THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 30, 1995 TAG: 9501260025
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
George Allen, like Ronald Reagan before him, believes fervently that many government programs - including those to care for the poor and unfortunate - can be eliminated. He's confident the private sector, volunteers and charities will take up the slack.
``Whether its the Lions or Rotary or churches, there are many organizations that can be involved,'' Allen says. True. But, a Micawberlike confidence that something will turn up may not always be justified by this sorry old world.
A cautionary tale involves the first four years of The Points of Light Foundation. The Washington-based group was inspired by George Bush's promotion of the same idea that Governor Allen now espouses. He too believed private volunteerism could replace government poverty programs.
The former president is not affiliated with The Points of Light Foundation. It was set up to spur citizens, particularly business executives, to volunteer. Its results are discouraging. The Points of Light Foundation has raised $35.8 million since inception, but $26.3 billion came from the federal government. Not exactly a model for getting government out of the poverty business.
Furthermore, according to the Los Angeles Times, the group has spent $22.3 million - more than 60 percent of funds raised - on self-promotion, travel, administrative expenses and on some of the highest salaries of any such organization. The average employee earns $45,000 and the top executive is pulling in $160,000. That's fighting poverty all right - one well-paid poverty fighter at a time. By way of comparison, the top job at the Children's Defense Fund pays $90,000.
Even worse is the fact that only $4 million - less than 10 percent of funds raised - has actually gone to service volunteer organizations, though that is the ostensible purpose of the group.
An older generation of conservatives had a healthy distrust of government because they feared any concentration of power. But that conviction flowed from a deeper underlying distrust of man and doubt about his perfectibility.
Alexander Hamilton once asked: ``Why has government been instituted at all?'' To which he answered cogently, ``Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.''
By contrast, the new breed of Sun Belt conservatives often regards government as incapable of doing anything right, but talks as if man, left to his own devices, can do no wrong. It ain't necessarily so. We are not all points of light, and before government programs are dismantled, it is only prudent to ask what, besides fond hopes, will take their place.
KEYWORDS: CHARITY WELFARE by CNB