Too Much Help for Haiti
“Shame on you America: the only country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed without eating, elderly going without needed meds, and mentally ill without treatment – yet we have a benefit for the people of Haiti on 12 TV stations. 99% of people won’t have the guts to copy and repost this.”
Above quote is from a friend’s status on Facebook.
In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake affecting Haiti on January 12th resulted in an outpouring of aid throughout the developing world, with Americans being bombarded by “Text ‘Haiti’ to 90999″ and the other numbers for American Red Cross and related charity and relief organizations dedicated to Haitian aid.
Lehigh University has started their own Haitian Initiative; Collecting $50,000 towards relief efforts. Despite the best intentions of the Community Service Office, is Haitian relief, efforts that have been duplicated around the world, really the best use of Lehigh Student’s time and money?
Goodwill to mankind is a noble goal, but logistical and financial concerns limit the impact that can be made. While Dr. King was a proponent of “help[ing] our neighbors across borders just as much as our friends down the street.”, when 17,000 Pennsylvanians are homeless, our efforts would be better spent closer to home, helping our friends down the street.
I see you are now understanding the plight of the poor in America. Does that mean you’re all for significantly increasing spending on social welfare programs to help these people? Or are you just being cynical about U.S. aid and personal donations to Haiti just for the sake of it?
When we look at the world as it is, there are poor in America. However, increasing social welfare programs is not a means of helping impoverished Americans in the long term. Instead, the only way to effectively aid impoverished people is by creating a socioeconomic climate that allows them to make enough money to improve their standard of living.
Federal programs in this realm are expensive and misguided; ever since the Great Depression increased federal social programs have not had positive long-term results.
However, I would rather see people expending time and effort to aid their neighbors than those in other countries. While it is a personal decision for all involved on whether to donate and where to donate, I will not be contributing to Haitian relief.
[...] an education, not to provide philanthropy. Furthermore, the choice of charity offends me. As I have previously discussed, I disagree with the disproportionate aid for [...]