Cushman contrasts government social services and private charity as if they were mutually exclusive. But of course they are not; there is need for both. Contribute to your favorite charities and support needed government social services too.

People who make charitable financial donations often target their favorite causes. While different people favor different causes, the causes that are most popular get most of the donations. But the amount of charitable donations a cause receives is not necessarily the best measure of the worthiness of that cause; charitable donations are made by people who generally don’t need the charity they contribute to while the worthiness of a charity is measured by the good the charity does to those who receive it. Given the possibility of a mismatch between voluntary donations and a receive-based need, there will likely be some needy causes that are not satisfied by charity. Why not have government step in to satisfy the needs that charity has missed?

Cushman says “Government payments are the result of anonymous people determining who should receive the benefit”. The payers of government payments may be anonymous but the causes that are funded are hardly anonymous; government social service funding is based on widely known available-to-all public laws and regulations made by Congress and the President (who are elected by we the people) and highly visible appointees of the President. Most donors to charitable foundations such as United Way or even the American Cancer Society have no more access to the specific details of the use of their charitable contributions than do taxpayers have of the details of the use of their tax dollars.

Cushman says “charitable acts involve interaction with the community and decisions regarding whom to give to”. They may or they may not. Lots of people donate to charity as an act of conscience but choose not to be directly involved in charity in any other way.

Clearly Cushman is generally right when she points out that giving to charity is voluntary and paying taxes is mandatory, although in certain environments, for examples where charities are solicited in the workplace, failure to contribute constitutes a serious risk and payments under such conditions is hardly voluntary. And there are a significant number of people who apparently think paying taxes are voluntary and choose not to volunteer to pay them --- those we call tax evaders.

Clearly Cushman is right when she points out that charitable contributions may not be merely financial, and participating in charitable activities offers social benefits to the participant not obtainable by paying taxes. Most people benefit from the time and financial assets they contribute to charity.

Cushman thinks small government is better than big government. But just what does she mean by big or small? I think government should be no bigger or no smaller than is needed to do what it is that government needs to do. And I take issue with her that government shouln’t meet the needs that charitable giving, on its own, fails to meet.