That’s right. Do nothing. With all of the shockingly obvious yet easily reparable flaws that I was able to identify during my short time there, the system should be left alone.
Why? Maybe a visual will help out here.
The x-axis represents the amount of effort, funding, or whatever you put into fixing any social problem, and the red curve represents the number of people that are helped. If you put too little effort into it, very few– maybe even zero – people will be affected. After all, who are you helping if everyone gets an additional nickel per year in aid? How about an extra ten dollars per year? One hundred? At some point the level of aid starts to matter and more and more people are helped. But, without infinite time and resources, some are so bad off that they can’t have their problems “money-ed away” so the curve maxes out somewhere.
But that’s not the full story. Let’s look at it from a different point of view. Again, the level of effort is on the x-axis but this time the y-axis represents self-reliance. With little or no aid put out there, individual self-reliance needs to stay high in order to meet the bare necessities of survival. With a little more aid, life becomes easier for those truly in need. Unfortunately, life also becomes easier for those who would simply rather not work.
Like I mentioned before, at the beginning of this process (signup for benefits) and its end (delivery of goods to recipients) there were folks who were clearly grateful for the helping hand and there were folks who were vocally convinced that the existence of this program was a God-given right. Most sat in the middle of the spectrum, just going through the motions.
There will always be people that game the system, regardless of what “the system” is. That’s just human nature. I am sure you know someone doing this. I personally know two able-bodied yet unemployed people that simply refuse to find work. One of them told me that there was no reason to look for a job when he could just stay home and make enough money each week just by cashing a check. The other told me that she just wishes people would stop asking her about getting a job – “At some point, you’re just over it, you know?” she said.
Neither one of these people I mention will starve or be living under a bridge anytime soon. Or ever. As soon as the benefits are about to run out they will get jobs, they have said.
Anyway, the more effort and money you put in, the less and less people need to do for themselves in order to just get by. Eventually you reach a point where everyone has stopped trying altogether because, frankly, what’s the point for working so damn hard if society is just going to give you everything you need anyway? Obviously, the long-term effects of that policy would be horrible.
Combining the two graphs gives this one.
Let’s rename the x-axis efficiency, competence, or something similar. The y-axis is a blend of the two others and I will now call it “societal good”. Very little effort or funding or operating at low efficiency, as expected, results in low impact to society as a whole. Increasing the efficiency helps society more and more until a maximum is reached. Any further boost actually begins to hurt society because “learned helplessness” has exceeded “true need”. People who would normally never consider aid begin to ask themselves “Why not?” and the people in the middle who were formerly going through the motions now become dependent on this increase.
Let’s rename the x-axis efficiency, competence, or something similar. The y-axis is a blend of the two others and I will now call it “societal good”. Very little effort or funding or operating at low efficiency, as expected, results in low impact to society as a whole. Increasing the efficiency helps society more and more until a maximum is reached. Any further boost actually begins to hurt society because “learned helplessness” has exceeded “true need”. People who would normally never consider aid begin to ask themselves “Why not?” and the people in the middle who were formerly going through the motions now become dependent on this increase.
Yes, the headline-grabbing news when some individual is “left behind” is sad. It is tragic, in fact. In a perfect world it wouldn’t be that way. But no program that is designed to service a large group of people is ever going to be 100% successful without infinite resources. At some point “diminishing returns” kicks in and the group starts to suffer while fewer and fewer people are helped with the addition of more and more effort. That isn’t cruel. That’s just simple math.
So I believe, based on what I have read and what I have witnessed is that, true to their slogan, the Salvation Army is, indeed, “Doing the Most Good”. No changes should be made to make the Angel Tree program better in any way. [As a matter of fact, based on the group’s 2011 financials, it seems that all federal, state, and local government fiduciary support could be pulled immediately and the Salvation Army (and many other charitable organizations) would be just fine].
Maybe I’m losing touch with my roots. But, you know, I sometimes wonder if that would be such a bad thing...
I am a firm believer in the maxim “Just because something is impossible to do, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try”. But where does it end? You can’t apply that pithy, bumper-sticker-worthy credo to any and all situations. For those of you that think that viewpoint is an example of the heartless, Godless trajectory this country is on, pick up a world history book and open it to a random spot. Now tell me if we, as a species, we as a country, we as a whatever are better or worse off than the day-to-day sufferings of the people surrounding the events spelt out before you on those pages.
I would say we’re doing okay.
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