Executive Summary (tl;dr): I don’t think we need to focus on ending welfare. I think we would be better served leveraging existing markets to shift public opinion and beat policymakers at their own game. Essentially, make private charity the more attractive option. It’s hard for legislators to buy votes with promises if their constituents are voting their values with their pocketbook.
Welfare. Whether you’re for or against it, it’s hard to deny that there is a demand for it. Often the political barbs come out quick when discussing its propriety or effectiveness. People choose their camps fairly early in life—influenced by people near them, or their own experiences.
Personally, I’m against it. Not the helping people part… that I’m okay with, though honestly I fall short in practice. No, I’m against public assistance. This is where people often write me off, but I urge you to read just a little longer because I think you and I share common values.
Don’t put the Cart Before the Horse
Many strongly held beliefs sound perfect in theory, but fall apart in practice. That’s true for all hues of political and philosophical spectra. Not too many years ago, I believed that if elected officials would quit taxing away some of our money, we’d be more apt to give and volunteer. While likely true to some degree, it certainly wasn’t a dollar for dollar guarantee.
Then I had a bit of an epiphany. There’s nobody stopping us from making the case for private charity. Heck, it might even be our own fault for letting it slip out of our control. Sure we can grumble and kick the dirt wishing generations before us hadn’t made promises on top of promises that have incrementally burdened our first-of-its-kind economy, but that only reaches people who have an equally dim perspective of our national condition. Misery loves company.
If you think—like us—that there is a little more value in someone accepting a warm offering from a neighbor’s hand instead of waiting for a cold, bureaucratic check to land in a mailbox, then we’ve got some common ground.
Making B/CS Undependent
Over the next few days, I’ll introduce you to my team. We want to undo in 25 years that which took nearly a century to amass. By 2030 our goal is to fund 90% of needs-based assistance in Bryan and College Station through private funds. It’s hard to tell what that looks like—we don’t even know how much money we are spending now—but if you’re at all intrigued, I urge you to sign up for our mailing list to see what we’re up to.
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Sign up if you agree. Sign up if you know of someone (yourself maybe) who thinks they have a way to help. Hell! Sign up if you think we’re off our rocker and will never succeed. Measured and logical criticism is always welcome.
Can we get your support? Your email is all we need to know you’re not enamored with current state of social work. A lot of people want to make it better, and we think we have a novel approach. Join the mailing list to follow our progress. We won’t contact you more than once a week, and after we get rolling, it will probably be even less than that.
Remember, charity doesn’t happen with other people’s money.
Patrick
