I went to a lecture last night about charity and the panelists were all middle-aged or older. They talked about how there’s a decline in giving amongst young people and offered up a few reasons they think that might be: selfishness, decline of religion, less confidence in charities. Not one of those panelists mentioned, ya know, NO ONE HAS MONEY. When they took comments from the audience, a guy in his 20s stood up and said, “Don’t you think young people are giving less because they have less? I can’t afford to pay my rent, how can I afford to donate money?” And they all sputtered. “But—but—” Most of us in the audience were students and we all just stared back like wtf how do you get SO out of touch?
Not to mention there’s a whole web of people online giving their last dollars to gofundmes so that each other can afford food and hospital bills, like just because our charitable giving doesn’t manifest in the same way doesn’t mean it’s not there
