Ask Rockridge: Preserving Our Shared Responsibility

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How can we reassert the progressive vision of government when challenged by conservatives who say that charities are the solution?

Here's another way to put the question posed to us:

A constant argument we hear from conservative think tanks is that private charities should replace government programs because charities are more effective and don't waste our tax dollars. In short, the argument is that philanthropy is the job of private charities, not governments.

How can progressives better communicate that a democratic government, of the people, by the people, and for the people, should have the mutual responsibility of taking care of its own people -- specifically in regards to the public programs vs. private charities debate?

Here's a little secret that the conservative elites don't want you to know. One of their strategic political goals is to defund the progressive movement itself. This can be done by destroying social programs. They know that we can't stand by and do nothing while people suffer. Many progressive foundations devote their limited resources to providing public services when government programs are cut. Progressive money gets spread out to a multitude of non-profit organizations instead of going towards building a progressive infrastructure to counter the conservative infrastructure that continues to grow.

In order to answer this question more fully, it may be helpful to keep in mind that philanthropic organizations - including family foundations and charities - work differently from government.

Philanthropic organizations allocate resources in a manner that reflects the priorities of the private interests who control the money - the board of directors decides which issue areas are most important and who the money should go to. So, a foundation's funding decisions may not necessarily coincide with the needs of Americans as a whole.

For example, the conservative Charles G. Koch and Adolph Coors Foundations fund think tanks and other organizations that work to eliminate government spending on social programs aimed to assist the poor, including Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Few would call such actions "charitable."

Similarly, non-profit organizations decide who counts as "worthy" of their charity. Some, such as The Food Pantry established by Sara Miles in San Francisco, provide help to anyone who wants it, no questions asked. This is certainly different from a charity that provides assistance with strings attached, like having to join some religious group. With private charity, both are possible.

The moral mission of government, as it pertains to the debate between public programs and private philanthropy, is to pool the common wealth of the populace to address the needs of the public. The agenda is set through our democratically elected government and represents the public interest and needs of all people - including disenfranchised groups whose priorities may not be the same as those of wealthy families.

Non-profit organizations serve a different function than government, filling the gaps where government intervention is inappropriate, ineffective, or devastation has been caused by harmful government policies. For example, a non-profit organization may open a soup kitchen to feed people living on the street. But the deeper systemic causes of ongoing poverty and chronic homelessness can only be addressed through our collective action, which is government policy and programs.

In other words, non-profit organizations should be used to address the immediate symptoms of societal problems. A soup kitchen does an excellent job serving meals to the hungry, but it cannot improve the job market or raise minimum wage to empower the poor with reliable opportunity. Government policy is needed to address these root causes of hunger in American cities.

Non-profit organizations provide a wide variety of community services. And they always will. However, we should not outsource essential government functions to the private sector. Systemic problems require societal solutions, which we create together through our democratic government.

People who do charitable work know this as well as anybody. They are keenly aware of how limited their efforts are when government policies do not address, or are set up to work against, the needs of people. The moral mission of protecting and empowering is best served by government, where it can be directed at root causes of harm for the benefit of all.

So why do conservative think tanks promote charity over government so strongly? Because they believe that if people are poor it's their own fault, and they should take the consequences and suffer. Conservatives see charities not as fulfilling needs, but as providing incentives -- requiring recipients to be "worthy" -- church-going or otherwise "respectable" and hard-working. In this conservative way of thinking, charity creates a moral hierarchy, with the wealthy on top. (Learn more about conservative thought in our handbook Thinking Points.)

Replacing social programs with charities also allows conservatives to undermine the progressive movement (as noted in the beginning of this response), a strategic initiative that guides their long-term thinking.

It is easy to see why non-profit organizations are good things to have. The hidden truth that we would like to make clear is that charities often arise to fulfill needs where government is absent, but they cannot pick up all the slack. If the government were to promote successful social programs, many of our charitable organizations would no longer be necessary.

This truth can be seen by framing the discussion around our shared responsibility to address societal concerns. The public interest is best served by the public.

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