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Type 1, is individual altruism which they fund themselves and do for their own reasons. Generally seeking nothing in return.
Type 2, is coercive altruism, where they have a cause and they aggressively attempt to get us to buy into their cause. Promoting your cause is ok I suppose, but when you start picking my pocket to fund your cause it is no longer OK. It is about power at that point, not about whatever cause they purport. These types turn into giant organizations and get sweetheart deals with the government. And soon they get a lot of their funding from the government. i.e. Red Cross, Planned Parenthood.
It is called altruism but they never skip an opportunity to line their own pockets. Just look at the meager percentage of every donated dollar that actually makes it into the hands of the people they are trying to help.
Type 1 I am fine with, its your money, spend it as you like. If it makes you feel good about yourself in the doing, enjoy it.
Type 2 on the other hand is prettied up extortion. When you FORCE people to fund your cause it is no longer ok, just another example of forced wealth redistribution.
Biggest offender in type 2? Anything where the only reason you ever hear for their trying to pick your pocket is...."Its for the children"
Children are their parent's responsibility, not the populace in general.
$20 says groups are already forming non-profits and "charities" for the illegal alien children pouring across the border as we speak.
Altruism is defined as the unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others while charity is defined as the act of giving money, food, or other kinds of help to people who are poor, sick, etc.
Charity is an act and is not coercive, but taxation and robbery are. Those who support taxation for in the name of the "welfare " of some at the expense of others may pretend to be altruists, but sometime that is not what they are.
Charity is an individual or group "action" which can involve different motives while altruism is a moral principle which defines an individual's purpose in life
Some (especially "religious") individuals preach altruism as a moral obligation but if it is "forced" on anyone it is not altruism.
You are probably correct that "groups are already forming non-profits and "charities" for the illegal alien children pouring across the border" but the reasons they are able to enter at all are far more egregious
Altruism tends to edge sideways in that odd area between motive and action.
Your excuse that he "got value out of helping others" misses the essential point. It was belabored by Ayn Rand and nicely summarized by Nathaniel Branden in "Isn't Everyone Selfish?" in _The Virtue of Selfishness_. It is not that "got value" what _what_ value he got.
Myself, Albert Einstein is all right, even if he was an altruist. I feel the same way about Richard Feynman.
Altruism does not equal helping others.
If the value you are seeking is purely self-satisfaction, or something similar, that would be altruistic.
Economic value on the other hand tends to strangle altruism once the economic value becomes more of a focus than the the original altruistic goal.
I can't feed my kids if I go surfing all day. I enjoy feeding my kids. I also enjoy market success...a lot. I enjoy many things. Surfing isn't selfishness (at least I never thought about that), and I wouldn't do it to enjoy any market success (just to have fun and load my shorts with salty sand).
I hope I'm making sense. I often communicate in very simple terms - this being an example. The older I get, the more I resemble Hank Hill...
I recently acquired "The Virtue of Selfishness" and hope to read it soon, too. I've read Atlas Shrugged.