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The economic consideration comes down to the real value of the labor, and that depends heavily on the economic benefits of specialization. A day of you doling
by ben509 7y ago
The economic consideration comes down to the real value of the labor, and that depends heavily on the economic benefits of specialization.
A day of you doling out soup to people or picking up trash won't be worth any more than what someone who does it for a living is paid. And it will probably be substantially less because you're not practiced at it.
A day of you building houses (assuming you have no training) could very well be negative if someone has to come along and fix your work later.
A day of a non-profit employee's work should be worth at least what their salary suggests. (They're chronically underpaid because of the conventional wisdom that high wages are a red flag. This is patently insane and unfair.)
A day of you working closely to your profession is probably worth something similarly close to your salary.
Now, if no one is picking up trash and you want it picked up, then by all means go pick it up.
But otherwise, if in other contexts it'd be a waste of your time, it's still a waste of your time when donating, so consider donating money.
That raises the question: why do so many non-profits have all these worthless volunteer activities?
First, they do tend to focus on young people whose labor isn't worth much to begin with, so they're not losing as much.
And many volunteer efforts simply need a lot of warm bodies. There's no way to canvass for votes, for instance, without having a horde of people knocking on doors.
And I suspect many volunteer activities are also a great way to raise publicity and connect with donors.
- Matticus_Rex 7y ago>A day of you working closely to your profession is probably worth something similarly close to your salary. A day every 2-4 weeks of working closely to your profession might be, but less frequently than that and most high-skill professions will spend most of their time having to re-orient to what the needs are or get the details of where the org is today vs. where it was three months ago. I've done volunteer work where I spent over half the time figuring out what they needed. What they really needed was money to hire someone that they could get to do that same thing on a consistent basis so that overhead didn't take up more than half of the donation.
- hprotagonist 7y ago>But otherwise, if in other contexts it'd be a waste of your time, it's still a waste of your time when donating, Is it? [We] seem incapable of stating the obvious truth: that we who are well off should be willing to share more of what we have with poor people not for the poor people's sake but for our own; i.e., we should share what we have in order to become less narrow and frightened and lonely and self-centered people David Foster Wallace
- Matticus_Rex 7y agoIf that's the goal, only a small subset of volunteer work is a good way to achieve it.
- hprotagonist 7y agoit's _a_ goal. it's not the only one.
- Matticus_Rex 7y agoAnd for the other goals, the statement holds: If in other contexts it would be a waste of your time, it's still going to be a waste of your time for you to do it.
- hprotagonist 7y agounless, of course, handing out sandwiches or making beds up in a shelter opens one’s eyes. then it’s the exact opposite of a waste.
- Matticus_Rex 7y ago> If that's the goal, only a small subset of volunteer work is a good way to achieve it.
- ben509 7y agoI didn't want to get into what your motivations may be, but I alluded to this: Now, if no one is picking up trash and you want it picked up, then by all means go pick it up. The idea was that you might be doing it yourself because, in that case, your surroundings being clean and beautiful is something you desire. > ... we should share what we have in order to become less narrow and frightened and lonely and self-centered people Wallace's view of humanity is self-serving and awful. He's a noble savior, the poor people are helpless without their saviors, and everyone else is frightened, lonely, self-centered, etc. A better approach is one founded in gratitude, wherein charity is merely one form of expression of gratitude.