It is practically common knowledge at this point in our Western society that the minority of the population owns the majority of the wealth. This, then, directly influences all the structures of power and control. Those who hold the wealth are therefore “response-able” for the community that they inhabit.
We know as common sense that the infrastructure of an ecosystem’s well-being is directly and indirectly derived from the healthy diversity of the life inherent in the total sum population of the community. When one species is threatened or endangered, then so are the other species—until the interconnected strains of the entire ecosystem drop out and this entwined fabric teeters on possible collapse unless action is taken.
Our civilized social community is likened to that of the wild ecosystems such as forests, coral reefs and volcanic vents because we—you and I—are part of a bigger community that is made of many parts. Through our economy, we are put into caste systems and daily life moves along. Yet, through major changes in funding sources in the last decade, many nonprofits have been suffering debt and even closure. Some have been innovative, downsized and cut corners, yet these depend heavily upon the good will of the government—particularly so for health care and social services.
Not-for-profits do not offer a high rate of pay to employees, and the costs of living have increased but not the wages. Due to this economic caste system, not only do the agencies suffer—many workers qualify for poverty-level status.
At this point, the community does have the response-ability to support itself by donating to local agencies, especially those in need. A donation to a 501(C)3 [tax-exempt nonprofit] is a tax write-off for the donor, which [works] just as well as paying those taxes to the federal government yet [exercises] the good-will principle.
With freedom comes responsibility. Now is the opportune time to give back. Donating to a nonprofit of your choice gives back to the community and makes a public economic statement. Some companies with profits in the multi-millions pay no taxes because of budgeted planned giving to charities. This would be wealthy America’s chance to play its part in maintaining America’s social fabric by mitigating the impact of global economic downturn.
— Troy Hornberger
Asheville
An important and timely message, which lays out succinctly the reality of the challenges of non-profits. Thank you.
Well, I think that you have expressed some important points. The main gist of your article, “giving back”, is a concept I personally find to be rediculous. First of all, the only people whom society “gives” wealth to are the poor via charity or welfare. I think non-profit charity charity organizations are extremely valuable to a given community. Those with wealth, were rarely until this whole bailout, “given” wealth as on a silver platter, save through inheritance.
Wages vs. Cost of living. This I find to be one of the most important issues facing our economic situation today. First of all, if you want to bring greater stability to cost of living, we need to completely extricate ourselves from the use of credit. Im not just talking about credit cards, I am criticizing our entire monetary system. Our money has been backed by nothing since Nixon officially took us off the gold standard in 72. Our money is backed by some banking cartel’s word, which if it was worth nothing before, it is worth less and less each day. I foresaw the rising gas prices and the fall of the market at the very beginning of 2008 when federal officals nicknamed Fed chairman Bernanke “Scissorhands” because he made the most drastic interest cuts possibly in the history of the Fed. This pumped a shitload of money into the market, the top teir of the pecking order are naturally who received it first, and everything began to take a turn for the worst. It is a similar circumstance to what hapenned in 1929. Now we are in deflation, which dictates a rapid inflation ensuing. Of course, smaller businesses and companies have no way to maintain necessary, competitave wages.
It is time for mass federal de-regulation. Federal regulation violates the communities right to become self-sufficient and to begin doing things the way that might benefit it most. Federal regulation as a rule only protects infrastructure, facilitating monopoly on energy, medicine, and even food. A government sanctioned monopoly is a cartel, and cartels always mean higher prices, whioch in turn means a higher cost of living.