Cheapness redefined

There are two types of cash donations to charity.

The most well-known is personal charity. This is when individuals give money out of their own pocket to help some charitable cause. There can be some personal benefits to this (donating to a kid’s soccer team on which your child is a member, or donating to a church which helps pay the salary of the Reverend), or it can be donations to help the needy or cure cancer.

Sometimes people get receipts for these donations which can take a little bit of the sting out of the loss of cash as they are likely to be tax-deductible, but often people make these donations regardless of the tax advantages. But for those in the 30% tax bracket, a deductible donation costs the rest of society that lost revenue, which means taxes need to be raised on everyone a little bit more.

The second type is government-sponsored donations to help some worthy cause. For example, society can determine that needy people should be given food or medical services or housing and it provides public assistance for those purposes. Society pays 100% of these costs.

In most towns (including Acton) we have a food pantry to help people who are having trouble buying food....

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