Isn’t there a way we could tap into people’s philanthropic side without doing something intrinsically useless, like having a bunch of fourth graders walk around the school parking lot eight times? FULL ARTICLE by Robert Murphy
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/11621/the-race-against-government/
The Race Against Government
Previous post: voluntary socialism versus human nature
Next post: Change Your Mind
{ 16 comments }
Excellent idea; I wonder how it differs from a charity carwash? Have there ever been charity carwash crackdowns? Here’s my complementary contribution from this past summer: http://mises.org/daily/3477.
The person ringing the bell, for the most part, is not donating her time, nor is she doing it in the location of her choice. This is a part-time job for many, and they go where they are told to go. $8/hour is what I have heard people get.
I thoroughly enjoyed this article Mr. Murphy! May I also add that the labor laws you speak about not only directly hinder a charity’s ability to raise money through productive means, but also indirectly hinder it by hindering the volunteers’ ability to earn practical experience to get better paying jobs…thus further holding back each charity’s ability to earn more in the future.
I think many, if not most, kids doing these volunteer activities, like I have, feel the same way. It’s hard to take volunteering experience seriously when the experience tends to be a waste.
Your arguments do appeal to me. I’ve pondered the same thoughts at times. One year at my high school, I lobbied the administration to blackmail the community. The administration picked a fundraising target and then told the town that if people simply donated more than that target by the start of the next semester, they would not have the students do any door-to-door fundraising. It was the biggest take the school had ever seen by far.
The next year, I graduated and heard from a sibling that the school had reverted to door-to-door programs on the premise that it was a character building exercise for the students. Despite the success of the blackmail scheme, certain people in charge felt that peddling wrapping paper, cookie dough, magazines, etc better helped the students appreciate the funds people were ‘donating.’
That little anecdote being told, here’s where I take issue with the perception of door-to-door sales-fundraising that you are putting forth. In most of these programs that I have participated, the products being sold neither cost more nor less than a comparable product in a store (there may be exceptions). The funds the school gets are not taken from some premium community members are paying for a candy-bar. Rather, the company behind the fund-raiser is giving the money that would have otherwise been spent on marketing & distributor kickbacks to the school in return for the school contracting out its students as direct marketers. Without this fund-raising program, people would buy their candy at the grocery store impulse rack while they waited to pay for their other purchases, the money would be spent on advertising and grocery store shelf space rent, and the students would do nothing.
Essentially, the fund-raising company is paying the school for the use of students in leveraging guilt. Same amount of money/goods change hands either way; its just a different cast of players in either situation.
With regard to Salvation Army bellringers, I agree that these people are panhandlers and I let store managers know that I won’t be shopping there again until they are no longer hosting the offensive noise pollution.
Your comment about working extra and donating that money instead misses a few points. 1) In speaking with panhandlers on the street during my college days, the people could bring in upwards of $20-30/hr on a sunny weekend afternoon. At the time, that was anywhere from 3-4x minimum wage. Begging on the street can be quite lucrative. And 2) Charitable contributions can be deducted from your income at tax-time. What you donate is actually ‘pre-tax’ money.
Hi Mr. Murphy — great article.
When I was a teen in Montana, I was part of a non-profit non-denominational organization for youth that did international service trips. We were planning a trip to Guatemala to build a high school.
Instead of car washes, bake sales, and all the usual fundraisers, we decided to do something more productive. We organized a “Spring Cleaning.”
We put flyers on windshields all over town, and had PSAs read over the radio, letting everybody know: we were a group of about 20 teens that would gladly do any type of manual labor “for free,” and people could just donate whatever they thought appropriate to our cause.
We had a great time, and raised a lot of money. Some of it was tough — one guy put us to work for four hours digging ditches, but then gave us a few hundred dollars. Other times it was just dusting shelves for the elderly.
I recommend it as a great way to raise money for a cause, learn the value of hard work, and actually be productive for society. Win-win-win!
And by the way, Guatemala was a blast. That is, until I sneaked away from the group, rented a motorcycle, and crashed it!
Hey this is a great article. I just thought I should point somethign out:
You suggest that fund raisers should pay to have children perform volunteer work. And say that child labor laws would probably prohibit these sorts of things from being done.
I just thought I’d point out that not only is it illigal to pay children to do work, but, in a usual form of government hypocricy, its perfectly legal for children to perform work, even ‘hard/dangerous’ work without pay.
Every summer my church’s youth program does a project where the youth go to various homes that need fixing and fix them up for their owners free of charge. Sometimes we do members/friends of members of the church, other times we coordinate with Habitat For Humanity or other similar ognizations. Last year I volunteered as a chaparone and I saw children as young as 8 or 9 painting, hammering, and assisting the older children and teens who are doing roofing, installing windows, and other skilled/semi-skilled labor. To my knowldge we’ve never had any legal issues brought against us for allowing children to do this sort of work.
And through it all I couldnt help but think: These children are so enthustic and hard working, and they volunteer for this. Why cant they get paid to do this sort of work? No I’m suggesting my church should charge for the work we do. But why cant the kids who so enthusticly volunteer for to do construction work(and in fact have their parents help pay for materials and equipment), enter the work force and get paid to help people repair their houses?
Of course even if child labor laws were abolished, the high minimum wage laws, and mandatory schooling laws would make it impractical to pay young children to paint or hammer, especially since they would have to be supervised, but thats a whole ‘nother issue.
Anywho that ran a little longer than I expected, but I just wanted to share that with you. Not only is it hypocritical to allow children to volunteer for something its illigal for even most adults(who dont have a contractor’s liscence anyway) to do, but it prevents an enthustic and surprisingly effective pool of labor from be utilized.
From here:
But what’s most cruel about government intervention in the economy is not how it stops us from helping the poor, but how it stops the poor from helping themselves. In “Scratching By: How Government Creates Poverty as We Know It (available at FEE.org), Charles Johnson of the Molinari Institute exposes the unsightly truth of what the State forces upon the poor:
Government barriers to self-employment are legion. One example:
And then, as we’ve seen time and again, government poverty programs are proposed to alleviate this government-inflicted poverty — the problems of Big Government will be solved by Bigger Government! Paraphrasing Karl Kraus, we might say that statism is the disease that prescribes itself as the cure. Or perhaps Ludwig von Mises put it best: “A governmental system that spends every year billions of dollars of the taxpayers’ money to make essential foodstuffs, cotton and many other articles more expensive should certainly have the decency not to boast of an alleged war against poverty.” The real conflict is between the goals of eliminating poverty and fortifying Big Government.
Subject: See 300 provocative questions about tax extortion slavery.
There are 15 discussion topics to join, without having to register, and with no fee.
If you’d like to mention this, I’d be honored.
Twitter: http://Twitter.com/LibertyBlueBird
Blog: http://LibertyBlueBird.com
Ron Richards
LibertyBlueBird
In my experience, it isn’t true that the candy the kids sell is no more or less expensive than that available in stores. I was recently asked to buy candy from a family I know, and they showed me the paper listing the candy available. 4 ounces of regular chocolate cost $16.00 on average. The only way to sell such things is to guilt someone into buying it.
Speaking of which, I used to get frequent knocks on my door from teenagers selling magazines. It was always the same – a knock, following by a teenager going on at length about the fact that he worked for a company that sold magazines and had come from another state to do so(!) and for some reason they had to put a piece of paper on my door while they read me their very long, very bad sales pitch. When I explained that, since the dawn of the internet, I had no need for magazines, the sales pitch entirely changed. Instead of being told about the money I could save on magazines, I got “don’t you think we should have a chance at the opportunities in life you’ve had?” Sales by guilt? Outrageous! When I refused, they would then ask me for something to drink! Once, I gave one a glass of water, and he looked into my refrigerator and asked for a beer instead.
Interesting, fun article to read.
Whether or not the funds are raised efficiently, I do think there is a closely-related issue that was not touched on, however. Namely: the limits of corporatized charity — I think it’s worthwhile to hash it out a little.
As is the current trend, many Christian organizations have “service projects” to give assistance to those “in need” in a variety of situations. Though many may take the mentioned corporate form for granted, having been promoted for so long, there is a serious philosophical issue in play.
I think the point that needs to be stressed is that good will directed toward certain situations can not be transmitted through a corporate body, especially with money as a medium.
For example, that individuals suffer from substance abuse related problems, or that a certain segment of the population cyclically dwells in economic poverty — transfer of financial resources cannot genuinely address these situations — which are at the root philosophical/way-of-life based.
Rather, these situations have to be addressed with an authentic kind of transformative attention — basically the classic notion of charity which, to me, implies a one-to-one correspondence, which is subjective and love-based, in essence.
An important issue this raises, is — how does one identify those situations that cannot be addressed by corporatized good will, specifically in the form of state-funded “assistance”?
This is John Galt speaking. I am the man who loves his life.
You know that you can’t give away everything and starve yourself. You’ve forced yourselves to live with undeserved, irrational guilt. Is it ever proper to help another man? No, if he demands it as his right or as a duty that you owe him. Yes, if it’s your own free choice based on your judgment of the value of that person and his struggle. This country wasn’t built by men who sought handouts. In its brilliant youth, this country showed the rest of the world what greatness was possible to Man and what happiness is possible on Earth.
I agree entirely and had similar thoughts after reading this last week (this guy needs a crew of 5 for 4 months to accompany him swimming the atlantic).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/8493238.stm
Interesting entrepreneurial idea, and nice linking to the child labor issue.
Some friends of mine bought jars of jam at a charitable auction at work, which is a similar concept.
However, tying charitable contribution to a service is also limiting. Wouldn’t it be more efficient to get service from a specialist and give money to charity separately?
You probably get better and more efficient service from a specialist.
Also, you don’t have to worry about finding a capable individual to complete your task from the pool (miniature labor market) offered by the charity.
Enough with pointing fingers guys. The whole point of coming up with a school fundraising is to come up with funds for a cause. So whatever it may be, as long as you got everybody(yes including fourth graders) supporting what you plan to do, it’s all good.
Government is not doing good with Kashmir people. They want freedom still government is ruling over them . If I am wrong please let me know the correct picture
STOP KILLING INNOCENTS…
The race of killing is going on..
No one there who will stop this battle..
Let the war keep go on..
Let the innocents dying on..
We all hope that one day they will open there eyes and let the PEACE be on.
Comments on this entry are closed.