OT: Giving Tuesday

That's a good cause. I made an annual donation to a local animal shelter today.

Donate to your local food bank. They need everything they can get, unlike some of these big charities or universities that get more than enough.

A dancer who's making dancing a net positive in her life is the best anti-depressant I've found.

I'm skeptical about suicide hotlines to be honest. The people they actually help would probably be helped much much better if there was more free or low-cost counseling. If somebody is totally miserable and they can't hold down a job, so they're homeless, having to suck 50 dicks a week, or something, death is often the only realistic way out, in the US anyway. Maybe it's just cruelty that it's not an available option to end it quickly, reliably and painlessly.

^^^ You know, I have negative or critical opinions about certain charities, but choose my moments to express those criticisms. For example, if a guy starts an OT thread about Giving Tuesday on a strip club website and pitches donating to a suicide prevention non-profit, I probably wouldn't choose that moment to be critical, let alone suggest that there's a chunk of suicidal people who we should just let die.

Because, though I don't know ElDuderino, it's at least possible that he's focused on that charity because it has played a role in his life or the life of someone close to him. And if you have a scintilla of empathy, then you know that this is not the right moment to be critical of someone else's chosen charity/cause.

So, maybe the next time a post like this pops up just talk about where you make your donations, or don't comment at all if you don't make any donations (which is fine).

But the keyword here is 'empathy.'

Appreciate that, sir. But it's fine -- it's a "weird" thing to discuss and everybody's got an opinion on it.

Though I think, despite being at different sections of adulthood, at this point in our lives we most likely all either have someone we've lost this way, or know someone who's lost a friend or family member in this manner. And we've seen how it affects the survivors.

I'm not going to get into all the details, but of course I know people who've lost others that way, and I have as well. The "survivor" role ain't easy. Afsp.org isn't a "hotline", it's the leading national non-profit for this, and by any "rating" system gets superb marks for their work related to research, treatment, prevention, etc. And yes, I've donated to them since 2014.

https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/133…

Not being critical, good thing to do. I struggle with depression myself. I mostly give to disaster relief and groups that get innocent people out of jail. I don't vote for whoever says they're going to cut taxes the most, cause that leads to situations that make people consciously or unconsciously want to end it all. But that's only natural, that we focus on helping the suffering that we've seen firsthand.

Sorry I can only do weird.

I regularly give to animal charities and Children's Hospitals. I used to donate often to food banks, but I stopped doing that during the pandemic. I know that lots of people have lost their jobs or had a drastic reduction in income due to quarantine restrictions but that ended in Florida a long time ago. At this point, anyone who is not working does not want to work. Our governor wisely ended the increased UE payouts as early as he reasonable could. I have seen fucking LEXUSES (LEXI?)in food bank lines. Trade your high-end luxury car in at Carmax for newer domestic or Honda that is cheaper to maintain and insure if you have a hardship. You might have been a maitre d' at Ruth's Chris in early 2020 pulling down six bills, but if they didn't hire you back then they didn't want you back. Red Robin and Stevie Tomato's are all looking for staff.

Sorry, tangent. Yeah, I can't do food banks in good conscience anymore. Without need audits and evaluations, too many people who don't need food banks are abusing them just to reduce their own living expenses and increase discretionary budgets.

With 80+% of people who need/seek charity, it's some combination of bad breaks and bad choices (theirs or their parents). I give to the World Food Programme cause it benefits people who never had access to a good labor market. But even then, I have to wonder, if you live somewhere live Syria, why tf would you have kids?

On the flip side, when people have plenty of money to spare, it's almost always a combination of good breaks and good choices. So we need to pay our good breaks forward, not just judge people for their bad choices.

UE does require you to be applying for work. The times I was on it, they only required you apply to two places per week, which seems way low. UE isn't designed as a safety net for people who can't even find a minimum wage job. Aside from helping people out, it's meant to avoid downward pressure on wages and a demand deficit, which could lead to a deflationary spiral like that of the Great Depression. And employers are wary of hiring someone who would be taking a big pay cut, as they are likely to quit in a few weeks, when they get an offer more comparable to what they use to make.

@ilbbaicnl

FYI

“the Incas imposed a set of three laws on its citizens: “Ama Sua. Ama Llulla. Ama Quella” or “Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not be lazy”.

Since the purpose of Inca law was to teach a lesson to the offender and prevent re-occurrence by any member of the society, the death penalty was frequently applied.

For example homicide, second offenses in drunkenness, theft and laziness were all punished by death.

The Inca government promoted peace among its citizens, there was very little crime, there was no system of imprisonment and offenders were punished so that the penalty was exemplary to the rest of the population.”

As a general rule the large institutional charities burn a lot of money on administrative and fundraising functions, so I don't donate to them. Instead I do my giving to local charities staffed largely by volunteers. In most cases that involves religious outreach programs with boots on the ground providing services, like food banks and shelters.