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Giving someone what they deserve/earn is serving Justice, not Charity

• bscphil 5y ago
  Vouched for your comment because I thought it was an interesting view. Not sure why it was downvoted. Why can't it be both? Suppose I buy t-shirts from Walmart. At the checkout counter, the cashier asks me to donate $5 to feed hungry children in Malaysia. I take a quick look at the tag on my $3 t-shirt. Turns out it was made by hungry children in Malaysia. In this case, giving the $5 would be both justice and charity. The way the workers who made the shirt are underpaid and hungry is unjust, so taking a step towards rectifying this probably counts as justice. On the other hand, it's undeniably a voluntary payment made to a poor person because they are poor. It's not something I have to do, nor is it something I can reasonably count on many other people doing. So it's charity.
  • smegcicle 5y ago
    you're not wrong, but to explain- i was cheekily referencing g k chesterton's discourses on charity as a paradoxical virtue: > It is true that there is a thing crudely called charity, which means charity to the deserving poor; but charity to the deserving is not charity at all, but justice. the usefulness of the distinction comes about if eg someone were to say, "that person doesn't _deserve_ charity", then they'd be making a judgment call, and therefore be acting in a way counter to the universal goodwill that charity is really about. so like i said, a cheeky nitpick in this context, but i think an important one to keep in mind. anyway, my comment was hidden because this account is hellbanned, so thanks for the charity lol