The Paradox of the Panhandler

The Parable of the Starfish

We’ve all heard the parable of the starfish: a man comes across a young boy throwing starfish into the ocean.  The man, seeing this, tells the boy that what he’s doing is a waste of time because, there being thousands of starfish, his actions won’t make a difference.  And then comes the boy’s famous response.  Picking up a starfish, he says, “It makes a difference to this one!”

I got to thinking about the starfish story as I was driving home from work today and passed a homeless man panhandling on the side of the road.  It’s a frigid day—windy and cold, with a chance of rain and sleet in the afternoon.  In short, a day that must make the despair of homelessness even more biting and sharp.  Stopped at a red light, I looked at the man, bundled up yet shivering, holding up his makeshift sign, and wondered what I should do.  Give him a dollar?  Ignore him?  Work for systemic change that will end homelessness? 

The Mental Stress of Fewer Options

My Experience

The summer before college I found a job babysitting that would earn me enough to cover my first year books and possibly leave some left over for some fun college activities.  The job was in Newport, about 45 minutes (on a good day) from my house.  Rather than waste money on gas, I decided to take the bus every day.  One summer morning, I went to my usual stop, walking just over a mile to get there.  I saw the bus coming down the street and stepped forward with my change in-hand.  I was standing in plain sight, right under the bus sign but that bus didn’t even slow down.  I even saw a few people point at me as I waved my arms in an attempt to get the attention of the driver, but no luck.

A Frank Discussion About Money

Cut The Euphemisms
I feel that so much of our modern lives are shrouded in euphemisms that rarely do we say what we mean; instead we hide behind safer language, safer feelings.  Beer and shampoo and a host of other consumer product commercials imply that use of the product will result in dates, in sex, in beauty, in success.  To sell sugar water Coca Cola shows us polar bears enjoying the beverage: let's make something lacking any nutritional value seem cute and refreshing!  Exxon doesn't rapaciously exploit natural resources: it "delivers value" to its stakeholders.  The wealthy get preferential treatment (11% taxes on capital gains!) not because they have the clout to lobby for that treatment, but rather because they are job creators.  Financial institutions behind the global recession are spared criminal suits, not because they have the power to intimidate the government and the legal team to fight it, but because they are too big too fail.  Benefits and programs to support the poor and middle class--food stamps, unemployment insurance, job training, infrastructure improvements--are continually whittled down, not because they lack political power...No! It's because government is too big and they are too dependent on government largesse.  And so on.

You Gotta Plan...And You Gotta Believe

More Than A Plan, More Than a Dream: A Belief
Martin Luther King didn't just have a dream, he had a plan: marches, sit-ins, legislative advocacy.  But no amount of dreaming, and no amount of planning, could comfort him when the death threats rained upon him, when the Churches were bombed and the dogs set loose; no, in those all-too-frequent (if not constant) moments, he needed something else: belief.  Belief that was not always justifiable; belief that strained the bounds of credulity; belief that he almost certainly struggled to believe himself.  Yet that belief remained, and it resonated in the hearts and minds of the countless thousands that risked their lives for justice, and it resonated even in the hearts and minds of those who would prefer to look the other way--but couldn't, because the Civil Rights movement forced them to...forced them to believe that change was coming.

O, but it's so hard.  During the darkest days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, or the Battle of Britain, or the Civil War, or the American Revolution, or the myriad other events that shaped history, how many times did the way forward seem impossible, unthinkable?  How often were the best of plans laid to waste, the best thinkers proven wrong?  And yet sometimes, in the midst of strife--moments when all the roads to Justice have been washed away by a torrent of hopelessness--a path is forged.  It is a path that defies logic, that shouldn't work...and then somehow does.

What Do Our Customers Need?

I just finished reading a fantastic book titled Portfolios of the Poor: How The World's Poor Live on $2 a Day, a provocative look at how the poor actually related to and make use of financial services.  By meeting with hundreds of families every two weeks for a year, the authors were able to not only understand how much money they bring in per year--which is the number we usually hear of--but also what their cash flow looks like month-to-month.  As I've come to learn over the years, cash flow is king: it doesn't matter how much money you have, if the timing of inflows doesn't match the timing of outflows, you've got a problem!

Guest Blog Post: Mintaka Angell, Financial Coaching Fellow

While many students can attest to emphasizing service work on their college applications, it seems that this focus begins to slip soon after the "submit" button is clicked. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics, for example, recently found that overall levels of volunteerism were declining in America - with the lowest levels of service prevalent among 20-24 year olds. With raising college tuition and ever-increasing stress to conform to a specific set of criteria for the job market, it's easy to understand why fewer college students are finding the time to participate in social justice and change. However, there are several reasons that service is invaluable, no matter a student's situation.   Not only is it a personally enriching experience that deepens communal connections, fosters new friendships, and allows for each person to contribute towards positive change in their community, is also opens a series of perspectives vital for the next generation of leaders to understand. Here are five (5) reasons that service and social justice work are an irreplaceable component of every college student's education:

Applying The Business of Behavior Change…To CGF and Myself!

What Are We About?

I’ve thought long and hard about what Capital Good Fund is really about.  Yes, we provide financial services to low-income families and we often say that we are about financial empowerment.  But that’s about as imaginative as saying that Apple is about selling software and hardware. No, if you really want to explain why Apple is the most profitable company in the world, you have to understand that, in essence, they are in the business of delivering a magical experience to its customers.

Does that sound hyperbolic?  Like I’m just another Apple fanboy?  Maybe, but have you ever looked at the eyes of a child the first time she picks up an iPad and starts playing with it?  Have you ever considered why so many people spend so much money just to have a beautiful and functional object they can keep in their pocket or their backpack, even though there are equally good and cheaper alternatives out there?  Of course it’s because of advertising and consumerism—of course, but that’s missing the point.  And actually, irrespective of your opinion of the company and its products, the main point still remains: what Apple, or any other enterprise, produces and sells is not necessarily the same thing as what it’s about. As Simon Sinek puts it, people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.