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I have spent the entire Christmas season being preached to by my church about charity. They gave away toys and they gave away free Turkey’s and even shoes to school kids.

But I have had times in the past where I was unemployed or completely out of money and for the most part I always could budget a meal. I wouldn’t have a problem eating on less than a dollar a day. I lived on mainly ramen noodles for months. Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner at times was a turkey or ham sandwich and a bag of chips. Hell I never got to the point but I know where to dumpster drive to eat like a king. Same with clothes, I never had a problem affording basic clothing, you can get shoes for ten bucks and shirts and pants even cheaper if you know where to shop.

Nobody I ever knew died from hunger nor do they go around naked because they can’t afford clothes. Most people on the edge don’t need that kind of charity. Food costs only 8% of the average American’s budget and I suspect clothes even less.

What ticks me off is all the time, money, and resources that goes to all these feel good charity things like Thanksgiving Dinners where the TV cameras show up and the volunteers gush about how great it is to help others. They didn’t really make a difference, those people was going to eat something that day. My turkey sandwich and chips was something I earned and tasted better than something I would be given.

But if you are barely making it and your car breaks down and needs hundreds of dollars in repairs or you break a tooth and need emergency dental or you need a new furnace that is what people really need help on and that is where most of the charity ignores. Most people can come up with their rent or mortgage payment but if you don’t have cash in the bank and the car needs a new water pump and you need the car to drive to work then you will fall behind on your rent.

All the thousands of dollars being wasted on Christmas toys for kids, I can go to a dollar store and get plenty of cheap presents for my kids if that is all I can afford. They will learn a more important lesson about saving for the future and not being materialistic than if they expect the latest Barbie doll as a free handout from the Church.

Most of the people I know struggling don’t want charity, if they are working they would love to pay back a loan by paying a few dollars a week or a month over time or if they aren’t working some charity or church lending them the money could ask them to spend their free time working on some charity project such as working in a soup kitchen instead of money and they would be glad to do so. But nobody is helping these people, if they have a credit card they are forced to rack up the balance or if they have friends and family maybe they can get help there but as for going to your average church or charity and asking for help to repair your transmission, most times out of luck.

Sorry but this rant has been building for awhile.