Scrooge Nation: Can We Change?

Every Christmas Americans indulge in their many book, stage, and screen versions of Dickens' Christmas Carol. Then the nation that sighs over the Cratchit family goes back to acting like Ebenezer Scrooge. But the economic crisis has shaken a middle-class veneer of prosperous self-satisfaction. Does that mean we can change?

There always hope -- but the statistics are staggering. The Every Child Matters Education Foundation lays out what they call the "Tiny Tim Effect" in their succinctly named "Homeland Insecurity" report: 13 million kids in poverty. (That's the worst poverty rate among 24 comparable countries.) Three million neglected and abused kids. Millions more without health coverage. 14 million latchkey kids.

Oh, and there's more: In the health care arena, where I spend a lot of my time, the figures are grim: Infant mortality rates for African American babies is 2.5 higher than those of whites. That's the worst infant mortality rate of any industrialized nation. And 18,000 people -- wait, make that 22,000 people - die each year because they don't have health insurance. That's 60 deaths every day.

And we haven't even talked about health and poverty issues in other countries. We've allowed a level of suffering at home and abroad that should trouble our consciences every day.

But there are new impulses toward giving, and new ways to give. Some of them have been described here at The Huffington Post, including Craig Newmark's "Craigslist for giving" and the micro-giving technology described by John Borthwick and Ken Lerer. Jesse Kornbluth has some thoughts, too.

I "micro-gave" $2.00 with a few mouse clicks. The reason I don't make more contributions isn't selfishness: it's time and attention. I'm betting a lot of people feel the same way, making this a great way to contribute. If we can give more through mouse clicks, more of us will give. "Tweetsgiving" raised $10,000, and the Salvation Army's now raising money the same way. (all courtesy Beth Kanter)

Up in Canada a Vancouver Tweetup (an unplanned meeting announced on Twitter) helped clothe the homeless. On a less high-tech (but no less inventive) front, a Utah student "bought" 22,000 acres of wilderness land at a Bureau of Land Management oil and gas exploitation sale, disrupting the Bush Administration's plans for a last-minute fire sale.

These generous and inventive idealists have created real-life, real time miracles.

There is economic suffering in our world right now -- but a lot of it was already happening before the crisis. Nobody wants to make light of our present difficulties, but if they make us more sensitive to the needs of others -- and less materialistic -- there will be a silver lining. You won't need digital technology to give, but it can certainly help.

Private giving won't be enough to fix our problems, or the world's. We'll need policy changes at every level. But private giving can address part of the need, and it can raise our awareness of the depth of that need. It won't be easy, but it's worth trying. If technology allows people to give whenever it occurs to them, with the click of a button, that could enable a million more miracles to come.

Other Christmas posts:

Death of a Torture Victim
Cousin Jesus

RJ Eskow blogs when he can at:

A Night Light
The Sentinel Effect: Healthcare Blog

Read more Holiday Season commentary from HuffPost bloggers

Comments

[charleydan]

Quote: "Private giving will not be enough to fix the problems." If not where do you think it comes from?

Government? Let me see if I can tell it all in this short order. Americans do not save so Federal Reserve creates credit to banks who loan it to you. They just make a note no cash involved. Now as you pay it back to the bank, the bank cuts profit and give real cash to Federal Reserve. The government and some rich bankers own the Federal Reserve and spend this money. The government then buys welfare, humanity services with their share.

This money never existed till government got it back. It should have been destroyed. When government who created this money out of thin air and did not return it to thin air. It becomes a debt to the dollar value.

It is payed by deflation or depressions. That is your house goes down in value. So much for your largest investment, the house. Now they are cheaper to buy. You just payed for all that government welfare. Same with stocks devaluing.

After devaluation or depression, comes inflation. The price of things go up without wages following. making it harder to purchase new items. Moving more middle class people into poverty with inflation, created by governmet helping those the private sector could not.

You want to go another round?

[xenofile]

bah humbug

[raddick]

Americans are the most generous people on the planet. individually and governmentally. because they can afford it. some of it is self-interest. The Marshall Plan was just because America wanted to be generous but because it would create a safer, more prosperous world. Nothing wrong with that. Some amount of Ayn Rand is good for society.

[lisakaz2]

Do you really think the Marshall Plan was about generosity? No it was about preventing the loss of Democratic countries teetering after the war. "Safer" meant ensuring outcoming, like in Italy, where such rigging didn't exactly product the most stable of situations.

[Skepticat]

The Marshall plan - a foreign policy success, was implemented to prop up western countries ravaged by WW2 that seemed likely to go Communist. Ayn Rand and Gordon Gekko are not good for society - even in small doses.

[Roopez123]

The ultimate Scrooge for our times, Dick Cheney:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stu-kreisman/dick-cheneys-christmas-ca_b_151187.html

[cadsuch]

I know the tiny Tim effect and the Scrooge mentality are with us. Somebody help me out here. I believe the saying that, "you give a man a fish and he eats for a day. You teach a man to fish and he eats for the rest of his life." I just sense there is some kind of power, or weakness in our culture that keeps us continually down-grading education. And we end up with uneducated parents begating uneducated children. All we end up doing is finger pointing, the SAME way we endup finger pointing instead of solving air and water polution for the last 3 decades. Now the talk is of poverty instead of education short falls and global warming instead of air and water polution. Are we just going to talk about it for another 2 terms in office and then go through another 3 decades of trickledown?

[kwright]

Yes, we are all of our brothers keepers. Anyone can give at least 1 can of food or change in the bucket. It isn't that hard at all. It begins in the home. Teach your children to be generous and giving. To treat others equal in every aspect. Giving a kind word doesn't cost a penny.

[roshni]

And there are volunteer opportunities if you can't afford to give money...........

[chilifan]

True, there are a great many Americans who have the "Scrooge" mentality, but can we really all be painted with the same brush? With so many Americans suffering economically, how can they be expected to give to others? There are still many generous and giving Americans. Unfortunately, as evidenced by the Madoff scandal, charities have been robbed and/or horribly mismanaged. I remember so clearly how the first charity listed by Bush for Hurricane Katrina donations, was Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing.

So many Americans tried desperately to help in the wake of Katrina, but were misdirected if not outright told to buzz off by FEMA:

http://dir.salon.com/story/politics/war_room/2005/09/07/brown/

Please be fair and give most people in this country credit where credit is due. We have been treated horribly by the powers that be, not by each other.

[Dap]

Dear Brother RJ,

Absolutely, We can do better. Happy Holidays Peace be with You and Yours. Agape, dapper