The other day, I came across a gofundme page soliciting donations for a sex conversion operation. The person who was asking is a writer and a PhD researcher, and is, by all accounts, gifted and brilliant. She was soliciting donations from followers of her work. That got me thinking about the ethics about asking strangers for money to be spent on yourself and, crucially, on things that are clearly not a matter of death.
About nine years ago, when I was working as a business journalist, a colleague told me about a friend who had started a gofundme campaign to raise funds for a master's degree in London. That stuck me as a really bizarre thing to do. Studying abroad is a luxury, and asking strangers to donate money to help you pay for that luxury seemed like a pretty shameless thing to do. Then again, who am I, who comes from a well-to-do family and has never had to worry about money, to judge. While I paid for my own master's degree in Holland, I was able to sink all my savings into it secure in the knowledge that my family would never need financial support from me. And since my PhD scholarship doesn't cover all my expenses, my parents are also helping out.
Another bizarre request for money was when a close friend asked for money to buy a dress for her graduation. Like the previous example, this struck me as remarkably self-important. Why should acquaintances care about what you look like on your graduation day? Wasn't this squeezing their goodwill to hard and shouldn't she have saved it for when she may actually need it?
Of course, discomfiture with asking for money is a luxury only those who have never been short of money can afford. Then again, there is a difference between needing money for something essential, and wanting money for a luxury. I realize wants and needs sit on a continuum, but to put it crudely, shouldn't you always ration your exploitation of people's goodwill towards you? Save it for when you really need it? Imagine being struck by cancer after raising money to fund your studies overseas, and not having enough money for treatment?
About nine years ago, when I was working as a business journalist, a colleague told me about a friend who had started a gofundme campaign to raise funds for a master's degree in London. That stuck me as a really bizarre thing to do. Studying abroad is a luxury, and asking strangers to donate money to help you pay for that luxury seemed like a pretty shameless thing to do. Then again, who am I, who comes from a well-to-do family and has never had to worry about money, to judge. While I paid for my own master's degree in Holland, I was able to sink all my savings into it secure in the knowledge that my family would never need financial support from me. And since my PhD scholarship doesn't cover all my expenses, my parents are also helping out.
Another bizarre request for money was when a close friend asked for money to buy a dress for her graduation. Like the previous example, this struck me as remarkably self-important. Why should acquaintances care about what you look like on your graduation day? Wasn't this squeezing their goodwill to hard and shouldn't she have saved it for when she may actually need it?
Of course, discomfiture with asking for money is a luxury only those who have never been short of money can afford. Then again, there is a difference between needing money for something essential, and wanting money for a luxury. I realize wants and needs sit on a continuum, but to put it crudely, shouldn't you always ration your exploitation of people's goodwill towards you? Save it for when you really need it? Imagine being struck by cancer after raising money to fund your studies overseas, and not having enough money for treatment?
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