PRESTOPUNDIT

Private giving .. possesses certain advantages over public spending. People care when they give individually and on their own, personally involving themselves in the catastrophe and watching carefully to see that their money is used wisely. Too often public aid serves political purposes initially, and then devolves into a web of bureaucracy, where it is wasted or snatched up by oppressive regimes. As Friedrick Hayek observed, for lack of incentives and lack of information, central agencies have never been capable of effectively allocating resources — the UN’s Oil for Food scandal is just one haunting reminder.