Automating generosity to beggars
How many people begging for money do you come across per day? 1, 2, 3, 4?
Do you hesitate to give, to not give, about how much to give, do you wonder if they need it if it worth it? Yes
Do you often end by almost not giving anything to anyone, to avoid any complex choices? Yes
Is it frustrating? a bit stressful? Yes
Solution:
Let's imagine something.
Each time you come across someone asking money, you give money to him/her. Systematically.
Small amount.
No thinking.
That's the key point. No thinking.
Generosity should be a reflex, just turn off light when you exit a room or lock your door when leaving your house.
You can still apply some exclusion criteria if you make them easily applicable.
How it will look like:
Conservative projection:
You come across 1 person a day, you give 50 cents.
Budget per...
...week: $3,5
...month: $14
...year: $168
As you won't have the exact sum every day, you can vary the amount a bit of course.
And you won't have everyday coins in your pocket so we can lower 30% to the yearly amount: $117.
A tip is to put your coins in your pocket but not in your wallet. If it's in your wallet, you're often too lazy to find it, open it, pick the right amount, etc.
High projection:
You come across 4 people a day, you give 50 cents.
Budget per...
...week: $14
...month: $56
...year: $672
Variant, with a quota:
You'll give 1 dollar per day to the first person you"ll meet.
It costs $30 per month...
Variant picking a person:
You always give to the same person, every day.
Here, even the extreme case won't make you poor. 56 dollar per month is like 1 good restaurant.
The pretty conservative option, 14 dollar is like a good burger per month.
Sum up:
Automating generosity will lower your stress level, frustration level, make you feel better about you, make a lot of people in the streets happier. And the cost will be very limited and totally under control.
PS: The same process can apply to donations. I donate monthly to GiveDirectly.com - an organization promoting basic income in Africa - to know more about basic income, the only way our civilization will survive peacefully in our future full of robots and AI: revenudebase.info - be sure I'd never donated so much money if it was not automatic :) No stress, and everybody's happy.
Do you hesitate to give, to not give, about how much to give, do you wonder if they need it if it worth it? Yes
Do you often end by almost not giving anything to anyone, to avoid any complex choices? Yes
Is it frustrating? a bit stressful? Yes
Solution:
Let's imagine something.
Each time you come across someone asking money, you give money to him/her. Systematically.
Small amount.
No thinking.
That's the key point. No thinking.
Generosity should be a reflex, just turn off light when you exit a room or lock your door when leaving your house.
You can still apply some exclusion criteria if you make them easily applicable.
How it will look like:
Conservative projection:
You come across 1 person a day, you give 50 cents.
Budget per...
...week: $3,5
...month: $14
...year: $168
As you won't have the exact sum every day, you can vary the amount a bit of course.
And you won't have everyday coins in your pocket so we can lower 30% to the yearly amount: $117.
A tip is to put your coins in your pocket but not in your wallet. If it's in your wallet, you're often too lazy to find it, open it, pick the right amount, etc.
High projection:
You come across 4 people a day, you give 50 cents.
Budget per...
...week: $14
...month: $56
...year: $672
Variant, with a quota:
You'll give 1 dollar per day to the first person you"ll meet.
It costs $30 per month...
Variant picking a person:
You always give to the same person, every day.
Here, even the extreme case won't make you poor. 56 dollar per month is like 1 good restaurant.
The pretty conservative option, 14 dollar is like a good burger per month.
Sum up:
Automating generosity will lower your stress level, frustration level, make you feel better about you, make a lot of people in the streets happier. And the cost will be very limited and totally under control.
PS: The same process can apply to donations. I donate monthly to GiveDirectly.com - an organization promoting basic income in Africa - to know more about basic income, the only way our civilization will survive peacefully in our future full of robots and AI: revenudebase.info - be sure I'd never donated so much money if it was not automatic :) No stress, and everybody's happy.