Cheers.
I’d like to see you being one of those of one those “certain people”.
I’m not sure if you would say “I’m dying but don’t give me food, water and medicine because I’m of no use to society.”
Highly unlikely. If I ever manage to screw up enough to end up on the streets, it’ll be my own fault and then I deserve to rot away.
But anyway, to play your little “what if” scenario along: I’d QQ for help and demand help by saying that society made me this way and that they owe it to me to help me. There’ll be people that help me, and there’ll be people that don’t give a shit.
Would ya like a side o’fries with that…
Those people need your help. It’s a sacrifice that not all of your money will help people, but the fact is that you’re still helping them. It sucks that corrupt people will get some of it, but what the hell, if you’re not willing to get rid of them, you’re at least doing some good.
If it’s demonstrable, then it’s not a question of “believing”, you moron.
I give blood and very occasionally give money to various charities, but I certainly don’t give much or often, I’ll admit that. I give blood because I know, unless I have AIDS or some shit, it won’t go to waste: it’ll keep someone alive.
What are your view on that, Bolteh? I assume you’ll answer by saying that anyone who gets themselves into hospital by stupidly getting in the way of someone’s bullet doesn’t deserve such things.
I’m trypanophobic.
But I have no issues with the idea of donating blood, because that will most likely save a life. Unlike malaria tablets/nets, because the people that could get that will probably die of something else a week later.
It’s demonstrable that money/effort will make all the abuse (both physically and mentally) in the past go away by supporting that charity? Sure, you may get the kid away from the source of abuse, but it’s still scarred for life. Therefore, it’s a pointless charity.
I actually think that donating blood is about the best kind of true ‘charity’ one can make. There is no way to waste it on people who don’t need it in some basic sense. There isn’t much possibility to make a profit for people willing to put themselves above peoples suffering. I donate once every six months.
The problem is that, in general, I don’t believe in sending people my hard earned money to help victims of tragedy. I don’t think my money really helps any victim. I really don’t think it’s wise to waste resources on victims. Positive results are difficult to substantiate at best. I think resources should be more devoted to prevention. Prevent victims in the first place. Helping victims is a major waste when the resources wasted could have gone to preventing such a thing from happening in the future.
Is it tragic that bad things happen? Yeah, sure whatever.
Does sending them money that doesn’t really do anything for them help? Not really no.
Think of the lives that can be saved through prevention, versus how many lives are changed in the least after the fact. I like to think of it in terms of results per dollar.
Helping victims is a terrible investment, and I don’t think they are going to appreciate me putting my money to half assed support staff that are usually around for their own gains.
You know, seeing Bolteh acting like the biggest cunt on the face of the planet is really making me want to donate to charity, join a peace commune, or simply be a better person.
Congrats Bolteh. You have inspired people to be less like you.
Even the effort of going to donate anything is significantly different from doing nothing.
If it doesn’t accomplish anything though, what is the point?
Doing something that accomplishes nothing when the ability to do something that actually accomplishes something beneficial seems silly.
You know the saying, “every little bit counts.”
Ever everyone on the planet donated as much as a penny to Haiti relief, it would be a massive help.
However, since we’re on the subject of donating to charity not charitable actions, how about something two sided, like a charity for AIDS research?
Person A went out and slept with a hooker and contracted HIV. According to many of you, he should suffer because it was his own mistake…
Person B was a school worker and cleaned up a teen’s blood with a tissue, (whilst having an open wound them self,) and contracted HIV. It was reckless behavior on their part by not taking precautions. Should they suffer?
Person C got a pre-84’ blood transfusion, and contracted the virus. They had no idea of the risks involved, nor did they subject themselves to risky behavior. Should they also die?
Now, I was just using an AIDS charity as an example, but my question is, who are you to decide who deserves to live and who deserves to die? Maybe you feel its for the greater good?
Jesus… Just because I fail to see the point of most charities and what they’re trying to accomplish , I’m the worst human being on this planet?
As I’ve said before, I’ll help when I see someone in direct and situational need, people that know me can build a house on me and I’d go through fires for those close to me, that’s more than you can say about most of humanity. Sure, I don’t believe in charity because most of them have a feeble or unrealistic goal, and then there’s the whole scamming-profit business involved with charity, so excuse me for being skeptical about charity and only believing that only a handful of charities are worth it (such as donating blood and supporting proper research (though as I’ve said before, research generally doesn’t require additional funding).
And to the AIDS thing: research to cure AIDS and pretty much any other disease or condition is valuable because it benefits everyone and will save lives. So yes, I think research for this is good, and when it’s there, everyone might as well use it to get cured. However, What I do not agree with, is the organized collecting of money and/or effort to make sure that those meds go to pisspoor countries where they won’t matter anyway. Where the quality of life won’t change with those meds or where the situation is just plain old hopeless.
No it won’t. The country will still be one of the poorest, most corrupt countries in the world. Its government won’t invest in proper structures and the next time those two plates slide around a bit, the country’s going to be indulged in hell again.
what about blood donation? your guaranteed to help someone that way. I find it hard to believe that an official will steal your blood and sell it. Unless an official is a vampire, your going to SAVE a life.
So your saying you donate blood?
I’d call that a charitable action, not a charitable donation. Besides- they will (usually, at least,) compensate you for time and travel. In other words, they’re paying you.
I would if I wasn’t terrified of needles. Plus I have the single most common blood-type anyway. It’s gotten to the point where blood centers are declining my mum because she has O+.
:|:facepalm:
If a medic is able to help minimize the suffering of someone, a single person, you don’t think that they have made a positive impact for that person?
Stop looking at countries and governments, look at the individuals.
Stick to the basics.
I still see it as a waste of money or effort. An pointless investment.
@Johnkiller:
Your facepalm may be inappropriate here. There is an actual disorder called Trypanophobia or, simply put, “needle phobia”, which cannot be helped and is supposedly an inheritable genetic trait. My ex fiance suffers from that, too.
I once went donating blood, and caught an infection in the process, leaving me suffering from severe diarrhoea for two days. I was at the brink of lethal dehydration when it finally stopped. That was the first and last time I ever went donating blood.