Most recent example: I was asked to participate/lead our team’s Movember campaign at my company.
How I politely declined: oh sorry, I’m a bit too busy with my personal life and work projects this year.
My unpopular opinion I couldn’t say: it doesn’t align with my values.
Movember raises money and promotes awareness of Men’s health. Nothing wrong with the organisation themselves, but frankly I think the paltry couple of thousand of dollars our (pretty large) company manages to raise each year is a waste of time.
If we taxed corporations a fraction of a percent more on corporate profits we would bring is orders of magnitude more money than individuals asking others, out of the kindness of the hearts, for money.
Health research shouldn’t have to beg for money, the government should just fund it with tax dollars. Taxes that you don’t get to choose to pay. Other than by voting.
I hate fun runs, and do subtly judge those who participate in them, especially because (I think) they skew towards wealthier people, and it’s their way of making themselves feel good for raising money for cancer or whatever, and then turn around and vote for tax cuts, and use accountants to make their tax liability as low as possible - something poorer people can’t afford.
I used to give money to charity when I was younger. But I honestly think it’s silly now, and it ought not have to exist.
(Mods, this is politics adjacent, but I feel is general enough to be compliant, since I’d say most people view charity organisations mostly favourably)
I’m the same. I find charity a reflection on the failure of the state to meet people’s needs. It’s not something I view positively.
Furthermore so much money is wasted paying wages for CEOs, coo, cfos, etc-o’s that each one of the charities have. How many millions of funds for say cancer research are going to however many individual charities admin staff?
I own a business, we make medical devices and send them to people in need. We are entirely funded from fundraisers right now. A paltry couple of thousands of dollars is potentially 2000 people saved from death.
If, coulda woulda, the reality is corporations aren’t taxed the way you propose they be. I agree that we probably shouldn’t need to beg for the money and it should be done “for the greater good” from taxes. But it isn’t.
Honestly I don’t really care about how people raise the money. If they like “fun runs”, do em. If it makes them feel better, whatever. They can have an evening with champagne. You can find those events distasteful, but in the end - they fund people like me. And thanks to people like me and my coworkers, kids in Gaza got polio vaccines. Hospitals got medical devices and staff.
By not giving to charity, you aren’t sticking it to “the man”, or the rich people doing a charity gala. You are taking away the possibility of someone to create something that will help people survive. The huge events that make people feel better about themselves will happen, what won’t happen is the creation of a medical device that saves a life.
I worked for a grocery chain in south east America called, Publix. Every year they have a big meeting about United Way, a large organization that accepts donations to then handpick what charities the money goes to. Overall I have no problem with united way, it solves the question “what should I donate to”. What i didn’t like was that Publix handed out forms at the end of the meeting heavily suggesting how much money from each paycheck should be donated to united way. It was just a big guilt trip. They kept track of which location donated the most and proudly patted theirselves on the back. Like every other corporation we weren’t paid enough and overworked. Prices climbed higher and the CEO got richer. When I was up for promotion my manager said it would look better if I donated more money per paycheck. Why the fuck would he be able to see that? Why the fuck would that be a factor as to whether I got promoted?
There are multiple issues with this method, though.
First of all, United Way takes a great deal of money of the donated funds off the top for themselves and only 7 cents of every dollar actually make it to the chosen organization. So it would be much better for you to donate directly to the organization so they receive 100% of your donation.
Secondly, when you donate money through your paycheck (or at the register when shopping), this is added to the the pool of money that the company claims as being donated as a “corporate donation” which comes off of their taxes at the end of the year and to make it seem like good PR for them (ie, “Publix gave X amount of dollars to charity this year”), all the while none of it actually coming out of their own account book.
Absolutely no one should know if you did or didn’t contribute through your paycheck, and if that is being used as a reason to limit your promotion potential please speak to HR (I know you are no longer there, but others may need to hear this, or you may have a future employer that uses a similar system).
Any corporate sponsored charity event is 100% just a tax break for the corp paid for by others.
Not quite. It is also cost-effective marketing
perfect is the enemy of good
Yeah, and again, I will reiterate that many organisations do good work. However, my specific unpopular opinion is that I dislike that people think charity isn’t a symptom of a failed system.
I dislike that people feel good about it. Rather than question why we’re raising money for men’s health in the first place.
Charity for the purposes of fundraising for things which ought to be provided by the state, isn’t just not perfect, I’d even say it’s bad. It perpetuates the status quo of underfunding vital publically funded good. Because people feel good about it, then go about their day and vote for fuckers who promise them tax cuts.
And trust me, I live in a country that could absolutely afford to fund a more universal public health system and research (per capita).
