Several readers have bashed me for bashing the American Red Cross. For example, one reader said,
‘What’s wrong with their having 1,359 employees above $100,000 per year? That’s just what it costs to get good people.’
According to their own reports, Red Cross collected $490 million to help Haiti after the massive earthquake there in 2010 that killed over 220,000 people. Red Cross now admits they only built 6 houses with that money, but that was because their plans for housing were stymied because "clear land title couldn’t be established." They nevertheless claim they helped 132,000 Haitians with housing.
Let's see: $490 million divided by 132,000 equals about $3,700 each. If that's true, those 132,000 Haitians each got double their yearly salary from the Red Cross. I can't help being skeptical of that claim.
Meanwhile, 2 years after the disaster Habitat for Humanity reported they had "repaired or rehabbed more than 350 houses, and constructed 150 permanent core houses as part of its permanent housing community," despite the problems of 'establishing clear land title'...
Donations to Habitat for Humanity in 2010 were about $20 million, none of which, as far as I can tell, went to Jimmy Carter.
Jehovah's Witnesses reported in their December, 2010 issue of Awake! that "In the first few months following the quake, 1,500 homes had already been built by the Witnesses for those who had lost theirs."
Apparently all those "good people" at Red Cross are getting paid high salaries for pushing paper around.
Are you a good person? Tell me: if you really believed the American Red Cross were a noble endeavor, wouldn’t you be willing to work for them for less than $100,000 per year? I would. I think I’m a good person. I’ve been known to work for free for causes I believed in. I could certainly work for a below-market salary if I believed in the work they were doing.
As long as it wasn’t their blood business...
