Living in Our Times: The Growing Ocean of Fundraisers and Crowdfunding

This morning, my email in-box included several requests to support "fundraising" efforts, both formal initiatives as well as individual crowdfunding efforts.

That's not so unusual; I'm sure you get lots of similar requests.

Their presence, however, made me sit back and think a bit about these appeals — in general — and their seemingly ever growing presence in our lives... and the deeper implications of that.

A Driftwood stump... that could become some nice posts....

Just Get a Job!

Charity has pretty much always been part of our social landscape, but never to this extent. When I was a kid — 1960's and 1970's — there were plenty of fund drives for things like "Save the Animals" and "Refugees" and "Red Cross" and such things.

What's new in this landscape is the advent of individuals asking for money: "Help me pay my medical bills," and "Fund my car repairs," and "Help me pay my rent!" have become pretty commonplace.

Of course, part of me loves the idea that we now have independent avenues to come up with money for life's setbacks and other things — we're no longer entirely dependent on government assistance and going through laborious grant application and interview processes with giant organizations that take in millions to pay a giant staff and publicity machine while dispensing only thousands to those actually in need. That part is pretty cool.

When I was a kid, though, an awful lot of these "causes" people try to raise money for would have been met with a pretty stern "Well, you'd better get a JOB, then!" as the answer to how you're going to pay for your major car repair.

Changing Times...

The thing is, however, that the entire idea of "just get a job!" is increasingly not really an option in a very functional sense.

As you probably know, I have written quite a bit about our growing dependence on automation... and in the current context of needing a part time job to raise money for your car repair... well, chances are that your desire to get a part time job as a checker at Home Depot doesn't exist anymore, because checkers have been replaced by a bank of self-checkout stations.

My point being that it's easy to attribute people's "begging for money" to laziness and a sense of entitlement... but — in many cases — "get a job" is far less of an option than it once was. Which leaves the sad choice of "beg... or go without."

Pointing to this mystical thing called "The Economy" and stating that we are better off than ever because the stock market is up and the GDP is at an all-time high may be true, but misses the point.

Indeed "Corporate Profits" may be higher than ever, but they are basically a number used to fuel stock prices, which keeps the investor layer of the economy happy... but ultimately, most investors do little more than take a $100 bill from their right hand, move it to their left hand and claim that their doing so made it "worth $110" in the process. They neither do nor produce anything tangible... nor do their efforts magically recreate jobs that no longer exist...

... and they certainly don't contribute to someone being able to afford their car repair, or their medical procedure. Because that's not an "investment."

New Paradigms for New Times

And so, we probably just have to face the fact that crowdsourcing and people "begging for money" is here to stay.

In a sense, these efforts are simply a sign of our times... a sign that people can less and less afford their lives, and that the number of "other funding options" are getting fewer, as typical "extra jobs" one might take to raise money are vanishing off the map.

The interesting thought here, though, is that we often speak of things like "Basic Income" and "Voluntary Gift Economies" as potential solutions to people's financial woes of the future... and what is crowdsourcing but a variation of people (who can afford to do so) voluntarily contributing to someone else's cause... and (in a sense) providing them a sort of "Basic Income" they would otherwise have earned through a part time job?

Look like pretty similar ideas, from where I am sitting. Depending on your situation, there are options from "recurring payment" platforms like Patreon to "one time" funding like GoFundMe.

All in all, at least these people are doing something other than just sitting around, feeling entitled, or expecting government assistance.

And so, I'm OK with putting up with the growing flow of in-box messages. Heck, I may even have to resort to it, myself, if some unexpected medical emergency rears its ugly head... because I'm part of "America's Health Plan:" DON'T GET SICK!

Thanks for reading!

How about YOU? Have you noticed a greater flow of "charity" requests, in recent years? How do you feel about individuals trying to fund various aspects of their lives through donations? Have you ever used crowdfunding, yourself? If so, how did it work out for you? Do you think this is a growing wave of the future? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

(As always, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 190307 13:14 PST
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