Kiva - one of those "it's the least I could do" things

Americans are frequent abusers of the phrase "it's the least I could do" - it is one of those phrases that I have an immediate sort of roll-your-eyes reaction to because not only isn't it true, but ninety-nine times out of one-hundred it's clear evidence of our universal apathy in the face of doing things that actually make a difference in OTHER people's lives. Especially other people that didn't get a winning lottery ticket (see John Rawls and A Theory of Justice) at birth.

One of the funny things about this category of things that people do that are evidence of either apathy or simply a lack of any real awareness of possessing a winning ticket is to actually give someone else money. Based on life experience I think that this is partially due to a desire to see others actually show some kind of effort in exchange for your willingness to help them skirt the minefield of poverty and accident of birth. So, if you fall into that camp - and I know that I do - then Kiva is just the sort of idea that fits your need for a sense of personal responsibility tied to some form of charity.

Kiva provides the opportunity to loan your money to people all over the globe, watch them pay it back through their hard work, and then repeat that process over and over. I've found it to be rather fun to watch the money roll in, pretend I'm the Monopoly banker, enjoy a bit of an egomaniac trip, and loan my money again and again. Part of what is pleasurable about it is that it's painfully obvious to me that these folks are putting my money to much better use than I would a lot of the time. Given the choice of buying those four or five extra pints of Ben & Jerry's or loaning that cash to a cattle farmer in Tajikistan I'd much prefer to imagine the farmer getting up at the crack of dawn to feed his cows than actually watching my weight creep up week by week, my cushy lifestyle leading me to become an expanding mass accumulating rolls of skin and fat that originated in a food container with a corporate label and was the product of some marketing whiz targeting my demographic.

Anyway - go make some loans. Kiva is offering newbies the chance to do so with SOMEONE ELSES MONEY. That's right, you don't even have to loan your own. So just do it. http://kiva.org/invitedby/poblin