A FORUM FOR COMMUNITY ISSUES : Modest Proposal : ‘Everyone Would Be Contributing’

Torrance

I propose that we pass a tax law to encourage everyone to volunteer for charitable causes in exchange for federal tax credits.

The Community Helpline (a crisis hot-line), where I train paraprofessional phone counselors, issues a certificate at the end of the year listing the number of hours given per person. This same sort of tally could be turned in to the government at tax time.

Qualified organizations could include churches, libraries, schools, prisons, homeless shelters, environmental causes, Big Brother/Big Sister organizations, child-care centers, hospitals, recycling programs, humane societies and drug rehabilitation organizations. The choices could be endless. Tax credit exchanges would contribute to a cleaner environment, a directly involved citizenship, an increase in community self-esteem and a decrease in alienated, troubled Americans; everyone would be contributing to improving our planet.

Teens could get high school credits instead of tax credits for their involvement. This would also give students practical knowledge of possible career choices.

When we were a pioneer and farming nation, everyone, young and old, was useful and needed to help bring in the crops, haul the water, feed the livestock. Now our young and old feel useless because they don’t feel helpful and necessary in our communities, in our society. Helping others less fortunate, teaching someone to read, helping the sick would raise self-esteem tremendously in both groups. Perhaps the tax credit exchange program would contribute to reducing the suicide and alcoholism rates within these two groups, which is larger than that of the general population.

The tax credit exchange wouldn’t stop the flow of charitable donations, which are already tax-deductible. People would still give their used clothing and household items to Goodwill, churches or temples, battered women’s shelters and runaway or homeless shelters. Donations probably would increase as awareness grew.

The tax credits would cause a decrease in tax revenue, but the decrease would be a result of direct involvement by the people in programs that might otherwise be using more tax dollars. The loss of revenue would pale in comparison to the gain in human energy, community participation and overall national awareness.

It would improve the self-esteem of our nation to empower individuals to improve their communities.