In the Middle Ages, monasteries often had healing clinics and hospitals, though the hospitals were for the dying, usually. And sometimes food for people in want.
Of course, in the Middle Ages, the Church was really part of the government, parallel to the kings, dukes, etc etc.
Now medical care has gotten so expensive that it's beyond the capacity of any charity except for isolated cases. Similarly for housing. Food there's some support for.
Wouldn't you be happy if more people were like your parents? If there were "expensive doctors" who felt in their hearts the need to help your aunt, free of charge? It's not an imaginary world, it just takes work to build. But the further we replace the spirit of charity with an impersonal, dysfunctional system of coercion, the harder it is to realize that world.
What’s even better is, this system already exists and is being utilized beyond its breaking point.
How do I know? Well, it takes 1 to 2 YEARS to be approved for SSI or SSDI and, if you can’t work, someone has to pay for your basic cost of living. Or you become homeless.
Anyone who is applying for SSDI and isn’t homeless is being supported by someone.
My parents wanted to retire another state. My aunt needed to come with them because they handle a large amount of her care. She was unable to apply for medicaid in the new state until dropping medicaid in the old state but there was no guarantee that she'd get medicaid in the new state. So moving was incredibly perilous.
In all seriousness, I appreciate it. No snark, I don’t care if we don’t see eye-to-eye from a policy perspective, I appreciate what you’re doing.
Disability is a really hard experience. I can’t describe what it’s like to lose these things we take for granted. Being without pain. Making choices for yourself. Going to a movie.
By giving a disabled person a home, you’re giving some of that back to them. If you’ve never done this before, you might be surprised by how hard it is, the rewards for the disabled person aren’t necessarily always visible, but what you’re doing is important.
This is a pretty dishonest strawman on many levels. First, taxation-based disability support is "spirit of charity" at scale.
Second, local charity is not mutually exclusive with disability support and talking about "replace" makes a strawman.
Third, local charity is in no way guaranteed. Something happens and suddenly charities run out of funds and disabled people can die of hunger.
I invite you to not pay your taxes and watch what happens.
As a society? Societies are perfectly free to decide to stop taxation.
Even if you could make that argument that coerced individual decisions could result in non-coerced societal decisions, you need to consider the entire implication: society is being "charitable" to itself, which isn't charity, it's selfishness. Charity is giving to others. So your point is nonsensical on multiple levels.
I would, yes. But just hoping that the world is filled with people who are willing and capable of helping in this manner is not productive. Almost nobody has the time and resources and will to help in the ways that my parents have.
> If there were "expensive doctors" who felt in their hearts the need to help your aunt, free of charge?
That'd be nice too. I do not expect this to be a thing I can rely on.
Hard to do when malpractice lawsuits are a thing.
Yes. These people simply died. Charity helps a few of them but is woefully incapable of helping all of them.
> They were helped at a local level by charitable people who cared about each other and knew that taking care of each other was part of a healthy society.
My aunt has a brain injury. She needs trained help as well as expensive doctors. Charity has done fuck all to help her - except the countless hours my parents have spent helping her. Where are these magical charities she can go to?