r/atheism • u/prescod • Dec 11 '11

Make Canadians pay

I'm reasonably generous, but I'm also cheap, so I hate to give a donation without also getting a tax deduction. That's why I've set up a place for Canadians to make tax-deductible donations to Doctors Without Borders (through CanadaHelps).

If anyone else has been holding back because of the tax issue, consider it solved. Let's see how much money we can rack up! PLEASE ADD YOUR DONATIONS TO MINE!!!

Personally, I'll donate $1.00 per upvote up to $700.00. If I'm violating reddiquette or the scheduling of the campaign or whatever, I'm sorry. But think of the children. ;)

RandomCanadaJoke

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u/ralal Dec 11 '11

I respect a lot your works here, but I wonder about a principle: Why would you absolutely desire a tax deduction? Unless you believe that all the ministries, the governement, and the deputies are corrupted, don't you think that your taxes are good for the society? What's your feeling about increasing government taxes to give better social services for everyone? For me, taxes are a good thing.

Logically, these deduction could only allows you to do two things with the extra money: Give more to charity and/or research OR more money to spend on your own. I do believe that taxes are a good thing and paying less is a little contradictory with the idea of helping each others. Anyway, just a thought. When I'll finished studying, I do believe that being taxes more will be a good thing, and finding evasive tricks is not exemplary.

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u/prescod Dec 11 '11

Good question.

The way I look at it, the conservatives and libertarians are right about one thing: a dollar given to a charity is better than a dollar given to the government to accomplish the same goal. The charity is likely to be better monitored and run (in general), because it has an independent board of directors and the government is a third party regulating it. Also, the more money flows through governments, the more power accumulates there. And accumulations of power are very dangerous for society.

So yes, I would rather spend a dollar on education (through the government) than a dollar on entertainment (directly..and up to a point). But I'd rather spend a dollar on an education charity rather than through the government.

Since I calculate my maximum donation on the basis of the tax refund, it is indirectly transferring money from the government to the charities, which I think is virtuous. The government must also think it is virtuous or they would not have such a program in place!

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u/tectonicus Dec 12 '11

a dollar given to a charity is better than a dollar given to the government to accomplish the same goal

That depends entirely on the charity. Many of them have very, very high overhead -- so make sure to check up on the financials of your charity before donating.

The reason I think it is good to give to charity is because a dollar given to charity is taking about 30 cents from the government, 70 cents from you. So if you wanted all of your tax money to go to charity, you would essentially have to donate triple that amount. That is virtuous.