Efficient Charity

I was struck by a Times story (Dec. 12) which reported about the Salvation Army’s $100-million gift to the poor this holiday season. The article stated that the army’s 27,000 volunteers and 5,000 officers work for “a veritable pittance.” Ninety cents out of every dollar donated goes to help the poor, the article continued.

Compare this private charity effort with public welfare. Our government pays its social workers well, and its supervisors even more. Remember the outcry over Proposition 61, which would have capped state salaries at a generous $64,000. Our welfare workers, unlike the Salvation Army’s, get sick leave, vacation time, overtime, and raises. This leads to the question: How much of every dollar set aside for the poor in our state welfare program actually reaches them? I warrant it is far less than the ratio of the Salvation Army, United Way, Red Cross, etc.

It seems to me that a much more effective method of helping our nation’s poor would be to allow taxpayers to donate the money normally taken from their checks for welfare to a major charity, with the aim of dismantling our inefficient, state-run welfare system. The private charities have an incentive to help the poor whom they serve. Public charity looks upon the poor as “another day’s work,” and has an incentive to maintain or raise its budget.

LAURA BROWN

Los Angeles