don't give money to those charities.
[Clarification] My experience with using, buying (and selling) high school textbooks suggests that schools don't often think about the costs to families of these items. They have been variously; unreasonably expensive, unused in class, or changed from one year to the next, making them worthless. I think when I say "kids don't need textbooks" , I should have said, "kids don't need to own textbooks" . Saying that teachers using textbooks are slack, was a piece of unreasonable hyperbole, and I'm sorry if I offended anyone.
The big disasters? They should be coordinated by a central agency (just one) and should be paid for from the government aid budget. Take my taxes - please!
Then there's the small stuff - wells, chickens, goats etc. in poor countries or countries adversly affected by global warming. I'm more comfortable with the multitude of aid agencies and all the different ways they have of getting your money off you and the countries and causes they promote. So I occasionally give money to those.
