When Charitable Giving Is Not Charitable Giving.
I remember when people over on YouTube started doing the “YouTuber giving money/food to the homeless” among many other things (1). Why, yes, it was a trend where people where raking in lots of views. Now you must ask yourself “did they do it for the views and monetization or the homeless?
It really warms the aging heart strings seeing those who have done well give back to the community. Oh wait a moment many of those YouTubers puts out scummy clickbait videos doing whatever current trend it is for money. Oh that was not charity at all. Wait a moment is that a paid actor? Did they just hand someone $1000 in fake $100 Hollywood bills made for movie production? That’s greed and taking advantage of homelessness.
Greatness from sharing life experiences
Sharing a teachable moment on the blockchain
Encouraging others to go out and help their community
Leading by example
Showing others how easy it is to give back
How it’s not done
Expecting financial reward from doing “good” that far outweighs what was put into it.
Taking advantage of people’s goodwill nature for personal gain.
Finding endless excuses to tell everyone you once gave $20 to Greenpeace and you are such a wonderful person.
Endlessly referring to Steemit as some magical “gift economy” unicorn where what you put in you get back 100 times. Now if you plant this seed in this god church of Steemit it shall grow and reward thy self a hundredfold! Just image if you gave $1000 to your local church and they gave you back $100,000 every time. Why everyone would be doing it. Till hyperinflation killed whatever goodwill was supposed to be the point of giving in the first place. Seems to defeat the purpose in the first place.
In our day and age
We seem to be so hell-bent on endless needing to tell everyone we are some kind of superhero and how great everything we do is.
Charity is not this thing you go out and do so you can lord it around and treats it like a printing press. In fact it can often times suck doing- I’m just being honest. Yes, it can help fill your heart and maybe replace a void in it by giving back. It should also not have to be Christmas just for you to do it. There are many times a year where there are shortages in needed help.
@denmarkguy wrote a little less than two weeks ago in part about how “authentic philanthropists” do not go on the rooftops and shout out about it (2). They are just grateful they can help give back to community’s that gave so much to them in the first place. I highly recommend you giving it a read—Virtue Signaling and Social Justice Warriors. It speaks volumes and really points to some of the issues. It addresses and points out our endless need to be recognized and reward for doing “good.”
At end of the day most of us can at least admit we are guilty of at least once over-embellishing our “great deeds” to help society as a whole be better. It just seems to be in our human nature to want attention for doing the “right thing.” I’m more than guilty of doing that a few times in my life.
Information
Written by @enjar on my viewpoints of people taking advantage of charity for personal self-gain; rather then, doing it just to help people in need out.
What really pissed me off was one of those Youtubers that delivered a sandwich to some homeless guy with a drone. I get that the homeless guy got a sandwich and that is a good thing, but to monetize that video and profiteer off the homeless guy's plight? That doesn't sit well with me.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
In some of those cases you even wonder if it was a true homeless person or a paid actor. Quite a few pranks out their they just toss someone $20-$50 from an advert on craigslist or other sites and they play from a script. With the way some of those videos are made they feel more like a prank.
Quite a number of long term homeless people have mental illness issues. They don’t interact well with other people and often prefer to be left alone and even hide or avoid human contact. There is a big difference between a panhandler doing it because he makes more money than min. wage or some guy down an alleyway eating leftover food in a dumpster.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
When I am at Church, sometimes I give $10 or $20 in cash to help cover the overall costs of running a charitable organization. Cash because I don’t want to be asked even more money.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
That’s why I stop going to church. They kept treating people like sinners for not donating 15% of your total income.
Then what little money that was left over from them paying for upkeep costs and that new summer campground for the kids at bible camp at a lake somewhere went into such impractical things. Once it was this giant “family” blanket that could fit 12 people. They wanted to go into the big city and had out 100 of them to people living on the streets.
They were crazy expensive and so big they would have to be washed in a lake. Not to mention what was going happen to them when it was summer time or a homeless person living on the street had to relocate it --no answer.
Churches can be great but they are not only place to find god, charity, or spiritual enlightenment.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Thanks for the up vote! I always give Upvotes to people that comment and Upvote, it is my new style of charity!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
the person who is going to do charity must do it regardless of whether they see it or not
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit