The older I get, the more time I spend thinking about helping those less fortunate than I. Today I was thinking about all the people in the US who probably spend the majority of their lives with 100% of their income allocated towards themselves. I was reminded of something Stephen Colbert said recently:
If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.
This is something that absolutely fascinates me. Our ability to be hypocritical when it suits us is just positively remarkable. I donate between 2 and 5 percent of my pretax income to a good cause every month. I have recurring donations that sum to about 2%, and I regularly contribute to a variety of other causes.
I didn’t always do this. In fact, it’s only been a year or two that I’ve been making consistent donations of greater than 1%. What caused me to start was looking at what I have and seeing so many people that have so much less. I realized that if human compassion, if the desire to uplift the human spirit is part of my purpose in life, then keeping every scrap of my income I can to myself was selfish. I donate my time too. Mostly to the Brotherhood, but to other events and organizations when I have the time and inclination.
Because I didn’t grow up with charity as an ideal, because I understand that we as individuals need to look to our own families before we look to others, I’ve always been very gentle to people who don’t choose to give a portion of what they have. I still am, but my feelings tonight are a little harsher, which is why I thought of the Colbert quote.
What it boils down to is this: Don’t tell me you can’t afford to give 1% of your income to charity. It’s bullshit. If you truly cannot afford to donate 1%, then you are already living outside your means and you need to get in touch with a financial counselor as soon as you can. I’m not kidding. Email me, I’ll try and find a person or agency who can help.
Now some of you may be thinking “But theo, you have a good job, you make a good living, of course you can afford the luxury of being charitable.” You’re right. I can. And I’m thankful that I can. But 1% for me is a bit more than 1% for the average person. 1% should be negligible to you too, you just don’t realize it. (And note, I regularly donate between 2% and 5% of my income before taxes, which is 2 to 5 times what I would suggest as a good habit for everyone with a job.)
If you work full time and make minimum wage ($8.25/hour in IL for 2012) then you make $330 a week. 1% of that is $3.30 a week, or $0.66 per work day.
If you make $10 an hour, it’s $0.80 per work day
If you make $15 an hour, it’s $1.20 per work day.
In 2010, the average individual income for the United States was $40,584 a year. 1% of that is $405.84 over the course of a year. That’s an average hourly wage of $19.51.
Assuming (conservatively) that there are 150 million employed individuals in the US, if we all donated 1% of our income to charity, we would produce $234 Million in charitable contributions for every working day. That is $1.17 Billion per work week. That is over $60 Billion Dollars a year.
If you truly can not scrounge 1% of your income ($0.20 per working hour if you are making $20/hour, less than a dime per hour if you are making minimum wage), then you’re in trouble. If you are in that much trouble, you should get help. You may think “It’s not a lot of money, but I need every cent I can get.” I’m sure there are people out there who really are in a situation that tight or even tighter, but you probably aren’t. Those who are in that tough of a spot are the people I believe could be helped by our efforts.
If you do any of the things below with any regularity then you can afford to give 1% of your income to charity
We are a society that is full of privlege. I am very happy to be privleged. I am happy that I can afford to sit at home where it is warm, and think about charity in the abstract while there are people who depend on real, actual charity just to survive the week.
If you don’t want to give to charity on a regular basis, that is your right. I won’t even judge you very harshly for it. But don’t lie to yourself. It’s not that you can’t afford it. You choose not to.
I don’t know what it will be.
Or how big.
But it is time for a change.
I feel weighted down, mired in unhelpful habits, in distractions. I feel like there is little I can change in my life.
What we feel is not always reality, often not in fact.
It is time for a change.