In a recent posting at Aid Watch, William Easterly makes the very good point that we could help the poor more if we were to bypass dubious charitable scheme like Product Red. William Easterly points out that if you really want to support altruistic causes, you should do it directly rather than paying the business man and tipping the poor.

The question Easterly does not answer is why don’t we send our bucks or quids straight to the Global Fund instead of spending them at Starbucks?

Guilt, the one we feel knowing that we are able to enjoy “fair trade” Starbucks coffee (Greenwashing notwithstanding) is certainly part of the answer. If we were not able to do so, we would not feel the need to do something good to balance for our guilty pleasure.

But how often do you feel guilty whilst drinking your coffee rushing to work in the morning or sitting in one of this soporiferous Starbucks chatting with friends? Do you really or often think of people dying of Aids in Africa? That’s where the charitable scheme shows how perverted it is: you will feel guilty because they will make you feel; using soapy, tear-jerking promotional video that will benefit from viral distribution through the net is both cheap and efficient.

As a commentator observed “Starbuck’s effort is as sentimental as it is repulsive. The fact that Starbuck’s management may feel warm and fuzzy at the first bars of this Beatles’ anthem hardly warrants such a global efforts. Are they going to give friendly natives Starbucks’ tee-shirts, too?”

“This is not charity, this is commerce”

Bold statements such as this one made by Starbucks Senior Vice President Michelle Gass in 2008 “If every single Starbucks customer bought one (RED) Holiday Exclusive (beverage) for a week, we would save 15,000 lives for a year in Africa,” may sound nice but are hollow and hide the fact that businesses are making money on the back of charity and people in distress. As Bono puts it: “This is not charity. This is commerce.”

So the next time you ever think about Africa, or about HIV, or about cutesy children in need, be altruistic, not charitable, take your credit card out and make a direct donation online. There are plenty of opportunities and possibility for you to give and help the poor. Don’t feel, guilty about it, don’t feel good either. Just do it because you can afford to do it.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.