Today is Blog Action Day – a day where bloggers from all over the world get together to write about one topic. This year, the topic is poverty. To that end, I’ll cover what society can do to help others in need.

Too much trust is given to the government to help the poor. Frankly, I don’t understand this. This blame is placed majority to the democrats since they see the need to “redistribute” wealth by taking away from the rich to give it to the poor, à la Robin Hood. Stories like Robin Hood fill our minds with the fact that the rich have taken advantage of the poor by ruthlessly taxing them. Some hero comes along to take that money away from the rich and give it back to the poor. Yet, at the same time, we have stories like the tortoise and the hare, which encourages us to take things slow and do our best and we’ll win the race.

What I fail to understand is why people don’t take the time to volunteer or donate money to help the poor. The average taxpayer donates less than 3% to charities, yet the majority of these people demand that congress do more. When I was a student, I tried my best to donate at least 20% of my income to charity. Some months were harder than others. But I still gave something.

Instead of asking the government to “redistribute” wealth, why don’t you? There are many organizations that could use your funds and time. Don’t ask congress to do something that you can do right now! You’ll be surprised how little it takes and how rewarding it is to do something for someone else.