More than 50 people stood outside the Enoch Pratt Library’s Southeast Anchor branch on a recent spring morning in Baltimore. Parents with small children, teenagers, and senior citizens clustered outside the door and waited to hear their ticket numbers called.
They weren’t there for books—at least, not at that moment. They came to shop for groceries.
Connected to the library, the brightly painted market space is small but doesn’t feel cramped. Massive windows drench it in sunshine. In a previous life, it was a café. Now, shelves, tables, counters, and a refrigerator are spread out across the room, holding a mix of produce and shelf-stable goods.
Why on earth would you do that when you could just skip the middle men and give the money directly to the poor? That seems a lot more efficient.
Philanthropy is ineffective, that’s our current system and it’s not working
Weird, I could swear I’m paying taxes for social security, medicare, and food stamps, yet somehow, most of the money ends up in the military industrial complex.
But I’m sure that if only the government had more tax revenue, they’d spend every extra dollar on welfare programs, right?
If we stop electing conservatives yes