On selflessness, charitable giving and morality of sparing change
I discovered the Chicago Booth Review magazine the first time I went to a write-in event at the University of Chicago Graham School's Write-In. They had a whole bunch of copies by the entrance, free to take. I'm not entirely sure why they put a University of Chicago Booth School of Business publication in the lobby of a UC's college of continuing liberal arts education - other than the fact that they're part of the same university, so... cross promotion, I guess.
Anyway, Booth is famously gung-ho about free market capitalism, and their magazine pretty much reflects that. You probably know the drill - free markets can solve all problems, regulation is bad, taxes are bad, that sort of thing. So when I picked up the latest issue and saw an article titled "What’s the matter with handouts?," I expected something about how handouts were bad and people should pull themselves by the bootstraps, gosh darn it.
But, to my surprise, that wasn't what the article as about at all. It was actually a pretty in-depth look at how society's attitudes toward charity shifted over time, and how we went from giving change to beggars because it was the right and moral thing to do to the idea that charity is useless unless it's done in a certain way. And it really made me think a lot about how people approach those things, how I approach those things.
Anyway, check it out. And feel free to share what you think in the comments below.
Anyway, Booth is famously gung-ho about free market capitalism, and their magazine pretty much reflects that. You probably know the drill - free markets can solve all problems, regulation is bad, taxes are bad, that sort of thing. So when I picked up the latest issue and saw an article titled "What’s the matter with handouts?," I expected something about how handouts were bad and people should pull themselves by the bootstraps, gosh darn it.
But, to my surprise, that wasn't what the article as about at all. It was actually a pretty in-depth look at how society's attitudes toward charity shifted over time, and how we went from giving change to beggars because it was the right and moral thing to do to the idea that charity is useless unless it's done in a certain way. And it really made me think a lot about how people approach those things, how I approach those things.
Anyway, check it out. And feel free to share what you think in the comments below.