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smegcicle | 4 years ago

Giving someone what they deserve/earn is serving Justice, not Charity

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bscphil|4 years ago

Vouched for your comment because I thought it was an interesting view. Not sure why it was downvoted.

Why can't it be both? Suppose I buy t-shirts from Walmart. At the checkout counter, the cashier asks me to donate $5 to feed hungry children in Malaysia. I take a quick look at the tag on my $3 t-shirt. Turns out it was made by hungry children in Malaysia.

In this case, giving the $5 would be both justice and charity. The way the workers who made the shirt are underpaid and hungry is unjust, so taking a step towards rectifying this probably counts as justice. On the other hand, it's undeniably a voluntary payment made to a poor person because they are poor. It's not something I have to do, nor is it something I can reasonably count on many other people doing. So it's charity.