{"id":252,"date":"2010-02-01T23:05:23","date_gmt":"2010-02-02T07:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/?p=252"},"modified":"2010-02-01T23:05:23","modified_gmt":"2010-02-02T07:05:23","slug":"ethics-of-haitian-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2010\/02\/01\/ethics-of-haitian-relief\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethics of Haitian Relief"},"content":{"rendered":"

My old friend Ashley sent a blog post detailing how the US Congress has passed a resolution fast tracking giving to Haiti onto people’s 2009 taxes such that they can maximize their deductions against the past year even though the tragedy happened this year. Here is a link to the post<\/a>, and an excerpt:<\/p>\n

Less than two weeks after the earthquake, on January 22, 2010, Congress pushed through a provision to benefit those that donate to Haiti relief efforts. The provision would allow taxpayers who itemize deductions to deduct charitable donations to qualified Haiti relief organizations on their 2009 tax returns. The donations must be in cash or cash equivalent. This means cash, check, credit card or debit card contributions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as well as text message donations. In kind donations, such as donations of water or medical supplies, won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t count for purposes of the accelerated deduction; those deductions will have to be claimed as they normally would, on a taxpayer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 2010 return. To qualify, contributions must be made after January 11, 2010, and before March 1, 2010.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My big question on this topic in general is a quandry as to whether it’s ethical to allow for donations that don’t support local communities to be used in tax deductions in the first place. From what I can tell, the deductions are meant to reward people for investing in their communities. Deductions come for houses, having children, giving to charity all of which allow a community to grow and thrive (which are not things government can do itself). When one donates in a way which is effectively foreign aid, what we’re saying is that $1 that should go to after-school programs now goes to Haiti, and the government still doesn’t have that $1 to put towards after-school programs. Seems like this skews both the intent of the law, and the government’s ability to provide a social safety net here in the United States.<\/p>\n

What do you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My old friend Ashley sent a blog post detailing how the US Congress has passed a resolution fast tracking giving to Haiti onto people’s 2009 taxes such that they can maximize their deductions against the past year even though the tragedy happened this year. Here is a link to the post, and an excerpt: Less […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[29,30],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQyAq-44","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":456,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2011\/06\/17\/bonded-by-sorrow\/","url_meta":{"origin":252,"position":0},"title":"Bonded by relief","date":"June 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The children of the NICU are amazing. They fight for a world filled with anguish, horror and despair. They fight because life in its most basic form simply wants a chance. The lifecycle of a NICU baby is defined by loss. One either loses tubes, wires and IVs or loses\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fatherhood"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":846,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/01\/29\/a-back-up-needs-a-back-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":252,"position":1},"title":"A back up needs a back up","date":"January 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The nanny got sick today. We don't have a back up plan. Burned... Parenthood teaches you very quickly to expect that your back up needs a back up. It's not enough to expect the kid to get dirty. They're going to get dirty, and then pee through their diaper. One\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fatherhood"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1307,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/11\/02\/18-days-til-30\/","url_meta":{"origin":252,"position":2},"title":"18 days til 30","date":"November 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This idea was contributed by the dear and wonderful Saket. If you have an idea, then please let me know it! If the 20 year old version of yourself received $100,000\u00c2\u00a0in cash, what would he do with it? What would you do with it now? Thank you Saket. Great question.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":400,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2010\/11\/01\/understanding-motivation-part-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":252,"position":3},"title":"Understanding motivation - part 1","date":"November 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not convinced that motivations are well understood, least of all by me. You see, I was taught in economics that perfectly rational people will respond to a set of incentives in a perfectly rational way.\u00c2\u00a0While I'm sure that that makes sense in a textbook, and of course for the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":621,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2013\/03\/17\/a-working-speaker-system\/","url_meta":{"origin":252,"position":4},"title":"A working speaker system","date":"March 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a long time with no progress on the piano. The reason is simple really. I've been doing a bunch of research, ordering a bunch of parts, and everything is finally ready to go. And so the last few nights have been all about soldering, programming, editing, searching, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Amelia's Piano"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/IMG_0987-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":331,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2010\/04\/27\/can-success-be-a-formula\/","url_meta":{"origin":252,"position":5},"title":"Can success be a formula?","date":"April 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I've talked a bunch the last few blog posts about being better at achieving success. This whole notion of being more successful has really spawned in me an effort to understand what it means for me personally to succeed, and to try and decipher what I need to do differently\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}