Not so Charitable

The story of Olive Cooke is saddening. However, the underlying story is one of third sector greed. Olive was of a generation that is swayed by cold calls and mail-shots – more so than the more cynical generations that followed. I’ve had to intervene when my mother-in-law has received mail-shots and phone calls seeking money. In her case, these were obvious scams. In Olive’s they were charities she had supported in the past. Unfortunately, charities never seem to know when to stop. Give them a donation and they want more. Mrs L once had a direct debit set up for a charity and she would receive calls asking for her to increase it. So, not content with the generosity in  the first place, they keep coming back for more.

Yet charities receive free money from us already. The state takes it in the form of taxes and gives it to charities – many of which are not actually charities at all; merely lobbying groups that fraudulently masquerade under a charitable status (fake charities). And we are expected to keep putting our hands in our pockets to give them even more. They have expensive call centres and chuggers in  place to harass and bully people to give them more and more money. Unsurprisingly, people are becoming hardened to it.

I, for one, will not give to charity. The money taken by the state is taken without my consent and given to organisations that I would never willingly support. Given this, not one penny more. Sure, if the state stops funding these organisations, some will fold. Good. Some should fold and the sooner the better. If a charity cannot convince enough people to give to it to keep it going, then it deserves to go under.

And don’t get me started on the obscene salaries handed out to their chief executives. Why should I fund this?

Olive Cooke didn’t see the world in the same jaded way that I do. She was,  perhaps, a better person for it. The cynical, manipulative third sector took advantage of that good nature and she eventually couldn’t take it any more. If I am jaded and cynical, what does this make the greedy, grasping, parasitic third sector?