Commodify Your Dissent was a really significant book for me in college. You can read the first chapter here. So was Laura Kipnis’s Ecstasy Unlimited: On Sex, Capital, Gender and Aesthetics.
Criticisms of individual consumer activism, of consumption standing in for political agitation, consumption as privatization of political action and the risks of social justice mediated through capitalism are important and prevalent. But I wonder also about the role of charity within capitalism, which is also largely a kind of privatization, of compensating for the shortfalls of capitalism and correcting the damage of capitalist practices and poor social welfare, economic, environmental, animal welfare and arts funding policy. I wonder about charity in absence of political agitation and about the perception of state service users (such as welfare recipients) vs. those who receive aid via charity. About how philanthropy, charity, and its regulation function to inform ideas about public vs. private, social responsibility, politics and policy. Especially as privatization increases, as charity is encouraged to not only make up for but replace disappearing government service at the very moment of heightened need and decreased donations. About the role of charity in maintaining capitalism. And about socio-economic and political climates affecting our relationship to charity.
In Canada an organization can only receive charitable status if it spends less than 10% of its budget on political activities and only after meeting its disbursement quota requirements. This means that very few charities can spend any meaningful amount on political activity and are encouraged to exist only to continue to make up for lack, not to change the conditions that create it.
People’s suspicion of charity is interesting.
Did you know 49% of money donated in Canada goes to religious organizations but make up only 14% of donations?
13% of donations go to arts, culture and recreation organizations but make up only 3% of donated funds. 14% of donated funds go to health organizations and 10% go to social service organizations.
There is a lot of writing about the practice of this, especially in the UK, but I haven’t found much theoretical work. I want to read it!
Read this:
Why Charity Isn’t Enough: The Case for Raising Taxes on Canada’s Rich
Andrew Jackson (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2007)
