Are taxes as good as charity? - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#15057140
Our taxes help the poor and unfortunate through such U.S. government programs as Medicaid, housing subsidies, food stamps, disaster relief and Aid to Families with Dependent Children.

If you feel a moral obligation to help the poor, have you done enough already by just paying taxes? Why give to charity?
#15057174
:lol: No, paying taxes is not the same, or as good, as giving to an actual charity. only a very small percentage of what you pay, actually helps anyone who NEEDS it.

If you want to help people, physically help them and give them food, shelter, or aid. You don't give to charity simply by paying taxes. That's a very silly stance to take, and fulfills absolutely NO moral obligation.
#15057180
@Godstud

You have to be very very careful what charities you give to if you decide to give money towards any supposed charitable organization. A lot of times, when you give money to a charity organization it doesn't reach the people you think it's going to reach. One organization you can use to investigate a charity to be sure you know that your money goes to who needs it is using Charity Watch. They have their own website: https://www.charitywatch.org/

Edit:

Here you can check out the top rated charities from Charity Watch's website: https://www.charitywatch.org/top-rated-charities/
Last edited by Politics_Observer on 02 Jan 2020 02:41, edited 1 time in total.
#15057182
Godstud wrote::lol: No, paying taxes is not the same, or as good, as giving to an actual charity. only a very small percentage of what you pay, actually helps anyone who NEEDS it.

If you want to help people, physically help them and give them food, shelter, or aid. You don't give to charity simply by paying taxes. That's a very silly stance to take, and fulfills absolutely NO moral obligation.


About 9 percent of the federal budget in 2017, or $357 billion, supported programs that provide aid (other than health insurance or Social Security benefits) to individuals and families facing hardship.

Safety net programs include: the refundable portions of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, which assist low- and moderate-income working families; programs that provide cash payments to eligible individuals or households, including Supplemental Security Income for the elderly or disabled poor and unemployment insurance; various forms of in-kind assistance for low-income people, including SNAP (food stamps), school meals, low-income housing assistance, child care assistance, and help meeting home energy bills; and various other programs such as those that aid abused and neglected children.

Such programs keep millions of people out of poverty each year.

https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/policy-basics-where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go

Sounds to me like a lot of money helping a lot of people. And that doesn’t include the billions of taxpayer dollars for disaster relief.
#15057193
You are doing no more than anyone else, as far as moral obligation goes, however.

Many programs are limited to people that the government deems worthy to receive, so often these funds do not get to those who truly need it.

@Politics_Observer, I generally don't give to charities., aside from World Vision, which I give monthly to. I get together with friends and actually do things to help people. eg. Recently, my friends, and I, funded for the construction of a house for an elderly Thai woman who'd house had burned down.

I'd rather buy a man a good meal than simply drop money into some charity organization that spends more money on administration, than on the people who need it.

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