I Donate to My Cause - Not Yours

In the February 9, 2011 Standard Laconic, Pat Morgan argued that North Carolina should not deny government assistance to anyone testing positive for drugs. He argues that those receiving welfare benefits who are on drugs would be much worse off if they did not receive such benefits.

Helping those who are on drugs to better themselves is a noble cause and not one that I would tell anyone is unworthy. And if this is something Pat Morgan is passionate about, then he should support it vehemently. There are many causes that I am passionate about. I want to help the poor, families having trouble buying food, and those struggling in education.

Sadly, I have a limited budget, like most Americans. I can't donate nearly as much as I want to for these causes. Most of my donations end up going directly to my church, which has excellent programs to support many of these things that I care about.

But I never ask for government to make you donate to my causes. If the things that I am passionate about are justified, I may be able to make an argument to convince you to send a donation as well. But I would never ask anyone to make you donate to these things. Because if I make you donate to the things that I care about, then you may not be able to donate to the things that you care about.

This is the situation that Pat Morgan believes you should be in. He sees providing welfare for drug addicts as a better cause than any cause you currently support. He believes it so much that he wants the government to take from your limited budget and give it to this cause. It should supersede any other donations that you are making, enforceable through the tax code.

The assumption is also that whatever government assistance is provided is done so in an efficient way, without fraud, that will produce results. But a government program or a law is incapable of dealing with such a complex issue. No government program can determine if assistance is helpful or wasteful. Only people can do this. That's what makes voluntary donations so much more effective than mandatory donations. People can donate to the programs that they can see are obtaining the outcome that they most desire - not that Pat Morgan wants.

This is the problem with most government well-intentioned assistance programs. If Pat Morgan knows of some unlimited funding source, he should access this to support all of the causes that everyone cares about. Most families have to make a decision about what they will forgo in order to donate to the things that they value most. But any government social program removes some money from all of our budgets, leaving the things we care about hanging.