After discussing altruism in class along with the controversial topic of charity, I found it ironic, as well as heartbreaking, that on Friday Japan experienced a horrific natural disaster. The irony in this incident is that almost immediately I saw relief efforts asking citizens to donate money to help the people of Japan. Now, I am not a cold hearted individual, and I know Japan is in dire straits; the images that have been shown on the news far exceeded those of Hurricane Katrina. Yet somehow I remain weary of handing over my money to people supposedly helping out the people of Japan. The discussion in class about charity fraud made me hyper aware of the simplicity of cheating others out of their money by posing as a charity. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, reports of charity abuse started to circulate, especially connected with the big name events held to raise money for relief. Apparently, the majority of the funds never actually reached those who were in need. That's why I am so hesitant to give my money over to some random source. I would rather take action and actually try to personally help the people, which poses a major problem in the case of the Japan disaster because I cannot go to Japan and help. So the question is:
Is it better to give money to a charity that could potentially be fraudulent or do nothing at all?
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