Sometimes charity is bad

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Sometimes charity is bad

Conventional wisdom and social norm promotes charity and alms giving. We are told that sharing wealth and helping others is the right thing to do. I agree to some extent. But we should be very careful when we do charity. Otherwise our contribution might cause more harm than good.

Charity is a complex topic and can’t be covered in one article. Therefore, I’ll just list out the negative consequences of charity. I hope it can serve as a guideline for you to make decision when come to “doing good deeds”. Here are the reasons why I avoid most charities:

•    Alms giving gives rise to beggar syndicates, where fake beggars collect money from unsuspected people.
•    Alms giving encourages more begging activities amongst genuine beggars. We should stop providing incentive for them to beg so that they have to choose other alternatives. Donation alone can’t solve their problems permanently.
•    Some parents force their children to beg. They even risk their own children lives or amputate their limbs to gain public sympathy.
•    Some charities are scam.
•    There’s a lack of transparency on how the charity is handled.
•    A part of donation money goes to the charity’s management fees, which is fine. But some inefficient charity bodies suck in most of the money into their own pockets.
•    Charity based business is profitable. Do we donate to make someone rich?
•    How many % of donation actually reach the benefactors?
•    Sometimes the donation doesn’t match the benefactors’ needs.
•    Donation money might transfer from poor nations to wealthy nations, which further worsens the imbalance in distribution of wealth.
•    Some charities provide NOT the needs for the benefactors, but comfort and luxury.
•    Some charities have hidden agenda, such as being propaganda machines.
•    I dislike religion based charities.  Many of them use charity to proselytize.
•    Some charities choose benefactors based on race, religion, nationality etc.

I’m not against charity. My main message is about asking you to be careful and picky with charity. You won’t want to see your kind deed causes more harm than good.

Tagged as: charity, donation, money, poverty, wealth