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@Sadderp@mindly.socialClement Attlee said: “Charity is a cold grey loveless thing. If a rich man wants to help the poor, he should pay his taxes gladly, not dole out money at a whim.” As we hurtle towards 2025, perhaps it is time our society edged towards such progress. Modern Britain should not be run like the final pages of A Christmas Carol, in which Tiny Tim must rely on Scrooge waking up in a good mood to be permitted to live. Donate to a good cause this Christmas, please. But don’t forget the unseasonal truth: every time a charity helps a person find food or clothes, it is a sign of government failure.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/23/britain-victorian-christmas-charity-state-social-economic-problems?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
#foodbanks #povertyisapoliticalchoice
@Sadderp I'm in two minds about this. I think there are many signs that government has always failed regular people; that it's a self-serving thing only. I wonder if we could do better without it.
I don't think this will ever happen, and even if it did it would require regular people to be a lot more grown-up.
But if we ever reached that point, we'd definitely need charity, or something like it — it is, after all, supposed to be a virtue.
@fishidwardrobe
I have always believed there should never be a case for any charitable organisations.
It just shows a failure with government and society.
@Sadderp That's a fair point, but if we can't *fix* government and society, then what? It might be a baby/bathwater scenario
@Sadderp @fishidwardrobe i mean, the government kinda is a charity? - we "donate" our money to an organisation of people that is supposed to do their best to provide common good.
im not sure i see any specific issues with governments funding charities that are doing good work :)
@fishidwardrobe
Why in the UK is there Cancer Research and the Heart Foundation?
Surely government should be paying to research cancer cures and heart problems?
@Sadderp Well, two separate questions. Should they be independent? yes. should the govt give them (our) money? also yes.
@Sadderp
Hardly likely in UK with Mr Greedy hooving up freebies as fast as he can go...
He emulates the pre ghost Scrooge better than the original...
@Sadderp We should tax charity out of existence.
@Sadderp Charity exists as privatized control of who gets things they need, and what they have to do to get it.
@Sadderp I'm not sure taxes go to the poor as much as they go to rich military industrialists, at least in my country (US).
That said, I recoil at tax avoidance strategies. They strike me as fundamentally dishonest and smell of responsibility shirking.
And yet, I contribute as much as I can pre-tax to my retirement fund.
I wish the tax code was simpler while still being (smoothly) progressive.
"every time a charity helps a person find food or clothes, it is a sign of government failure."
This needs to be a cross-stitch. & also branded on the foreheads of anyone in the 5%
Introducing a flat tax is like socially returning to the Middle Ages.
It means the poor will carry the largest burden, and the rich will no longer carry their fair share.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch really does not read the room well.
Once citizens realize that they have been taken for a ride and that they have been defrauded, they will react.
... and not use his influence to destroy all the social progress of the last 100 years, and Wikipedia too...