Pensioner right on the money
So who is this person who has annoyed Joan?
EDITOR – I am unsure who Joan Potgieter, Pensioner, was chastising in her letter “It’s not your money” in your 1 November issue.
All that I know is that I have resonance with her, I salute her, and she has made me think.
My thoughts? Well who is this ‘Not impressed’ joker to judge poor people and assess their motivation anyway?
Surely it is arrogance based on an authoritarian mindset that seeks to deny alms to discouraged people, and dictate to other citizens where and how they should donate their money?
What does this person know of their circumstances or their shattered dreams?
Poor people no longer have recourse to civil society charitable institutions as new laws by the authoritarian government are placing even more restrictions on corporate giving.
So who is this person who has annoyed Joan? Does this mentality think that they are like some sort of totalitarian socialist government who assume central authority over distribution and decide who is allowed to get what?
Elsewhere in the paper we see that charities like Mother of Peace, where the poor go to get a hand up and not a hand out, are battling due to the government’s undeclared war on civil society. I think that our citizens should hear MOP’s cry and understand that corporate donations have been largely kiboshed by strange government policies that now prevent corporate donations to charities that help the poor. I say with unbridled rhetoric, does MOP need ‘Not impressed’s’ permission to ask for donations?
South Africa now has the lowest propensity to enterprise on the entire continent. (SAIRR) Our GDP per capita is slipping rapidly and we are no longer the largest economy on the continent. The gap between number two and number three is very large, but closing steadily. I attribute this to mismanagement by government, whose delusion is to think that they control the wealth creation process, and that by creating a few hundred government jobs, they are creating significant economic activity. Government is reliant on tax receipts to fund its largesse and so this is unsustainable. The bottom line is meanness, unwillingness to give, seeking to control the distribution of money, and taking away alms from the poor.
Joan Potgieter, thank you very much, you have summed up the situation more succinctly than I have. I support the premise: ‘It’s not your money’.
God bless you Joan.
KEITH DOWNS
