Your Mileage May Vary is an advice column offering you a new framework for thinking through your ethical dilemmas and philosophical questions. This un

I don’t have much money. Is it okay if I don’t give to charity?

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2024-11-28 19:30:16

Your Mileage May Vary is an advice column offering you a new framework for thinking through your ethical dilemmas and philosophical questions. This unconventional column is based on value pluralism — the idea that each of us has multiple values that are equally valid but that often conflict with each other. Here is a Vox reader’s question, condensed and edited for clarity.

As a low-income person, I’m on government assistance and I have government health insurance. My situation makes it so that I cannot donate to others, eat organic, buy slow fashion, etc. I try to thrift and eat organic when I can, but I can’t always ensure that the food I am consuming is being grown or raised in an ethical way — it’s too expensive. And I can’t donate to people. I feel guilt about genocides and wars in other countries, but I cannot afford to donate money to others, not in other countries, and not even in my own country. I am barely above water, but I feel guilt for not being able to do things to better my community, society, and world. Is it okay that I don’t donate because I can’t?

We live in a consumer society, where there’s a lot of focus on how we spend our money. That can trick us into thinking that our spending is the number one reflection of our moral character — as if buying cheap food or clothes automatically means we’re bad, and donating to charity is the only way to do good.

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