. . .Even though I have been arguing for it for years now.
I think we should pay people to give. My version of that is to pay people a middle-class wage (for a month) so that they can do their thing (for that month) and then include in that wage some money they have to give, invest or donate.
Pay them to do their thing and to give.
But maybe giving should be part of paying taxes or graduating from school or getting your driver’s license. You reach a milestone and you get some money you must give away.
Giving, like anything, is a habit. And even though lots of people do it, more of us could.
More than just recirculating money, I think being paid to give would focus the giver. Sure, there’d have to be some rule about not giving the money to your best friend so they can buy you red wine for you to soak in, but for a moment you would have to ask yourself what you care about. Maybe it would even connect you to a cause or to some people. And we are in short supply of focus and connection.
Maybe this is all a wildly naive view. No doubt people would just casually give the money to their local chapter of the NRA or whatever crew of hate they hang with. But in the meantime, at least, we would all have a moment when we must think about money as something we have to do some good with. And I don’t see how that could be all bad.
Not the same thing, but I wonder whether I’ve ever told you about Big Local. Communities get given £1m and have to decide how to spend it themselves https://localtrust.org.uk/big-local/about-big-local/