Neighbors, Not Hoods

Let me make one thing clear from the start; this is NOT about politics. This is about people.

This is about taking action where and how it does the most good. It’s about showing that everyone can make a difference in the lives of others and that, by working together, we can accomplish more. Most importantly, it’s about reclaiming our inherent rights and showing that voluntary cooperation is the best way forward.

I don’t think it would shock anyone if I were to say there are people all over the world who need help in some form or another. I don’t think it’s a miraculous insight to say that there are people close to home who are suffering in one way or another and that we often don’t realize exactly what others are going through at any given moment. The thing about it is, though, we’re not powerless to help. We’ve just been led to believe that funneling everything through government is the best way to help everyone on a societal level. It’s partially true, but mostly false. If you want to declare a single, catch-all policy to apply to everyone at once, then government is the best way to do it. After all, only government can use coercion and force and not get in trouble for it. But if you want to help people where they live, you need to know them as people, treat them as individuals and be specific in addressing their needs. In economics, we call this the local knowledge problem. You know what you need and what resources you have. Your family knows its needs and its resources. Your needs and resources differ from your neighbor’s. The further away the decision making authority gets from first-hand knowledge of the situation, the less equipped they are to properly understand, much less address, the real issues.

This is further complicated by another problem recognized in economics: imperfect information. The goal of economics is the best utilization of resources. The worse your information is, the worse you’ll be in allocating the resources. When you address things on a large scale, encompassing more people, you distance yourself from the particulars of those people and treat the whole as a homogeneous entity according to whatever criteria you’ve laid out. You lose the critical distinctions between people, as individuals, as communities, cultures, etc. South Sudan is not the same as South Korea and neither bears much resemblance to South Dakota or South Carolina (not that those last two are all that alike, either). This is why large, broad efforts are bound to fail.

Think about it. If the issue is funding the national military, then the money should go to the national level and be overseen by those in charge of the military. If the issue is alleviating poverty, something which, by concept alone, varies by countless degrees, from place to place, person to person, is the answer really going to be the same as it was for the military? Individual needs can vary so much that there will never be a single, central policy to address them all. That’s where you come in. People have the power to take care of each other. I don’t mean voting for higher taxes to fund more programs. I don’t mean pledge drives to raise money for organizations. One person at a time. One dollar at a time. One need at a time. People can come together to help each other. Ignore the bureaucratic nightmare and the endless regulations which ultimately do more harm than good. Whether 100 people give $1 each or one person gives $100, it’s still $100. Look at all the people who do GoFundMe campaigns, or things like them, to pay their bills. Look at the good they can do by bringing people together to step up and voluntarily help each other. But look at the obstacles involved. Someone needs to go public with a need. Word needs to get out among people. More often than not, people are reluctant to give without some assurance of the genuine need being asked. There are too many liars out there.

What if, instead of broadcasting needs online in order to get them met, people collaborated locally to help their neighbors? It can be your local church, your community group, your book club, whatever. The point is that you can start today to start pooling resources which you can then use to help address needs as they arise. You’re just asking people to voluntarily contribute to a local fund to help neighbors who need it.

There are about 330 Million people in the United States of America. If just 1% of the people donated $1 a month, that would be $3.3 Million each MONTH to put toward helping people. Break it down on a community level. Maybe someone just needs to get caught up on bills and can take it from there. Maybe someone needs a new refrigerator. Maybe someone needs car repairs. Whatever it is, people, as communities, can come together and help each other. Exactly how you go about it is going to depend on multiple factors. How well do you know your neighbors? How many in your neighborhood trust each other to oversee something like this? Can people come to you and ask for help without judgment? Do you know all the ridiculous laws in your area and how to avoid becoming entangled in them?

I don’t have all the answers. Every place is different. Each person is different. I’m just here to encourage people to look for new directions, recognize their own reach, their own power, and see just how much good you can do for each other. The means are there. It’s just a question of who will step up, make the first move and start bringing people together. You can do it. Anyone can.