i've an English Conversation class this afternoon and thought some of you may be able to help me…. i may be playing Devil's Advocate a little here, too.

with the Band-Aid thing in the news recently it raised the question: should we give our money to others?

by giving do we not encourage or exasberate a problem that, if given time, would be sorted out via means of natural selection or regional governments?

one of the reasons africa keeps starving is because there are too many africans.
70-92% of US aid to Ethiopia was food aid – almost all of which was US surplus grain. does this aid lead to a society that doesn't need to take care of itself? does this not allow the governments to spend more time and money on fighting tribal wars?

and how much of our money goes into administration? i worked for a charity knocking on doors collecting for an animal home. i was entitled to keep 40% of everything collected. i didn't stay long.

or on a scale closer to home. in developed western countries should it not be the job of local authorities to look after unfortunates who have come to live on the streets? is it not a grave failing of our societies that they relie upon charities to look after the less-well off, the old and sick.

should we not concentrate first on sorting out those problems closer to home before pitily sending money and food off to far awar places where we don't know what the underlying causes are?

Interesting points there alpin, I'm sure you'll be picked apart by the mob soon. Personally I donate to things like the RNLI, mountain rescue and animal charities, that's it.

thanks Coffeking, but like i said…. Devil's advocate 'n all that….

by admitting that no-one will bite

coffeeking, +1 there. I give to the RNLI, RAFBF, RBL and RDA (Coincidence that they all start with R!) Mountain rescue and Air Ambulance always get a few coins en passant as well.

There are a lot of charities who spend a whole load of money on self promotion and shiny offices etc rather than on the actual cause they were there to deliver. IMHO, of course.

Now what should I spend this 10 quid on? Some starving mother and child (who let's face it probably deserve to die because they were really stupid and were born in Africa, or were just too lazy to get born somewhere decent), or stress counselling and a bag of carrots for a donkey in Devon.
Tough call 🙂

Donkey is just as deserving. I try not to assume humans are anything better than animals in general, and if anything they're more capable of adapting and survival. Captive animals that have been beaten to a mess by humans or are in a place where it's impossible to survive because we put them there – they're the ones that I'll feed. And RNLI/ MR etc for me because I feel I have some responsibility to cover the "safety blanket" that I may one day come to rely on.

I only tend to give personally these days
People with a bucket/collecting tin & sometimes an odd quid to beggars but I see very few of those

All this "£2/month stuff turns me off" & I could happily slap chuggers

Charitable giving is quite an interesting one from an economics theory viewpoint where people are inherently selfish and only engage in an activity because they derive some benefit from it.

You never really know if what you donate does any good but you still get a slight 'warm glow' feeling through being altruistic.

What I HATE is when you set up a standing order to a charity then they call you asking for more. My wife gets this all the time

Also we recently consolidated our outgoings as she is on maternity leave and money is a bit scarce so they kept her on the line for ages trying to get her to keep something set up.

(Cancer Research UK and NSPCC it is you two I am talking about).

charity takes pressure off governements and international agencies to solve the problem

also delays world socialism (this is a good line for chuggers!!)

i owuld rather 1000 donkeys starved to give a homeless man a bed but maybe i'm mental!

The Southern Yeti – Member

Charitable giving is quite an interesting one from an economics theory viewpoint where people are inherently selfish and only engage in an activity because they derive some benefit from it.

Let us remember that the main purpose of American aid is not to help other nations but to help ourselves.

US President Richard Nixon, 1968

what's 'chuggers' mean?

what's 'chuggers' mean?

Charity muggers

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2090680.stm

Charity Muggers, the guys who hassle you on the street.

Is it just me or do 'chuggers' put you all off actually giving at all? I don't need some student telling me that rabbits are being used as nazi spies in Iraqi nuclear bombs.

Most of us have our pet charities – whilst animals are not on the same level as people IMO(!) I don't have a problem with people donating to those sorts of places – but I assume that more money overall goes to people ones. My Gran gave money to Guide Dogs for the Blind which is a nice one. As for hungry people in Africa, well many of us see them as much human as ee are so allowing natural selection to do it's thing seems wrong. But maybe we're passing on our values to them as I am lead to believe that they have lots of kids as they expect some to die young. So if we want to stop them dying we also should be encouraging them to reproduce less – but then that;s interference in their culture so that's wrong?

Alpin: Which charity allowed you to keep 40% – that's shocking.

I do give to charity, but tend to be selective – never give in the street or to anyone who doorsteps me – I select the charity rather than being "guilted" into giving.

I make a point of not signing up to anything in the street or at the door, if only to not encourage the charity into thinking these methods are a good idea.

The chuggers I hate the most are those that come into pubs, if I had a pound for every time I've made myself look a right c**t for not donating to those sh1ts….

some animal charity in Perth, Australia. it was – from my perspecive – a money making scam.

local charity – yes.

foreign aid – no.

Please feel free to give money to charity but do not expect or ask for others to do the same.

I work part time for a charity that oddly receives funding from other charity's for it's own funding (and some police forces, social services and a few other agencies).
My wife works full time for a charity. If you feel the need, all amounts gratefully received. It costs approximately £7,000,000 per year to keep doing what it does.
http://www.sah.org.uk/

My wife and I are in the process of setting up a charity specifically to fund research into sarcoma. There are other charities that fund the same thing, but dilute their funding with pretty high salaries and other areas such as emotional support and awareness. Don't get me wrong- the last two are very important, but my feeling is that without hard data into finding a cure/treatment, the funding that goes towards support doesn't mean much. There are many other charities in the field of cancer that deal with that side of things.

I have been giving £10 a month to Greenpeace since the French secret service blew up one of their ships in Auckland Harbor. If I could find a way to steal this money off the French every month….

I'll bite and extend alpin's already rather taught analogy:

What if we stopped funding hospitals ? Surveys show that loads of the cash goes to middle managers and consultants, and that there is a high rate of recidivism, people that go to a hospital once tend to become dependant on them. If we stopped funding them the long term gains in terms of only allowing the healthy to breed would result in a much more vigorous society.

(all the above said with heavy sarcasm for the internet novices out there)

Flip! I've just looked at my own link – They need £16,000 per day!

i will not donate to certain charities where i think we are just letting the government off the hook – operations for people in other countries for example- why pay for the NHS and then donate? Hospices are another example where I wont help out – believe the NHS should fund this as well.

I agree that charity may enable certain people – say homeless to stay on the streets etc but is that not a case of just trying to help out those unfortunate types who have fallen on hard times?

It may be usefull to help NGO do usefull stuff – Greenpeace , Amnesty International, Medice sans frontier for eg where any givt would struggle to be as objective /controversial/borderless as these organisations.
I doubt any of us have the stomach for watching darwinian evolution at work with say disabled children

We may argue that a fiver sent abroad will do more good – clean water , education etc than a fiver spent in the west.

RNLI, mainly because a couple of very attracive girls asked me if I would. Just to show I'm not that shallow I explained it to the wife (who turned up mid conversation) that as we spend a fair amount of time at the seaside the kids may benefit at some point before they learnt common sense.

My father was the first to benefit, aged 70 he thought it would be smart to take his dingy out without fixing the mast first – looks like common sense takes a while to learn.

As a general response, the older I get the more tempted I am to donate, mainly because the number of genetic illnesses in the family become more apparent…. although Help for Heros gets some too

i hate the guilt collectors outside supermarkets.if people want to give then surely they will?? (and i do) once i came out of the supermarket and a guy asked me for a donation, i said "sorry ive only go my credit card" (truth) to which the cheaky git sarcasticly said " oh well, ill remember to bring my card swipe machine next week!" should i always leave the house with a few quid in case i get asked to donate!!

Also the guy i a rabit suit that was collecting on a sea front pier for an animal charity.just as i walked past with my kids (enthralled by anyone in a rabbit suit) he popps the head off,just as his mate rocks up with a pint for him, lights a fag and starts effin and blinding to him about the heat.toe rag.

Junkyard – NHS pays for the services it uses at the hospice but then again, the hopsice does umpteem things NHS wouldn't even begin to consider.

The chuggers I hate the most are those that come into pubs, if I had a pound for every time I've made myself look a right c**t for not donating to those sh1ts….

I was once told I would go to hell by one of these collectors because I refused to give.

NICE.

oh and for what its worth i mainly give to chidrens charitys.adults can get them selves in some right pickles , but kids are just ainnocent and should never have to suffer.

What I HATE is when you set up a standing order to a charity then they call you asking for more. My wife gets this all the time

I used to get this from Cancer Research. Once my mum was there, who has had a serious bout of cancer and she went stoney faced and kept saying 'don't give them any more!'. I chose cancer research precisely because my family has been affected by it a lot…

Chuggers in some of the smarter parts of That London's Famous London have adopted rather interesting tactics of late. Buxom young ladies in low cut tops chugging in pubs of an evening. Collection box nestled in between…..

We certainly shouldn't be giving money to nations who have Space Programs ffs.

Money given to Africa is insignificant compared to what we give to EC farmers.
Now, by giving do we not encourage or exasberate a problem that, if given time, would be sorted out via means of natural selection or regional governments?

Right… why just stop at ending charity, get rid of the NHS and let all natural selection get to work on our own population. The disparity in mortality rates between the North and the South will hopefully mean a lot less whinging Northerners on here, for starters. Add to that all those chavs that are breeding ten a penny and weakening the gene pool who'll probably only see one of their brats survive, and this nation may be blue blood great again!

Yours truly,

CallmeDave.

the hopsice does umpteem things NHS wouldn't even begin to consider.

Chicken adn egg I think
I value the work and service they do and think it should be state funded as it is that important hence I wont pay for charity – can see your point of view though clearly

exacerbate

i was once told by a amnesty international chugger that i didn't believe in human rights as i wouldn't give them any money!