Is altruism hot again?


And will it stay around for a while? Or will government kill it?
Max Borders asks the important questions about altruism at Tech Central Station.

Since the New Deal, we have voted away so much of our sense of responsibility for our fellow citizens to bureaucrats who may not have the proper incentives to effect positive social change. By sending our altruism to Washington, we have effectively killed many budding philanthropic industries, and probably prevented some ever from coming into existence. Don't believe me? What ever happened to:
 
▪ Mutual Aid Associations?
▪ Fraternal Benefit Societies?
▪ British Friendly Societies?
 
These were volunteer organizations that were abundant around the turn of the 20th Century. These organizations were devoted to benevolent action and community assistance. According to the National Fraternal Congress of America:
 
"Members of these fraternal organizations came together seeking mutual aid. They helped each other and, in doing so, helped themselves. Depending on a fraternal's "common bond", or background, these organizations focused on social opportunities, preservation of the values of an ethnic homeland, cultural assimilation into the new world and assistance for everything from tuberculosis treatments to finding a job."
 
So what happened to them? FDR's centralized welfare state (or Britain's Labour government). When people started having to pay more taxes for social services, they no longer felt the need to support such organizations. Government had crowded out the altruism industry.
 
Seventy years after the New Deal, more and more people (and not just ardent free-traders) are starting to figure out that civil society works better than government at bringing about civic improvement, opportunity, and positive change. The altruism boom is underway. And if the government doesn't smother it, social capitalism can amount to a revolution for tremendous good.

Just as bad money drives out good, bad charity drives out good altruism. The reasons are complicated, but as social conditions become Somebody Else's Problem, people stop paying attention.

One of the best books on the subject is The Tragedy of American Compassion by Marvin Olasky.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Sat - November 26, 2005 at 04:31 AM  Tag


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