Bad Will Industries

George Fwill says, "The government should get out of the way of charity."

His example: the St. Vincent de Paul Village in San Diego, a "life-changing dispenser of compassionate conservatism," which apparently houses about 855 homeless people.

At the Village, the homeless children recieve a public school education on site, and the Village charges the State of California rent for the classrooms. The University of California San Diego provides 12 psychiatrists for the residents. And, "[o]f the village's $25 million budget, a quarter comes from various governments."

So, of course, Will argues that the government should get out of the way, and take their lousy teachers, psychiatrists and $5.25 million with them. Meddlesome bastards.

Oh, wait, that's not his argument.

Another quarter of the Village's income comes from selling donated cars. People donate them because they can, currently, claim up to a $5,000 deduction on their federal income tax, even if their car is a pile of junk worth $50. Some people might call that a subsidy, one that doesn't benefit the charities, but rather the taxpayers claiming the bogus deduction. And the subsidy is one that goes to the tax cheats from folks who don't claim the b.s. deductions.

Fwill frets that if the government doesn't subsidize these self-dealing samaritans, and they have to declare the actual value of their heap, they might not donate. In other words, if the government "hinders" charity by denying benefactors a tax break, private charity will dry up. Note that nobody is forced to claim a deduction to give anything to charity. People could -- and I know it's a radical concept -- donate out of the goodness of their hearts, without expecting anything in return.

It sounds like the people of St. Vincent de Paul do good work (at least when they're not whining to Will). And maybe Will's correct that there's an easier way to prevent scumbags from making bogus valuations for tax purposes. But for Will to argue that government is the problem in this deal ("in the way") is just bullshit.