When are people going to work out that charity concerts are a scam?
The old (NT-based) idea of charity was that individuals should give discreetly and secretly, without boasting about their generosity and, up till the eighties, it was understood that people gave in this secret way even when they lived in poverty themselves. These days, someone has to organise a ‘charidee auction / concert’ with mega-rich celebs who have careers to promote, and we plebs in the audience have a thoroughly great time, telling ourselves the while that we’re doing something morally worthy. I share the same qualms as the questioner – it would make more sense in financial terms if rich people who want to promote charity, were to simply hand the money over without making a song-and-dance about it. Maybe some of them do, but maybe the rest of us should do the same, and not pretend that the enjoyable things we do for fun (run the marathon, cycle to Cuba, go to a Charity Ball) are intrinsically morally worthy. They aren’t.
