printI suspect wily parties may be scamming private charities on a regular basis. I don’t have proof beyond what I observed on the one occasion. And I don’t know to what degree generalizations beyond this occasion are warranted.
In any event, what we saw turned us off donating food to our local food bank, which promises to supplement local, elderly pensioners. The latter, no doubt, will be hurt by our decision—but primarily by those who capitalize on the generosity of Americans.
We bought a boatload of non-perishable food for said food bank. Driving by to drop the stuff off, we observed a number of Hispanics (I’ll go out on a limb and venture that they are here illegally) waiting in line. I would gladly send a charitable donation to Mexico, if they returned there. As it is, they drain local medical, educational, and law enforcement services, for which I already pay.
I’m not forking over twice.
At this point, open-border libertarians will chime in with their gold standard non sequitur for belittling the burden of illegal immigration on the American taxpayer. Living at the public’s expense, they will allow, does indeed violate the rights of taxpayers. But why single out non-nationals? Is it any less of a violation of the taxpayer’s rights for native-born individuals to suck at the public teat?
To quote, “From the fact that you oppose taxpayer-funded welfare for nationals, it doesn’t follow that extending it to millions of unviable non-nationals is financially or morally negligible. (Or that it comports with the libertarian aim of curtailing government growth.) The argument is like declaring that because a bank has been robbed by one band of bandits, arresting the next is unnecessary because the damage has already been done.”
Back to the food bank queue. Another interesting specter was a worthy Asian gentleman, reasonably well-dressed, ample empty and sturdy bags in hand, who parked his relatively new vehicle, and entered the establishment to collect what I was about to drop off.
Again: No thanks.
We’d like to have a greater amount of control over our donations. So we’ve decided to bypass the iffy middle men and give the food stuff to an American family we know. They need it, will be glad to accept it, and won’t begrudge us for being the “oppressors” we are.
The trouble is that in order to have low overhead, a soup kitchen needs to hand the chowder to all comers whether poor deserving citizens or Bill Gates or non citizens… – wholesale large scale ripoffs, of course, are not excusable. If the charity has high overhead, then they become quasi-governmental and waste most of their money that way. Speaking of ripoffs, the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington (which I had already heard bad news about) put a lot of its money into the dubious private hedge/derivative funds of Bernie Madoff instead of spending it on charity – well, I know who NOT to give to! As far as charities go, the Salvation Army seems one of the better ones. If Pepe the Wetback or Warren Buffett get an “unauthorized” free doughnut, so be it.
I too am tired of getting ripped off by those that would take advantage of me. We all need to do some due diligence before we give our money to so-called charities. On my blog I wrote about being taken for a sucker by a company sponsored adopt-a-family program. Social Services assured us that the families were “truly needy.”
Stunned.
That was my reaction a few years ago as I approached a Goodwill drop location after dark. It was an unattended trailer at the end of a strip center in an affluent area of town. The parking lot lights were out. As I approached the trailer in my car I noticed about six or seven figures milling around in the shadows. It was not until the car’s headlights illuminated the scene that I realized what was happening.
The figures were Hispanics.
They were looting the donations that had been left out as the location was closed.
I no longer give to charity because of this.
I give directly to those in need.
My grandmother told me a very instructive story about charity when I was a child:
During the late 1930’s before marrying my grandfather, she was a working girl and supporting herself during the Depression. One weekend she managed to scrape a few extra pennies together and decided to go to see a movie to take her mind off her troubles. As she was walking to the theater, a man approached her and asked if she had any money to spare because he had not eaten in several days.
Grandmama decided he must be even more down on his luck than she was, so she handed him her movie ticket money, and he departed. She walked down the street window shopping and in a few minutes reached the theater where she had planned to attend the movie. There in line at the ticket window was the very same “hungry” bum to whom she had just given her movie money!
The Victorians were correct to draw a distinction between the deserving and undeserving poor.