| Maybe this comment is controversial, maybe it is not. Feel free to discuss it, since I am putting this out there as an idea with the intention to get more ego-centric people also to consider a more giving mentality. Despite my nickname I consider myself to be in this camp and do my best to get myself to an instinctive state of altruism, but it is tough. Training my rationality is easier than training my instinct. Anyways, if you don't want to give 10% of your income to charity, consider giving a mixture of 10% of your income or time to really help your family. As a baseline that is (you can always help more). Some are in families that don't need help. However, I know people that are part of a family where they are clearly the most educated person and also in a minority within their family of being able to properly read and write. Governmental institutions can be a real hazard, even if they are accomodating. When you don't have decent reading and writing skills everything of that sort is tough. Then, there are people who clearly have poor people within their families. I mean all kinds of poor people: poor in mind, poor in spirit or poor in finances (or all three). In some cases money will solve the problem. In most cases I don't think it will. But giving them some smart attention may at least alleviate some of their suffering. I say smart attention because people who have all three could hurt you if you do not watch out. I try to do this and find it hard. But I also think it's a better use of my time because it shows the real difficulty of solving problems for people in need. Just giving money away abstracts you away from that process. And as a bonus, they are my family :) I'm noticing that slowly but surely it is also easier to help people that I don't know. Since it becomes easier to empathize to their situations, because I've seen them more close up. |
> Subsidiarity is an organizing principle that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority.
Taking care of your family is definitely a priority. I would also encourage supporting local charities and getting involved with the work too (ie volunteer days).
You're right that its not just about the money, it just happens to be a resource that a lot of us have available, and merely giving can be a good place to start.