So the enumerated reasons you should not donate money to political campaigns or causes:
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Using the categorical imperative, lets imagine if everyone adopted my “no donations to political campaigns” as a universal maxim. What would be the impact? I’d argue it’d be only positive. All political money comes from individuals, whether it’s in a PAC, some corporate donation, or direct donations all money ultimately comes from individuals making a decision to give money to politicians. If everyone adopted as a universal maxim the concept of never donating money, then politicians would most likely have to all accept public financing and would get only the exposure the press gave them naturally. I’d say that’d be a great public good.
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There is good evidence that there isn’t a great relationship between money spent and votes gained. Many elections you see a clear diminishing return curve for each dollar spent past a “certain point.”
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You spend money on politics because you’re expecting a certain result. For example, that the House will have a Democratic majority and then they’ll enact certain legislation. However, there is a good probability the House will stay Republican regardless of how much money is donated to the DCCC. There is also a probability that if the House goes Democratic they will not pass legislation you want, or worse, pass legislation you oppose.
So the “investment value” of your donation is poor, due to all of the above uncertainty. You certainly wouldn’t invest money in a stock (wisely, anyway) that you felt had decent odds to be worth nothing in a year’s time. Compare this to what I donate my money to–charitable organizations. Two organizations I donate to monthly are the Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land. Almost 90% of my donation goes to something I actually believe in and find important. Both appeal to me because they take a scientific, ownership based approach to conservation. For example with TPL my money is largely used to actually buy land that is conserved for all time, protecting it far more effectively than environmental lobbying/political groups. With the Nature Conservancy they do some of the same, while also developing things like conservation easements and building public-private partnerships to create large scale preserves.
- I’m a New York Yankees fan, I’d like them to do well and win as many World Series as possible. Does it make sense for me to mail checks to the Steinbrenners to see this happen? Or, does it make sense for me to buy overpriced merchandise that I won’t even wear just to see the team has more revenue?
Of course not. By and large they are going to make their money regardless of whether I spend any on the team. Because for every person like me, there are more fans who are willing to spend their money regularly on the team on things like game tickets, merchandise etc.
Politicians and politics are really no different. Say you want to see Eric Cantor keep his seat, should you spend your money? Basically no, you shouldn’t. But what if everyone adopted this philosophy on Cantor’s side of things, and his opponents all donated money to their campaigns? Well, most likely Cantor would lose because his campaign organization would be non-functional while his opponent’s would be well supported.
But the reality is by not donating, you are cashing in on the public stupidity. And this is the reason even if all my other points are invalid, you should never donate to political campaigns. The reality is the few people like me that want to see Cantor get reelected but won’t spend a dime to see it happen are outliers. Most people that are politically involved will donate some money or time or etc. Further, the big corporate donors and PACs will donate money regardless of what I do. This is true for whatever House member you’d care to mention. They will get their money, trust me, they will. By not donating money, you’re getting pretty much all the benefits if they win and not paying anything for it. That’s a rare opportunity where you can get “something” (still not much) out of a $0 investment.
People like the posters in this thread who are saying donate, they are going to donate regardless. So keep that in mind, there’s tons of people like them. You as an individual will never need to donate. In addition to them, there are big money sources of donation that are going to donate as well. By donating yourself all you are doing is validating the poor decision of other individuals who have chosen to donate, and subsidizing corporate and PAC donations.
The opposite point to this will always be “but if everyone thinks like you…” but that’s an absurdity. Everyone won’t think like you, most people will not be able to look at the game theory implications and understand that regardless of what you do most people that are going to donate are doing to donate. So your candidate and your cause is going to get money, and sufficient to run a campaign, regardless of what you as an individual do. As an individual you have very finite financial resources, and you’d be better off putting them to something where .84-.90 of the dollar actually goes to something meaningful if you’re looking to spend “cause money.”
Or you can put it in the stock market where you’re making an actual investment that brings actual return.
