Privatizing welfare
“Some things should never happen to children,” says a pamphlet that arrived at our house.
It came from one of the newer organizations that have been set up to deal piecemeal with one of the problems of modern society.
We have an organization each to deal with our hearts, our livers, our kidneys, our lungs, our bones, our heads, our blood and one for each disease.
The pamphlet was from an organization concerned with child abuse, one of the many.
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What really caused these organizations to mushroom was the decision of governments to back out of former commitments in order to pay off debts incurred in freer spending eras. Balancing budgets became political priority Number One. Government involvement in health and welfare was sharply reduced and private agencies were set up to fill the vacuum. Each of these vacuum-fillers established fund-raising departments.
Let’s see now. The government downsizes so private agencies can upsize. The government now talks of reducing our taxes. This means if we are going to sustain our hospitals, our educational institutions and the above-mentioned agencies we will have to invest any tax savings and more in that direction. Perhaps our schools will be forced to do as the hospitals do and sponsor lotteries.
Has anyone assessed what it costs to maintain all these fund-raising organizations, paying the staff and buying the stamps to seek your donations?
Should there not be an effort to consolidate the mishmash of organizations, each of which has a costly bureaucracy? Should we be tougher in granting the right to issue tax-deductible receipts?
