Basket Brigade Exemplifies Civil Society

But who will take care of the poor [in the absence of government]?!

Such questions are often posted by those who haven't through through a reality without a top-down, centralized bureaucracy that can only give to some what it takes from others. I don't berate those who have such a knee-jerk reaction when they hear someone advocate for a world without institutions based on violence, after all, most people are exposed only to the religion of the State in gun-run schools and via the lamestream media. But think about it for a moment - how frugal or cost-effective would your expenditures be if you had unlimited access to everyone's money (or could just print money out of thin air)? Not very. Or how likely would you be to learn from bad purchases? Not very.

Yesterday I joined a number of other individuals to distribute Thanksgiving meals to those less-fortunate. Rather than pander for an assistance program to receive more funding we chose to act on our own volition. After all, it's not charity if done at the barrel of a gun (which is exactly how underlies every government anti-poverty program).

Stealing is wrong, whether done by a stranger on the street or someone who has an extension at the IRS office. Whatever is done by government employees is either immoral or done inefficiently.

Major props to Amanda Bouldin for spearheading a damn successful Basket Brigade here in the 'shire. If you have the time and interest to replicate this in your area be sure to listen to her suggestions at the end of the video.

More:
Basket Brigade of NH website: http://basketbrigadenh.org/
Capital Access interview of Amanda Bouldin and Kate Muller about the Basket Brigade: http://nhcaptv.com/episode/189
Voluntaryism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voluntar...
Free State Project: http://freestateproject.org/
From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State edited by David Beito, Peter Gordon & Alexander Tabarrok: http://www.amazon.com/Voluntary-City-...
The Voluntary City by David Beito: http://www.amazon.com/Mutual-Aid-Welf...
Liberty On Tour's First Time Here? page: http://libertyontour.com/first-time-h...
Liberty On Tour's Resources page: http://libertyontour.com/resources/
David Beito on the Voluntary City and Civil Rights on MotorhomeDiaries.com: http://motorhomediaries.com/david-bei...

• Category

  Nonprofits & Activism

[gneissday]

Charity > government handouts. Great job guys! Very nice thing to do!

[LakesRegionPorcs]

Awesome Job Pete. It was a pleasant surprise to see you I had know idea you and so many others had volunteered. I posted all the Pic's I took on the Basket brigade site, if you see any you can use I can send send them to you. It will take a day or two but I am going to upload them to my flickr account, I'll send a link when it is done

[gravel36]

you guys are awesome!!

[cincinatus90]

Dont you love how julia compares everything to foreign countries economies?

[city68]

About time I see Peter doing something with his energy that I totally agree with, Where is Adam, Oh, right there are no cops around so he is pretty much useless

[BagOfEyebrows]

Voluntary charity is the only way for each person to have the opportunity to give peacefully -

[BagOfEyebrows]

don't I have a right to my own charity? I think it's important to allow everyone the right to demonstrate goodwill for each other in their own way, that doesn't conflict with their own spirituality or other beliefs/thoughts on what is charitable and helpful and what isn't - when charity is done through government it always neglects the respect of individual experience and compassion - charity can't be done through 'democracy' without infringing on someone's freedom of religion.

[CurtHowland]

This is capitalism. People spending their private property as they wish to.