Helping the Hungry- Libertarian style

During the holiday season, a lot of people talk about charity and doing good for others. There are the obviously legitimate organizations that di a lot of good- Toys for Tots is one good example[1].

 Then, there are the ridiculous efforts, most notably "selfless Tuesday," when instead of actually going out and helping people, Facebook members were encouraged to change their profile picture from one of themselves to...something else (usually their dog).

This drew my ire almost as much as the morons who post status updates that read:

"Like this status if you wish cancer didn't exist! XOXOX) #badcancer #yolo."

In honor of selfless Tuesday, instead of ranting against the morons who posted the aforementioned statements, I decided to actually do something selfless. Yes, this meant that I was going to:

1.     Put on my boots

2.     Put on my gloves and coat

3.     Leave my computer

4.     Leave my house

5.     Drive to the grocery store

I originally got my idea from a priest I know.

There are a lot of homeless people where I live[2]. I don't want to give them money but I feel bad if they are actually hungry. I usually try to bring a bunch of leftovers and rolls whenever I leave a restaurant, but I typically don't keep Styrofoam containers of dinner in my car[3]. 

To mitigate this, I got granola bars and put them in my center console. This way I can offer any homeless people I see something at least without worrying they'll spend a dollar on drugs, alcohol, or prostitutes.

(I totally wish we could pay our politicians this way).

I shared it on Facebook (and yes, I refrained from adding #yolo). Friends shared it with their friends and eventually it caught on and others pledged to do the same.

I even promised to give a box of granola bars to whoever came by my apartment that they could keep in their cars. Most of my friends thought it was a great idea.

However, my cousin, the self-proclaimed socialist, in jest joked that what I was doing was very "un-libertarian."

I took this opportunity to educate him as to why it was quite the contrary and used it as a real-life example to show him how libertarians are not the cold-hearted capitalist pigs portrayed by the leftist media.

Libertarians are not anti-charity at all. In fact, the official stance on private charity vs. government-mandated charity is this, as found on the Libertarian Party's official website:

If the federal government's attempt at charity has been a dismal failure, private efforts have been much more successful. America is the most generous nation on earth. We already contribute more than $125 billion annually to charity. However, as we phase out inefficient government welfare, private charities must be able to step up and fill the void.

To help facilitate this transfer of responsibility from government welfare to private charity, the federal government should offer a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for contributions to private charities that provide social-welfare services. That is to say, if an individual gives a dollar to charity, he should be able to reduce his tax liability by a dollar.

(http://www.lp.org/issues/poverty-and-welfare)

Now, I don’t expect the government to reimburse me for those granola bars. For me, it was a personal decision and I had the money. I felt that I had an opportunity to directly help people while simultaneously knowing with utmost confidence that my charity is going directly to the people who need it.

I have worked with other private charities such as Habitat for Humanity as well as helped low-income people write and edit their resumes and cover letters. I routinely donate old furniture and clothes to reputable charities (I personally furnished a halfway house with my husband’s old furniture.[4])

As anyone who has every done charity work knows, there are few better feeling in this world than helping people help themselves. With private charities, the people are being directly helped and my tax dollars are not going to waste in the way that they would with government-mandated welfare, which has become a mismanaged, ill-advised bureaucratic nightmare.

Most people, even libertarians, want to help our fellow man. What we don’t like however, is being forced to pay taxes into a program that is widely abused and poorly managed, both fiscally and operationally. It’s time we let people help people again, and leave Big Government out of it.

Granola bars in the ol’ Grand Cherokee console:

[1] I know they do a great job, because I volunteered with it one year J I was an elf.

[2] I don’t live in the ‘hood- more like “’hood adjacent” or “yuppie ghetto.”

[3] I did one time and it took a month for the smell of chicken marsala to come out.

[4] After much debate, I decided against donating the Jessica Simpson Dukes of Hazard poster from 2005.