Vignettes on Peace, Good Will, Generosity, and Warm Wishes

My local newspaper guy (late 60's immigrant from ME or one of the 'stans, not quite sure, withered weary look about him, always shivering) gave me a Christmas card yesterday quite unexpectedly. It reads "Peace on Earth...Peace is the healing and elevating influence in the world."

I could hear him laughing with joy and imagined him dancing  with delight as I headed into the subway this morning, having tipped him handsomely and wished him "Happy Holidays." There was something pure about his happiness in seeing his plan had worked. That by handing out cards to his customers yesterday, he'd reminded them to tip him today. It was as if he hadn't believed this simply ploy would produce results, and yet here it was working. This wonderfully gullible nation of people who would actually give you handfuls of cash because you gave them a 50-cent greeting card. How miraculous.

The New York Times Editorial today highlighted the fact that America is way behind in its promise to help fight global poverty:

It was with great fanfare that the United States and 188 other countries signed the United Nations Millennium Declaration, a manifesto to eradicate extreme poverty, hunger and disease among the one billion people in the world who subsist on barely anything. The project set a deadline of 2015 to achieve its goals. Chief among them was the goal for developed countries, like America, Britain and France, to work toward giving 0.7 percent of their national incomes for development aid for poor countries.

Almost a third of the way into the program, the latest available figures show that the percentage of United States income going to poor countries remains near rock bottom: 0.14 percent. Britain is at 0.34 percent, and France at 0.41 percent. (Norway and Sweden, to no one's surprise, are already exceeding the goal, at 0.92 percent and 0.79 percent.)

[...] Jeffrey Sachs, the economist appointed by Kofi Annan to direct the Millennium Project, puts the gap between what America is capable of doing and what it actually does into stark relief.

The government spends $450 billion annually on the military, and $15 billion on development help for poor countries, a 30-to-1 ratio that, as Mr. Sachs puts it, shows how the nation has become "all war and no peace in our foreign policy." Next month, he will present his report on how America and the world can actually cut global poverty in half by 2015. He says that if the Millennium Project has any chance of success, America must lead the donors.

My father and I were talking on the phone the other night and he noted that he's been more than usually generous lately and he wasn't sure why. I said I had noticed the same thing about myself. I actually feel compelled to be generous again and again. Neither of us has any extra money compared with recent years, quite the contrary, and neither of us has had any life-changing event occur that shook us to our core.  It's odd, we agreed, like subliminal messages were behind it. Perhaps it's as simple as how much more obvious than ever it is how little those around us have, how the money won't make as significant a difference in our life as it will for those we give it to. Or maybe (donning tin foil hat) the government has implanted computer chips in our brains and....

There was an elderly Polish gentleman at the Bedford stop of the L train the other night playing a sad rendition of "Silent Night" on the accordian in a style reminiscent of nothing so much as the intermission music played in a Parisian cabaret just slightly past its prime. I threw a dollar in his green plastic bucket and noticed only a handful of change already in there. I hoped he was the sort of busker who frequently pockets his takings to avoid tempting some teenager from grabbing them. His accordian looked ancient and sounded older. It was eerily appropriate background music for my mood and our times.

I'll be offline for the next few days, but before I go want to wish each and everyone of you---at least moments of---peace, goodwill toward others, quiet warm moments with your loved ones, and joy. Most of all I wish you joy!

Comments

[ScottM]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Have a great vacation.

[wilfred]

Great post Edward. You distill what this holiday is supposed to mean, giving and especially to those less fortunate. We as a country must do better. Most Americans think we lead the world percentage-wise but we don't, we give far less than other countries per capita and we don't have a media that spreads this word because Brittney and Scott Peterson are of more interest.

[Stan LS]

Most Americans think we lead the world percentage-wise but we don't, we give far less than other countries per capita

What about private charities?

[Edward]

What about private charities?

Good question. I always have this suspicion that conservatives in general give much more to private charities than they will admit in public. Liberals on the other hand are more open about it.

Not sure one is better than the other, so long as the charities get the money, but it might be an eye-opener if someone had some stats that looked at income, political affiliation, and donations...I'll dig around...

[Stan LS]

Edward,

I am not making this a liberal vs. conservatives thing. Just Americans in general. The post was in response to: Most Americans think we lead the world percentage-wise but we don't, we give far less than other countries per capita.

[Edward]

OK, you're right, no point in looking red/blue here. Is your suspicion, however, that Americans make up for the lack of government donation via private donations? I've been poking around for some stats on that but had little luck so far.

[wilfred]

Sorry to come late to this. Other countries contribute to charities generously as well so it would seem to cancel it out.

[lily]

Thank you for the good wishes. I was having eggnog on the couch with my boyfriend last night, listening to Christmas carols--Emmylou Harris's "Light of the Stable"--and I started crying. It was that line about the "hopes and fears of all the years". I'm not a Christian. I don't get goopy about Christmas carols because of the Christ story. I think it's the idea that mankind can get better that gets to me. Plus I kept picturing Iraq and the dark cold apartments (they're down to six hours of electricity a day).
In my family chraritable contributions are frequently given as gifts. For example I am sponsoring a Gautemalan widwife as a gift to my father and I bought a share in a mobile eye clinic in Tibet as a gift for my boyfriend. I asked all my friends and relatives to my contributions to animal charites for me for Christmas. Maybe someone knows of a way to give to Iraqi civilians.
Any way I'm off to spend time with my folks before gong to spend time with Paul's folks so best wishes, happy winter solstice, season's greeting, and yes, even merry Christmas to everyone. I hope your holidays are warm and nurturing and loving.

[kenB]

According to this (more concerned with tax policy vis-a-vis charitable giving):

even in the United States – often considered a stingy government donor and generous source of charity – private giving is small compared to public giving. U.S. government aid in 2002 was $13.3 billion, or 13 cents a day per U.S. citizen. U.S. private giving to developing countries was another $5.7 billion, less than six cents a day, two cents of which is attributed to U.S. tax policy as opposed to individuals' own decisions. In the end, factoring in tax policy only lifts the U.S. aid rank from 20th to 19th.

[Edward]

KenB, well that's depressing.

[Slartibartfast]

Yes, it is. And it doesn't seem to be a partisan issue, as this sort of aid has declined almost monotonically since the early '60s. The only significant bump in an otherwise relatively smooth decrease came in 1985-86.

[Phil]

How much per capita government and private aid is spent on poor people within the United States? Not that a high figure -- or any figure -- is offered as an excuse for lower per capita aid to developing countries, but of the western liberal democracies, the U.S. is so vast comparably and has such comparably larger internal poverty that those who give often choose to give solely to people within their borders.

That said, Happy Holidays -- hmph! -- everyone.

[kenB]

Phil, you caught me not paying attention -- of course that article was concerned with US giving to developing nations, so it doesn't really answer the original question.

[Roxanne]

Great post, Edward.

Happy Holidays to you and yours.

[felixrayman]

What about private charities?

The only way to make the statistics for US private charitable giving to foreign countries look good is to include "personal remittances from the U.S. to developing countries", i.e., when an H1B worker sends half his check home to his parents in India or an illegal immigrant sends half his check to his family in Latin America, this is considered US private charitable giving to foreign countries, and these remittances constitute more than half of such private charity. I don't intend to disparage such remittances, but statistics that include such numbers can be misleading - if you are making comparisons with other countries, make sure you are doing apple vs. apple comparisons. I doubt that when most people hear the term "private charitable aid to foreign countries" they think of a guest worker feeding his family.

Note that even when these amounts are considered, US government aid and private charity combined are still far smaller, per capita, than government aid alone for countries like Norway or Sweden mentioned above.

[dutchmarbel]

There is always the Commitment to Development Index (CDI) (ranking the 21 richest countries).

"Helping poor countries is about more than aid. We chose major policy areas that support the development of poorer countries and for which reasonable data was available. For 2004, the list of policy areas is: aid, which funds initiatives such as child vaccinations and new roads; trade, which gives industries in poor countries access to larger markets and creates jobs; investment, which can be a source of capital and good management practices; migration, which lets workers seek higher-paying jobs in rich countries and send earnings back home; environment, which underscores the point that rich and poor nations are tied together by shared resources; security, which is a prerequisite for development; and technology, since innovation is a critical factor in development."