Human need draws dollars and corporations net the profits.

Our lives are governed by debt and who is able to claim that debt. Where we live, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the gas we pump, and the entertainment we watch are all made using resources that are not yet paid for. Businesses and Corporations own patents and land from which natural resources like ores, oil, wood, and soil are used to create products needed for our daily lives. One business sells resources to another business which manufactures a product to sell to consumers. This creates a market where there are two types of owners: A) Businesses, and B) Consumers. This market creates a bi-directional flow where goods flow to consumers and consumers’ wages flow to the businesses who make the goods. This co-dependent relationship between consumers and businesses works only if consumers have wages to give to the owner of the goods they need. If a person does not have wages to give — they have no way to purchase the goods they need to live. The lack of wages creates homelessness.

A home is a good which is traded by Builders to Property Owners. A Property Owner may sell or rent the home to a second party in exchange for a negotiable bond or barterable good or service. The most common negotiable bond is money and the barterable service is labor. Labor is exchanged for wages which are bought with money and that money used to purchase goods and services from businesses and other consumers. Someone who is without money is someone who is without the ability to secure for themselves a home. The homeless person must rely upon other consumers or businesses to provide them with a home. Thus, other consumers or businesses are accepting the debt of the homeless person. To do this a Charity is established by businesses and individuals as means of controlling the flow of money into the needs of the homeless person.

What does this mean in human terms? I can give one example in the Sack Lunch program at St. Paul’s Sacramento. There the members have established a small in-house charity where people are invited to bring food from a list of items used in the lunches. Goods like canned fruit, juice drink, canned meat, granola mix, and so on. Bags, spoons, and napkins are provided by the church. At the end of each month there is long table set up as an assembly line and many hands make short work of filling 200 to 300 lunches.

Once assembled, the lunches are placed in small closet and specified people have a key to access the lunches. To receive a lunch someone only needs to be hungry and to ask for one. Anyone can receive a lunch even if they have a job and a home. There are no special strings attached for receiving assistance from the church. When weekday services are over there are several homeless people who are hungry and waiting for a lunch. Over time, we have come to know them by first names and care deeply for their welfare. When someone is absent for a long period of time there is a small amount of concern which builds within our small community. The usual causes of absence are getting into a program or being arrested for homelessness.

The board of our Sack Lunch program is comprised only of church members who are also contributing to the needs of the program. Each person feels a direct call to serve the hungry in our neighborhood. All of the board members are volunteers who do not receive any benefits from being part of the program. In fact, many of the needed items are provided by those on the board. They do not receive media attention and they do not gain any prestige by serving as a leader in a charity organization. Their only perk is to open a small umbrella over a few people in the neighborhood.

In the bigger community umbrella, there are charities who keep the interests of the funding parties in sight through placing trusted persons on the boards drawn from the business community. As the charity population grows, the pool of trusted persons seems to become small and there are only a handful of businesses which work together to fund and operate these sources of public giving.

The other side of the coin is the use of Charities as a means to defray tax costs. Large businesses and corporations reduce their debt to the state through the giving of capital to the public. The subtle part of the giving is in the banking of the donated capital. Banks are able to generate interest on the donations of the businesses and corporations involved. Where that interest goes may be a subject which should be more carefully considered and investigated.

As the charity grows so does the cost of the infra structure. The more services provided the larger the cost of the charity. Large charities use some of the donation money for fundraising events, for advertising, and for newsletters. At some point between large and small is a size which has the least cost and the best service for the donor’s dollars. But there exists the question of where the size becomes a corporation for profit more than an organization of service. At what point does the charity cease to provide a public umbrella and a service for hire.

On the beach, umbrellas and other goods are for sale. The reason charities are created is to provide those who do not have money for an umbrella or home or food to have what it is they need. Just as there would not be a market for umbrellas if people did not go to the beach or want to stay dry in the rain; so to would the market for low income housing, food closets, and medical charities cease if everyone had what they need. The short story is that there is a vested interest of the charity to not be to effective lest they cease to have a purpose in our community. No purpose equals no money and no further influence in the community.

I believe that there will always a need for charity in our community. There will always be a need for a group of people to raise an umbrella over another to protect them from rain, hunger, violence, and prejudice. How that umbrella is raised depends on the choices of the community as a whole. We must ask ourselves what we want to represent our charity for neighbor and friends alike. Do we choose the corporations or do we choose ourselves?