the follow up poll

[spectrumc01]

A while back I had a poll "Who do you help?". The majority of those responses showed that almost everyone who answered said that they performed a charity of some kind. I also found in those responses that people were against the government helping people. This leads me to think that people want to help the less fortunate, they just don't want to be compelled to help.

Being compelled to help takes away the choice of whom to help. The government will help anyone as long as they fit the criteria of 'need'. So is it that we don't want the government helping people we feel don't deserve to be helped, or is it the simple fact of the government shouldn't help anyone?

What criteria do you use to determine who you help and why?

 

[spectrumc01]

I don't really mind the government helping those in need, because it provides for fairness in who gets help and who doesn't. I would hate to think that discrimination would play a part in those type of descisions, but people are capable of the most discriminatory things. The government still doesn't tell us who we can or who we can't help, nor does it restrict any of our charity.

 

[California Girl]

My money, my time, my decision. Simple.

When it comes to Government assistance. I actually have no objection to Government ensuring that the MOST vulnerable and the MOST in need have sufficient to survive. But.... hand outs breed an entitlement attitude. And that is not good for the individual, their community, our society or our country.

 

[spectrumc01]

My money, my time, my decision. Simple.

When it comes to Government assistance. I actually have no objection to Government ensuring that the MOST vulnerable and the MOST in need have sufficient to survive. But.... hand outs breed an entitlement attitude. And that is not good for the individual, their community, our society or our country.

If you don't mind...What criteria do you use to determine who you help?

 

[Anachronism]

I should be the one to decide who I help. It should be completely and totally a private issue. If I decide to donate to a charity it's because I know that group only helps people that I believe deserve to be helped.

In my mind, those that deserve help are those whose issues are NOT a result of their own poor judgement, decisions, or own active stupidity. I'll give you two examples....

I have a friend in PA. She's 35. She has four kids ranging in age from 4 to 15. About 4 years ago her husband walked out on her. Since then she's been busting her ass to keep her family together, to make sure she raises the kids right, and to overcome several other problems that were not her own fault. I go out of my way to try and help them as much as I can.

I have another friend who decided about 6 years ago that being married "wasn't fun anymore". She dropped the divorce papers on her husband as his birthday present; and signed away custody of their daughter because she was "too busy" to deal with the child that SHE had wanted so badly less than 2 years earlier. She moved out on her own and has progessively driven her life into the toilet over the last half decade. She now lives in a studio apartment, works as a retail clerk (she has a BS in Business), and is barely keeping her head above water. She gets no help OR sympathy from me at all because she made her own bed and now has to lay in it.

 

[California Girl]

My money, my time, my decision. Simple.

When it comes to Government assistance. I actually have no objection to Government ensuring that the MOST vulnerable and the MOST in need have sufficient to survive. But.... hand outs breed an entitlement attitude. And that is not good for the individual, their community, our society or our country.

If you don't mind...What criteria do you use to determine who you help?

For my personal charitable choices, it depends on a lot of things. For reasons I won't go into, but that are very close to my heart, I choose to help the homeless. I donate both time and money at a very local level.

I also have strong personal views about helping children - they don't ask to be born into the crap that their parents bring into their lives - so I regularly help two children's charities.

I love animals. So I support two animal charities financially and donate time to a local shelter.

I give to a global Disaster Relief charity for reasons that I think are obvious. There, but for the grace of God, go any of us.

I give to a variety of charities that help our Armed Services. Because they sacrifice for me, I sacrifice for them. Seems only fair to me.

I do fundraising for Cancer Research - because I know family and friends who have been affected by cancer and the sooner we find cures for all forms of cancer, the better for all of us.

I always research the charities I donate to. I prefer to donate to those that work directly with those less fortunate, but I sometimes donate to campaigning charities if I feel strongly about the message they are trying to deliver.

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

Other:

Local communities should decide if they want to, as a community, help groups of people in their community or not.