I have never donated to anything and I have never done any charity work. I don't feel the need to. Disaster's happen all the time. There's also thousand's of needy cause's and people in the world. Am,I suppose to break down and cry,everytime an unfortunate disaster happens? I mean you have the the japan disaster,then you had the hati disaster. There was also hurricane katrina. You also have the struggles in Africa. There's also all of these children's chairites,they always advertise on T.V. There always about poor children in third world countries. Then there's your disease and hunger charities and the salvation army. I'm not a rich person,so I don't think my couple of dollars are really going to make that much of a differnce. There's also no way to tell,how much of that money is actually going to people in need. I'm so cynical,I'd rather give people money,that really need it;myself. They can say that it all goes to the needy,but I just don't trust them. It's probably %95 overhead for all I know. Am,I suppose to stop living life and cry everyday and run to a corner,when something tragic happens? Don't get me wrong disaster's,the hungry,the needy,the homeless,the sick and the poor children of the world is sad and tragic,but I really don't think a few dollars and maybe alittle volunteer work is really going to make that much of an impact. It's a crazy and tragic world that we live in these days,but one can't save the world. 

Meh, if you don't want to donate, don't donate (I haven't) but that still doesn't mean those people don't need help.  Those people are pretty much all ruined at the moment and have nothing so they very much need help.  If someone wants to give them help, so be it.  It doesn't matter if they're doing it because they're genuinely good or because they want a tax write-off, the important thing is the people that need help get it.

A single dollar isn't going to do much but 10,000 people donating a single dollar even with a high overhead is still incredibly significant to people that have nothing.

And yes, there will always be disasters and there will always be people in need of help.  There's no obligation to help them but there's no hurt in them asking for help.  The worst that can happen is someone says no.

To name something you don't...  Most of the bosses of those charity programs have a monthly pay check of 10-100k a month. That people get money for doing voluntary work ok...but that kind of money disgusts me.

I personally don't donate money to any of these things, because of the administration costs, but I do donate some food to food banks, or buy food for homeless people on the street. This way I feel as if I've actually done something, and I know that it'll actually be helpful to them.

It may seem that way, and a single individual's few dollars/volunteer work isn't going to change the world. However if many people donate a couple of dollars/do voluteer work, things can really get done.

For example if 1 million people donate a dollar each, then you've raised 1 million dollars!!!

Change requires collective work, and everyone needs to contribute a little. It may seem non-important on an individual level (sort of like "hey, how's my 3 dollar donation gonna make any difference?"), but if all people think this apathy will change from the individual level to a collective level, and nothing will ever get done.

I beleive it was Ghandi who said "be the change that you wish to see in the world". You can't control other people, but you can control yourself. All you can do is go out there and do something, and hope that other people will follow your example. Even if you end up being the only one who did anything, at least you can look back and tell yourseld "at least I tried".

There was actually a theory that I learned about in my sociology class, who's name I can't remember, that said that people generally act by copying eachother's behavious in situations where they're not sure what to do. The example to illustrate that theory was that someone fainted on the street, and a crowd of people gathered around taht person, unless someone from the crowd acted and started checking to see if that person was OK, telling people to call an ambulance etc., everyone would just stay put waiting for someone else to do something, not sure whether the situation was serious etc.

If you wanna donate to a charity, just do a background check on it, and try to avoid religious ones.

Now I should stop beign a hypocrite, go out, and do something!

My job for the last 3 years has basically been the funding of and interaction with public charities since I review every charitable donation, sponsorship, and partnership for my company. There are some that seem to just take in money and do nothing with it, but the majority of them put the money to good use and really need it. All financial information on charities is open to the public, you should be able to look at their Form 990s to get information on how much money they receive is actually put to good use. I use guidestar.org to look up most of the information I need, though I don't know if you can see their detailed financial information without a subscription (It's kind of expensive too). I can look them up for you if you want. You can also use the IRS site, but it's really clumsy.

I also volunteer 1-3 times a year, and I know it really helps when a charity can get a free helping hand.

Actually, one person can make a great impact in someones' life. If you are cold-hearted and don't even try to accomplish anything, then you'll never know what kind of impact can happen. Mother Theresa was one woman, but she did a lot of good. A friend of mine, Wanda Gibson was one woman that established a pantry that fed tens of thousands of familie in my county.

Unfortunately, it is poor motivation like that stated in the OP that make this world such a bad place to live. If you and everyone else that do not care, started to care about others that you don't know, we wouldn't be in the mess that we are in. Why do we need government welfare for health, economy, employment and everything else? Because many  have failed to provide your community the same things. People have at many times and many places banded together to offer such services which have saved many lives. That hospital you go to for care? Most were established by Christians centuries ago. That kid a childless couple wants to adopt? (Modern) Adoption was created in the 1800's by a minister. Most modern welfare initiatives have their roots in one or a few people accomplishing incredible goals because they wanted to get something done.

I'll give you a real-life example of what one person can do - certainly a trivial situation, but I think the result was well worth the cost:

I was leaving GDC in San Fransisco, when I saw a man begging about 2 blocks from the conference center. I felt like I needed to help me. I recognize the fact that most people begging/homeless are simply wanting money for booze or drugs, so I was intent on only giving him a dollar or two, but offering to take him out to eat. If he accepted the offer of eating, I would consider giving him more money.

So I gave him a few dollars - $4. I then asked him if he wanted something to eat. He replied that he hadn't eaten all day, and he was really hungry. I told him that I'd take him anywhere he wanted to eat. Mind you, this is downtown San Fran and there were very expensive restaurants right in front of him. Rather than request a $50 meal, he asks if I can walk with him to a taco joint two blocks away. I was unfamiliar with the place, but seeing as we were on a major street, I thought there was no harm in walking with him.

As I walked with him, he started talking about why he was in SF begging in the first place. It turns out, he was lured to SF by a friend for work at an auto detailing shop. He took a bus to SF from Oakland, and moved in with the friend to start work on auto detailing. After a week of work, he asked his friend for his earnings so he could send money back to his family, and be able to eat, ect. Instead, his friend kicked him out of his house onto the street. He had slept on the street for a day until he found a shelter. Unfortunately, the shelter had no food, and no way of helping him get back to his family in Oakland. He had been begging for a few days to get the money for bus fare back to Oakland, but due to the expense of eating in SF, he wasn't able to get a lot of money together to return home, but was able to call his family and try to arrange transportation in about a week.

At any rate, we finally found the place to eat which was arguably the cheapest place in SF (still about $5/meal), and I ate with him. Instead of ordering something expensive, he bought two of something, and made sure he saved the other taco so he would have something to eat tomorrow for a meal. After finding everything out about his story, I made sure that before I left him, he had a ticket in his hand to ride the bus back to his family in Oakland.

Now, such a story isn't some monumental tale of saving a poor person from the fires of war, or certain death, but I managed to help a guy get home, and make sure he didn't have to sleep at a shelter or beg for food. The total cost to me was about 1 hour of time and $25 between bus fare, food and what I gave him initially. Maybe it changed his life, maybe it didn't. All I know was that it was worth it to get a priceless, crazy look from a black business guy in line at the taco restaurant - seeing a random white kid sitting and eating with a homeless black guy shocked him.

You're aware that religion and the state were higly connected centuries ago, so essentially it was still the Government establisinh those things, no?

Care to offer an exact insight that would show that was the case? I'm not trying to make this a religious argument, but to say argue that religion and state were highly connected, thus meaning only government cares about people (or whatever your trying to get at) is a wrong concept for the most part.

My point is that anyone for any reason can endeavor to do great things to help those in need. One person cannot save the entire world from poverty, but they can do a lot to help people around them. If more did that, then we wouldn't have the poverty we see around the world.