We're All to Blame for this Travesty
Want to know how best to NOT solve a problem? Simple. Wait for someone else to take care of it. Here's Exhibit A in why people in poverty in this country shouldn't expect those with the power and funding to help them anytime soon.
From the September 25, 2007 edition of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, we find out that U.S. lawmakers recently held hearings to announce that foundations need to do a better job of giving funding to people living below the poverty line, especially minorities and those living in rural communities. Some members of Congress even advocated changing the tax code so that only donations to groups that serve the poor were fully tax-deductible. According to our elected leaders, our poor are not being served by foundations and high-end donors who have abandoned them for other causes.
Conversely, large foundations are aligning together to create a special initiative designed to get political leaders, especially those running for president in 2008, "to give priority to issues related to poverty and hunger." The large foundations apparently believe that our poor are not being served by our elected officials, and therefore our taxpayers.
Who's right? They both are, of course. In the last few decades, our elected officials, our foundations, our high-end donors, and the taxpayer populace have all expressed that they'd rather have their funding go somewhere else than aiding those who toil in poverty. And of course, the only way that ever changes is when someone decides to take the lead and fix the problem, rather than pointing an accusatory finger at others. After all, someone once said problems of this size and scope "take a village" to solve.
From the September 25, 2007 edition of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, we find out that U.S. lawmakers recently held hearings to announce that foundations need to do a better job of giving funding to people living below the poverty line, especially minorities and those living in rural communities. Some members of Congress even advocated changing the tax code so that only donations to groups that serve the poor were fully tax-deductible. According to our elected leaders, our poor are not being served by foundations and high-end donors who have abandoned them for other causes.
Conversely, large foundations are aligning together to create a special initiative designed to get political leaders, especially those running for president in 2008, "to give priority to issues related to poverty and hunger." The large foundations apparently believe that our poor are not being served by our elected officials, and therefore our taxpayers.
Who's right? They both are, of course. In the last few decades, our elected officials, our foundations, our high-end donors, and the taxpayer populace have all expressed that they'd rather have their funding go somewhere else than aiding those who toil in poverty. And of course, the only way that ever changes is when someone decides to take the lead and fix the problem, rather than pointing an accusatory finger at others. After all, someone once said problems of this size and scope "take a village" to solve.
Labels: Chronicle of Philanthropy, John Lewis, Robert Reich, Spotlight on Poverty, Xavier Becerra
posted by Trent Stamp at 9:58 AM
4 Comments:
Your blog contains a factual error:
Robert Reich is the one who advocated changing the tax code, but Mr. Reich is not a member of Congress.
Perhaps you should expunge this error from your post.
Thanks, anonymous, but no expunging is necessary, as there is no factual error.
Yes, Robert Reich did indeed advocate changing the tax code recently in a L.A. Times op/ed (and no, he's not a member of Congress-thanks). But in the article actually linked to in this blog entry, it is U.S. Representatives Xavier Becerra and John Lewis that advocate changing the tax code to make donations to groups that combat poverty worth more than those to cultural groups.
Great blog... I found it through a link from Larry James' Urban Daily:
http://larryjamesurbandaily.blogspot.com/2007/11/assigning-blame.html
I just wish I understood the resolution to this situation. You seem to imply that governments and foundations need to wrok together to address this need. Do you see that happening?
My concern is that large, high profile foundations like the Gates Foundation have great capacity to address these issues... but even their capacity to fund solutions is dwarfed by the capacity of the government to address them. My concern here is that the government will get off the hook because its constituents think that solutions by private foundations can somehow address the need.
Trent:
I am sure you saw this, but just in case:
A new report from the Internal Revenue Service shows the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans earned a record 21.2 percent of all income in 2005 — up from 19 percent in 2004. Meanwhile, the bottom 50 percent earned 12.8 percent of all income, down from 13.4 percent in 2004. According to the IRS, the median tax-filer’s overall income fell 2 percent between 2004 and 2005.
Charity alone is not going to be enough to address this situation. It will be a thumb in the dam.
There is a good string along these lines at Phil Cubeta's blog, Gift Hub:
http://www.gifthub.org/2007/11/from-history-ne.html
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