Comments on: Charity: Helping Those Poorer Than Me!

By: Trent Hamm

Trent Hamm — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:44:53 +0000

#4: Look at it as a way to get Uncle Sam to donate more. If you donate $1,000 and get a $250 deduction, why not then donate that $250 after you file taxes? Then, the next year, you have a $62.50 deduction … and donate that.

By: Peter Mottola

Peter Mottola — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 02:52:53 +0000

I’ve got a friend who got very involved with the human trafficking issue up at Brown. Terrible stuff, that.

On the financial side: keep track of your donations for tax time. Jesus said “when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing”, although he was a little fuzzier on the subject of Uncle Sam. Apparently places that accept clothing donations will give you receipts and whatnot … hey, why not, right?

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:53:29 +0000

@Traciatim and Bethany -

I completely agree. This isn’t the sort of thing that can change overnight without sending the nation into (more of) a tailspin. Which is why I think doing things like building schools, and working on education, can help.

It’s a bottom up approach, to be sure, but I think this is something to be tackled from both side - a top down approach would, of course, be working on changing the government.

By: Bethany

Bethany — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:39:00 +0000

Yay Cambodia! This is a great cause, but the person above me is right. As someone who has lived in Cambodia, the government will not shut down one of the country’s biggest earnering industries. In order to really stop trafficking and the sex trade, one needs the help of the gov’t, which will never happen under Hun Sen.

By: Traciatim

Traciatim — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:01:55 +0000

Lets take a step back for a second, if the GDP of Cambodia is 8.3 billion according to http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2732.htm and the sex trade and human traffic brings in 500 Million according to the video, that’s 6% of GDP.

There are fears in the USA because the economy may contract by a few tenths of a percent over a couple quarters causing a recession, imagine what would happen if it contracted by 6% suddenly.

Now imagine instead the legalize and regulate prostitution worldwide, and suddenly you convert a degrading illegal activity in to a worldwide industry. It’s very obvious that there is a HUGE market for it. The only reason it’s illegal is because of the crime rate increase involved, but the only reason there is crime involved is because it’s illegal.

Maybe people should get a clue that no matter what you do this will happen as long as there is a market for it. Since the market has been around almost as long as there has been goods to exchange for it, why not get it out in the open.

For the record, I have never exchanged money for sexual favours. Unless you count presents for the spouse . . . which is basically the same transaction I suppose if you really look at it, except with someone you know instead of a stranger.