Good for you and all other generous hearts.

We do give to charities and to our church.

What I believe is that people need jobs more than handouts. Handouts are starting points but jobs give dignity and sense of pride/achievement to people and are more sustainable, as I have said in an older post.

By employing maids from poorer regions we give them and their families a lifeline and hope. I can see in our maid her joy and pride when she told us that she was helping out her family back home in Indonesia and sending her younger brother through school. She also has dignity in being able to work for her own money rather than rely on charitable handout.

We used to wash our own cars, but now we let an indian man washed them for us at $80 per month for our 2 cars. This was after bumping into the man and finding out that his wife was ill and he had two young children to feed and he had only primary schooling. He now feels proud that he could take care of his family without depending on others. He covers 2 to 3 condos in our neighbourhood.

There are many examples where we could help, not by giving handouts, but by participating in our economy. By getting a handy man to our home to do plumbing, electrical repairs etc, we are helping another person employed and feeding his family.

On a bigger scale, imagine if everyone pulls back from spending, many companies would fold and we will all be out of jobs!