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You're right, they shouldn't of fed the homeless.
by vorpalhex 7y ago
You're right, they shouldn't of fed the homeless.
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y agoGive me a man a fish vs teach a man to fish. The system in the US is broken, the Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless is only a flimsy bandaid, and the real reason it's pernicious is because now the volunteer can sit back in the warm glow of approval on Facebook/Instagram and think "There! Now I've done my part".
- isoskeles 7y agoWhat's pernicious is the attitude that helping people and treating them likes humans, in the real world, can be turned into some act of malice where we can assume the worst about the intentions of the people doing it. That said, I do think it's silly and pointless to "help" on Thanksgiving. These places are overrun with volunteers on Thanksgiving but not at other times of the year.
- chii 7y ago>"There! Now I've done my part". they indeed have done their part. The problem isn't caused by these people.
- fatbird 7y agoIt’s also not solved by them, despite the warm glow they get from dishing out mashed potatoes once a year.
- onion2k 7y agoThere's a very strong argument that wealth inequality does in fact cause problems like systemic homelessness. One person hoarding massive amounts of wealth generates a much smaller number of jobs and opportunities than many people having a moderate amount of wealth. So, maybe they do cause these problems.
- chii 7y agothe thing is, these rich people aren't storing their wealth under their mattress or burying their gold. their wealth is tied in stocks, so a lot of it is on paper. They also would invest their wealth (as inflation would erode it). Investment means more jobs, more work opportunities for those who don't have any. the problem lies in policy. Things like stock buy back schemes and tax "loopholes". But these have nothing to do with the rich, and everything to do with government.
- onion2k 7y agoInvestment means more jobs, more work opportunities for those who don't have any. The point I was making is that having lots of small investors usually leads to more job creation than one big one because small investors tend to invest in smaller, less efficient companies. That inefficiency is actually good if you want more jobs. Also, a billionaire buying a $100m yacht from a Korean shipbuilder is great for creating jobs in Korea, but it doesn't help much at home. Having a bigger middle class means more of the money goes in to the local economy. Another reason against individuals hoarding huge amounts of money.
- WalterBright 7y ago> That inefficiency is actually good if you want more jobs. Inefficiency does not create jobs. It means you can't compete and you spent the money and went out of business. > a billionaire buying a $100m yacht from a Korean shipbuilder is great for creating jobs in Korea, but it doesn't help much at home Because of the way trade works, equal value flows both ways.
- distant_hat 7y agoIt in some part is, they vote for politicians' who cut the safety nets and criminalize poverty.
- zozbot234 7y agoNope, they really haven't. They're basically wasting their effort on largely pointless labor, whereas they could be achieving a lot more simply by donating an equivalent fraction of the income they earn via what work they've actually specialized for. But that wouldn't be as visible or salient, and thus rewarding from a pure virtue-signalling POV.
- oh_sigh 7y agoShould you let a man starve while he is learning to fish?
- fatbird 7y agoThey shouldn’t feed the homeless on a marquee holiday and then ignore the problem the other 364 days of the year; nor should they feel like feeding them directly does anything to address the underlying systemic issues that create or sustain the problem in the first place. The main criticism of Thanksgiving charity is that it’s about making the privileged feel generous without solving any problems at all, and in fact blinds the privileged to any need to do more than they are on one day a year.