Assuage your guilt, sponsor a child

There is nothing lazier and less helpful you can do to a cause than just cut them a blind check every month. But for some people, cutting that check isn't enough. They need to be told and reassured that they are doing the right thing. They need letters, pictures and grade reports for that extra sense of accomplishment.

If people thought about the additional cost required to compile and translate all of the information, they would realize their money could go much further.

If they actually targeted the true causes of poverty like war, disease, political problems, lack of access to education and the imbalanced trade rules they would actually accomplish something. But that would require them questioning their own position in the world.

Would the suburbanite really want to lose half their income (and half their lifestyle) so that another country manufacturing their goods could live above the poverty level? I doubt it, because people COULD give away half of their income and make a much more strategic attack on these issues.

But the truth is they don't really care, and that is what bothers me. If you don't care, don't pretend like you do, okay?