The Four Levels of Charity

Yesterday, I wrote about the four levels of charity.

1. Government charity funded through forced contributions (taxes).
2. Voluntarily assist the poor.
3. Mentor the poor and help them produce their own wealth.
4. Become self-sustaining and able to help others.

Government charity is the least effective and most damaging form of charity. It increases the number of needy while harming the healthy. The current government system of helping the needy is unsustainable. Did you know that the total of all federal taxes collected this year will not even pay for our obligations to entitlements?

We could improve our charity system in the United States and reduce costs by doing two things.

1. Move to the third level of charity which focuses on mentoring the poor and needy to help them produce their own wealth. This would, over time, reduce the number of poor, increase the number of taxpayers, and reduce overall costs.
2. Move the responsibility to fund and oversee these programs from the federal government to the state and local governments. Cost could be reduced by 30 percent or $500 million in Idaho and would improve social services while reducing costs and solve our current budget problems.