Charity

National Pubic Radio this morning reported that there were as many as 4,000 fake charities generated after the Boston Marathon bombing weeks ago. Four thousand low-life schemers decided to take advantage of human misery and human compassion. What does this say about materialism, money and ethics in our current society?

 

In another report on a museum in Chicago which committed to an exorbitant expansion before the financial collapse of the U.S economy, the museum's CEO said it was like deciding to go to a restaurant on the other side of the road and being hit by a car. Taking his analogy, the museum had decided to dine eloquently without looking both ways before crossing the street. They had counted on the philanthropy of their donors without taking economics and caution into account.

 

The general lack of financial practicality and responsibility in the U.S. is glaringly obvious in all aspects of our culture. The Federal Reserve is "saving" the economy by offering cheap loans, the bait which plunged the economy into a crevasse after the recent loan-binging bubble burst. The Congress takes a paring knife to minuscule portions of the Federal budget while leaving the largest exploiters of tax money virtually untouched...the defense (war machine) contractors. Media portray ideals of selfish and boorish materialism incessantly.

 

Meanwhile, we dither as the Syrian government gasses its civilian population. Where is the charity in that?

 

Charity in the U.S. has become equated with money. We have become a nation of non-profits, many of which are personal scams to avoid taxes and/or support one individual's elaborate lifestyle of travel in luxury. The conference is the great vehicle of these non-profit pros. Like the conventions of an earlier age, where frustrated businessmen went to splashy locations to indulge in prostitution and drunken acting-out, the international non-profit conference has become the oasis of those who exploit compassion for personal gain.

 

Is there any question as to why the One Fund here in Boston is administered by a bank, as opposed to a government agency with oversight and accountability? Charity is a business.

 

By yielding to propaganda against socialism and "big government", doled out daily by corporate media, the American populace has been duped into believing they must be on their own in everything. They have been cajoled into believing they are part of a benign free market capitalism, a myth. It does not surprise me that 4,000 people who have swallowed this poison have decided they are entitled to rip off the compassionate with a fake charity. I wonder how many of them are Tea Party supporters.