OT: A Funny thing happened on the way home today

[Baron Munchausen]

Randallw said:
There is an ad here for the Salvation Army asking for help for the farmers stuck in a drought. Putting aside for one moment that it is marked as a community announcement, Why do they get away without having to pay?, I find it offensive because it is basically saying "Donate to us, we're better than the other charities". I would think all charities would be the same, it defeats the purpose of being generous if they are being stuck up and saying they're better than everyone else.

I consider charity to be intrinsically self serving anyway. I'm a cynic, and apathetic, in the classical Philosophical sense, and to me giving to charity is just a way of making yourself feel good by thinking your better since you give stuff to people. No one does anything without a reason. If you don't get anything out of it then why do it at all.

Well, the Salvation Army is much better than many other big-name charities. They are efficient enough that the US Government, and especially what used to be FEMA (what is it called now?) are studying them to try to make government disaster relief more efficient. So while it's true that there is lots of corruption in the charity system, it's not totally corrupt.