You’ve probably seen the commercial. Various celebrities including Cameron Diaz, Bono, and Brad Pitt flash on screen in a subdued black and white tint trying to mobilize us to some action. At the end Brad assures us that they “don’t want your money, we want your voice.”
Already skeptical of the campaign, I visited the given address. The cause is definitely noble — to fight the global AIDS epidemic and extreme poverty. The group wishes to get the U.S. government to allocate an additional one percent of the budget (thus the name) toward providing aid to the poorest of countries by mobilizing voters across the nation.
Again, this is a noble cause. However, the tagline “we don’t want your money, we want your voice” is misleading because any money allocated through the federal government budget IS our money. People seem to neglect this fact all the time. Do you pay additional taxes to support such initiatives, or do you keep your money and donate to charitable causes privately? Shouldn’t we have this choice? I would rather keep the money and donate to the causes I felt were most important. Yes, most likely fewer people would voluntarily donate as opposed to involuntary donation (i.e. taxes), but shouldn’t we decide where our money goes? Because, ultimately only we, and not the government, can use our money most efficiently.
Also, don’t underestimate the power of the private citizen as evidenced by the amazing donations to tsunami relief.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Web // Apr 25, 2005 at 8:54 am
I hate Brad Pitt.
2 7Charlie // Apr 25, 2005 at 9:45 pm
Okay, for anyone who’s read my posts and thinks I’m a liberal, tune in:
You can’t help the world’s poor. They have to help themselves.
The poor in Africa that I’ve met are purposefully ignorant. There culture actually praises and reinforces ignorance. I have no sympathy for them.
The poor in Bosnia are poor because they’d much rather kill people who look exactly like them. I have no sympathy for them either.
The poor in the US are poor because they don’t VOTE. Idiots. If these morons would all vote, we’d be a socialist country within 10 years. (Then we’d all be poor, but I digress).
You can give “the world’s poor” all the money in the world. All that will do is transfer the money from us Americans to corrupt government officials who lead these countries.
What the hell is Bono doing asking Americans to change US spending policy? He’s Irish! That would be like me telling Nicole she should give more to charity!
3 ags // Apr 28, 2005 at 8:49 am
LOVE the new deisgn!!!!!
4 Mike // Apr 30, 2005 at 9:18 am
Many Americans tend to refer to the U.S. government as though it were this outside, third party entity from which money and donations magically flow. The government is not a “they”, it’s “us”. It’s everyone.
Liberal Hollywood loves nothing more than stumping for global causes they feel should be forced upon the American people via federal legislation, whether those people want to donate or not.
I couldn’t agree more, Nichole.
P.S. I, too, love the new look.
5 Web // May 3, 2005 at 9:58 am
I saw we all take craps in baskets and send them to Brad Pitt.
Fight the power!
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