Charity angels

Abstract

Organized charities, especially government ones, often suffer from high administrative costs and poor information regarding who is worthy of help. The author suggests a novel solution inspired by the biblical idea of entertaining angels in disguise: employing “angels” to go around feigning being in need and rewarding those who provide meaningful assistance with large publicized rewards later on. This approach could potentially improve the effectiveness of charity by incentivizing kindness and altruism in society. Such a system could use prototypical cases or discretionary decision-making to determine who to help, potentially enabling more personalized and emotionally satisfying interactions. The author also acknowledges potential concerns related to con-artists posing as angels and the offense some people might feel upon learning they had helped someone for a monetary reward. – AI-generated abstract.