A more caring society

…even if we admit for a moment that it might be better for the race to discard its present foundation, Individualism, - that it is a nobler ideal that man should labor, not for himself alone, but in and for a brotherhood of his fellows, and share with them all in common…This is not evolution, but revolution. It necessitates the changing of human nature itself a work of eons, even if it were good to change it, which we cannot know.

It is not practicable in our day or in our age…Our duty is with what is practicable now; with the next step possible in our day and generation. It is criminal to waste our energies in endeavoring to uproot, when all we can profitably or possibly accomplish is to bend the universal tree of humanity a little in the direction most favorable to the production of good fruit under existing circumstances.

In other words, good luck with getting us to be much more charitable than we are. Getting us to overcome self-interest, caring about complete strangers much more, and letting go of misconceptions that are well and truly ingrained in us. And letting go of our money, when even getting people to give more than a few dollars a day is difficult.

A campaign to spend more on travel will be more successful. We spent around 60 billion in 2018-2019 on travel, far more than we donated to charity.

Commonwealth Bank research tells us that people are planning to save, and spend over $5000 on holidays in 2022. This is more than five times the amount we currently donate on average. Yet, until sending a donation becomes just as important, and interesting, as sending ourselves to another city or country, things won't change much.