How charity backfires

[Basman]

Betterment is a good short-term solution to a crisis, but long-term generosity creates dependency and undermines the local economy. It's hard to compete with free so poor countries are rendered indeficient at developing their own businesses and systems for handling survival. And the free stuff is often mediocre and eats away at peoples dignity, like used clothes. Africans wearing a tired old oversized Spiderman shirt instead of something locally produced. The "gifts" poor parents give their children during Christmas are all donated. It sends a message to one's self-esteem when it's chronic.

It's a good example of how good intentions tend to backfire if you don't appreciate how systems work. It's an example of why stage green is insufficient at solving the problems it cares about, and often actually makes things worse. Sometimes its more evil to rob people of the opportunity for self-improvement and dignity with your compassion than to just let them suffer and struggle.

 

[Human Mint]

What you speak of is not charity per se the problem. The thing that is backfiring is ideology. The ideology behind charity is toxic and selfish.

Needs to be discussed thoroughly.

But think about this: donating a school can be a really good thing. But people think this is a given. It is not.

[Basman]

13 minutes ago, Human Mint said:

What you speak of is not charity per se the problem. The thing that is backfiring is ideology. The ideology behind charity is toxic and selfish.

Needs to be discussed thoroughly.

But think about this: donating a school can be a really good thing. But people think this is a given. It is not.

You probably didn't watch the video. It's much more structural than just ideology. Your undermining people's survival if they become too dependent on your donations. And they can't develop businesses because poor people can't compete with free stuff. At the same time the stuff you donate is going to be mediocre garbage compared to what they could produce themselves if they had the opportunity.

If a school was dependent on donations in order to function on a basic level then that would be problematic in of itself.