"> And what have non-profits done for me as a consumer or user, putting aside the ones I work at—namely, George Mason University and the Mercatus Center? That i

"> And what have non-profits done for me as a consumer or user, putting aside the ones I work at—namely, George Mason University and the Mercatus Center? That is harder to say. They might have helped with my health care, except I haven’t been sick. They have contributed to the social fabric in ways I don’t always see directly. Without non-profits, perhaps my community would be more fractious and less generous and the streets would be dirtier. Maybe! But that is not as easy to see as an Amazon package left on the doorstep. Churches I will consider later." Um, yeah, I don't find it very surprising that Tyler Cowen, an academic, influential writer and famous cultural critic isn't directly getting help from his local food bank. Oh, and I love the "putting aside the ones I work at". Let's cherry pick and say "non-profits have do nothing for me personally" if you exclude the ones that do a tremendous amount for me personally. Even with the above, I find this pretty disingenuous. Surely Tyler Cowen has visited and enjoyed some famous art museums? Perhaps he has taken his kids to a local science museum? Perhaps he has benefitted from research done at universities, as pretty much everyone alive has? That said, I can agree with him on his point that perhaps certain non-profits (e.g. hospitals) don't really function like most people would think a non-profit should and probably shouldn't be getting tax exempt status.