With philanthropy we feel No Pain while have No Gain

Posted by Alexander Ginzburg on July 18, 2008
Filed Under Philanthropy |

In my previous post, I’ve started a discussion about the negative influences of philanthropy, with the intention of projecting some of those insights on the Internet. I’ve argued that philanthropy causes inefficiency by preventing progress from happening. The main argument presented by those who oppose this notion, is that people enjoy helping others. Allegedly, this is a win-win situation, the needed receive help and the contributors get satisfaction. Therefore it seems that there is no justification to interfere with this process even if there is some inefficiency in it. However, I intend to contest this argument. In order to do so I will refer separately to the contributors and to those who need assistance. I will start with the later.

Obviously, people who need help would be better if their problems were solved rather than relieved. However, most of the philanthropic organizations deal more with relieving the suffering of the needed, rather than preventing it. There are a few reasons for that; I’ve mentioned some of them in my previous post, like inefficient distribution of resources and lack of legislative authority. Another reason is the state of mind of those organizations. It’s only natural for any organization to act for its self preservation. Therefore, they have little motivation to look for a cardinal solution to a problem that is the only purpose of their own existence. Moreover, a non-profit organization depends on its ability to collect contributions. As a result, it may prefer actions with immediate results in order to satisfy its existing contributors and to be more visible to the potential ones. Unfortunately, those actions may often be at the expense of a long term solution.

I will try to demonstrate this with an analogy from the world of medicine. One of the most important tools to the survival of a human being is pain. Its purpose is to notify about an existing or a potential threat to the body. This alarm assists us in avoiding possible dangers (like fire, sharp objects and cold water) and to treat already existing damage (like infections, injuries and diseases). The importance of this defense mechanism can be fully appreciated by observing a rare genetic disorder, called CIPA. People who suffer from this condition feel no pain. One can wonder whether it is a positive thing, but the fact is that the life expectancy of those people is much lower in compare to the rest of the population, especially among children. Many of them suffer from complications caused by relatively minor injuries that went bad due to a lack of treatment. Now, let’s compare the condition of the human body and the human society. Similarly to the body, the society can also suffer from failures, and it has its defense mechanisms as well. The discontent of some parts of the population can function in the society the same way as pain functions in the human body. They both serve as symptoms of grater problems. In order to stop the suffering permanently, the source of the failure needs to be addressed and not just the symptoms. Once the source is gone the suffering it has caused will cease to exist while dealing with the symptom directly won’t make it disappear on the long run. That’s why we don’t treat cancer with pain killers. As opposed to medicine, the “pain” felt by the society is not always referred to as a sign of a more fundamental problem, and consequently is no being treated accordingly. Philanthropy is one of the causes to that; typically it serves as a “pain killer” that blurs the senses of the society. It eases the “pain”, to a point that it is being ignored and as a result the source of it is being neglected. Instead of dealing with it at the beginning, while it is still minor, the problem gets worse until it can’t be relived with the “pain killers” anymore and only then, when it’s much harder an costly, it gets the attention it deserves.

To conclude my point, let’s see an example. Recently, a group of refugees from Darfur (a region in Sudan) made their way to Israel through Egypt. Those people were escaping the genocide of the non-Arab population in Sudan, which is being committed by an Arab militia with the support of the government. The Israeli government was taken by surprise and it took them a while to determine the legal status of the refugees. While every citizen of Israel has a health insurance by virtue of law, the status of the refugees was unclear. Many of them were in poor health condition. Many people came to their aid and a non-profit organization (NPO) was founded with the purpose of providing health services to the refugees from Africa. This organization used its limited resources to provide basic medical needs, while the government wasn’t in hurry solving this problem. After a while the NPO went out of money and it was on the verge of closing. Only then, not being able to resist the rising public pressure, the legislators began the process of applying the national health insurance on the refugees and by that granting them the lawful right for full medical services. The NPO has just delayed the comprehensive solution of the problem.