The thorny questions raised by charitable giving

THE last week of the year is a big one for writing cheques to charities, especially for Americans who are fortunate enough to have incomes high enough to justify itemising their deductions. There’s something bewildering about the ritual, though. On what basis do we decide who should get our money? And how much should each receive? Normally we feel good about spending as little as possible on things, but with charitable giving, we tend to think of more as better.

I began thinking about this after I received an email from a psychology professor, Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, criticising what he called “the capitalist system of charities in the USA”. He wrote that charities are “competing to the death for the same 50 cents”.

“Thus,” he went on, “hundreds of organisations fight hunger locally and nationally. When it comes to illnesses, there are thousands of organisations competing. This means a terrible waste of resources”. He recommended that I look at Germany, where the government performs functions that charities perform in the United States.