Christmas Message 2010
Poverty affects us all - lets work to eliminate poverty - 'feel good' giving is a symptom, not a cure.
The need for charity is something that makes me very angry. It reminds me that our society is unjust. The poor continue to be poor, while the rich get richer. Rich people 'feeling good' about giving a few dollars or a few hours of their time to the 'deserving poor' is something I would love to see the end of.
In a fair society, the rich would pay more in tax and that money would go to raising the poor out of poverty.
In their book The Spirit Level, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Picket argue that everyone - rich and poor - is more happy in societies where the gap between rich and poor is less*. Money can't buy you happiness if it makes someone else poorer. We certainly see that every day in our medical practice. Patients who are sick and dying because they can't afford basic medications. They don't need charity, they need free prescriptions funded by taxpayers. Not only will the poor be happier then (they won't die as young), but the rich will be happier too (their tax money won't be wasted on unnecessary hospital admissions). I regularly waste tens of thousands of dollars of tax payers money admitting patients to hospital because they could not afford a $60 prescription. I'm tired of seeing legions of patients who are not poor, but are stressed and miserable because of the fear of losing money and becoming poor. If we had a proper social safety net, that fear would be less and they would be happier.
And don't waste time on the kind of ignorant narcissism displayed by far too many successful people that the poor are poor because of their own choices. We are all the product of our genes and our environment. The rich stack the table against the poor from before conception (leverage) and then add insult to injury by blaming the poor for being poor. 'Feel-good' giving to charity based on that view is like running someone down with your car and then feeling good about yourself because you gave them a band-aid.
A recent report by PEI MLAs recommends that our Social Assistance programs need an overhaul and more money. This, they say, is a matter of social justice not charity.
This Christmas season lets do some real good. Lets express some justified anger. Lets push for a future in which charity 'turkey drives' are just a memory of a dark and unfair past.
