>>However, when I checked microloans online, Kiva seems to start at $25 contributions. That's the price of a new hardback book, and reachable for many people.<<
Well, if investing $ my thought would be:
- for something where I reasonably expect to get a product, swag, etc, are the goods something I would want and are they worth the $25? ("Do I want or need a thneed? Also is this thneed worth $25 to me?")
- for donations (or long-shot investments) is the cause I am donating to something I want to support? ("Do I want to donate $25 so that thneeds will maybe exist?")
$25 is a reachable goal, but I would still be choosy about it. Is the $25 better used as an investment/donation, funds to buy someone a birthday present, funds to by myself something (necessity or luxury), etc.
>>Based on my observations and experience, I would bet that you've saved the day doing that at least once. Possibly the world.<<
I can actually identify a few 'save the day' moments, though they aren't the dramatic save-the-day-with-sirens sort. Stuff like giving someone a sweater I keep in the car, because they have to walk home in freezing weather with an underdressed kid, making a communication device for someone, administering first aid, explaining "You can't /say/ that to people!" before they actually say that to people-other-than-me and end up getting punched or arrested, etc.
Saving the world... Helping kids and families with small kids ticks up the odds, as does the fact that I am often passing along basic skills and resources. I also know at least a few of the people I have helped are activists, social lynchpins, or both, and those sorts of people have a very large potential reach. (At least one of them I know has since assumed a community leadership/mentor role, so that ended up as a kind of pay-it-forward thing.)
Also, any save-the-world bits may still be incubating, especially if it will be one of the kids who haven't finished growing up yet.
>>It does when they actually bail you out, though.<<
In my experience, accounting (in the modern sense) usually tracks money and stuff that can easily be converted into money. So, how much bail money, the $ value of donated food, maybe "I save $480 a month because my friend drives me to the doctor."
But modern accounting is very poor at tracking other things, like wildflowers planted along the roadside, the time-compassion devoted to helping a friend through a rough patch in their life, the joy you get from a crafting hobby and then giving away your projects.
Or in other words, "Bob paid my 25,000 bail and now I can go to work" is trackable, but "Bob stayed at my house for a week because I was having a mental breakdown, and my mental state improved" is less so.
Plus if I thing of gifted time, care, resources in terms of money, I usually feel like I am not contributing much of value, since other folk's 'earnings' seem to be more than whatever I can scrape up. (I may be an unreliable narrator, re: the monetary value of my work.)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancing_serpent
Re: Well ...
Date: 2024-02-22 01:02 am (UTC)Well, if investing $ my thought would be:
- for something where I reasonably expect to get a product, swag, etc, are the goods something I would want and are they worth the $25? ("Do I want or need a thneed? Also is this thneed worth $25 to me?")
- for donations (or long-shot investments) is the cause I am donating to something I want to support? ("Do I want to donate $25 so that thneeds will maybe exist?")
$25 is a reachable goal, but I would still be choosy about it. Is the $25 better used as an investment/donation, funds to buy someone a birthday present, funds to by myself something (necessity or luxury), etc.
>>Based on my observations and experience, I would bet that you've saved the day doing that at least once. Possibly the world.<<
I can actually identify a few 'save the day' moments, though they aren't the dramatic save-the-day-with-sirens sort. Stuff like giving someone a sweater I keep in the car, because they have to walk home in freezing weather with an underdressed kid, making a communication device for someone, administering first aid, explaining "You can't /say/ that to people!" before they actually say that to people-other-than-me and end up getting punched or arrested, etc.
Saving the world... Helping kids and families with small kids ticks up the odds, as does the fact that I am often passing along basic skills and resources. I also know at least a few of the people I have helped are activists, social lynchpins, or both, and those sorts of people have a very large potential reach. (At least one of them I know has since assumed a community leadership/mentor role, so that ended up as a kind of pay-it-forward thing.)
Also, any save-the-world bits may still be incubating, especially if it will be one of the kids who haven't finished growing up yet.
>>It does when they actually bail you out, though.<<
In my experience, accounting (in the modern sense) usually tracks money and stuff that can easily be converted into money. So, how much bail money, the $ value of donated food, maybe "I save $480 a month because my friend drives me to the doctor."
But modern accounting is very poor at tracking other things, like wildflowers planted along the roadside, the time-compassion devoted to helping a friend through a rough patch in their life, the joy you get from a crafting hobby and then giving away your projects.
Or in other words, "Bob paid my 25,000 bail and now I can go to work" is trackable, but "Bob stayed at my house for a week because I was having a mental breakdown, and my mental state improved" is less so.
Plus if I thing of gifted time, care, resources in terms of money, I usually feel like I am not contributing much of value, since other folk's 'earnings' seem to be more than whatever I can scrape up. (I may be an unreliable narrator, re: the monetary value of my work.)