Charity starts at home

The argument

The case for helping your neighbours during the coronavirus pandemic begins with proximity. The people on your street are the ones whose needs you are actually in a position to know about and to meet. Someone nearby likely needs help getting groceries, particularly if they are shielding or unwell. Someone else may need a person to look after their children while they go to work, at a time when the usual arrangements have fallen away. And many people simply need someone to have a chat with, because isolation is itself one of the harms the pandemic inflicts and a conversation is often enough to lift their spirits. What distinguishes these needs is that they are small, specific, and immediate. They do not require funding, institutional capacity, or coordination at scale. They require someone close enough to notice and willing to act, which is precisely what a neighbour is. The second part of the argument concerns coverage. The objection to localism is usually that it leaves gaps, that if everyone looks inward the people outside anyone's circle go unhelped. But the premise here is that the circles tile the map. Everybody has neighbours, and everybody is somebody's neighbour. If everyone looked after their own communities, there would be no territory left uncovered, and nobody would be without assistance that needs it. Directing effort locally is therefore not a narrowing of help but a way of distributing it so that none of it is duplicated and none of it is misdirected. This is the sense in which charity starts at home. The help that is closest is the help that is most reliable, and when it is practised generally it reaches everyone. For proponents, that means the people you should help during the pandemic are your neighbours.

Premises

Counter-arguments

It isn't about making sure everyone gets some assistance, it is about making sure the people that need the assistance the most get a lot of assistance. If everyone only looked out for their immediate community, rich communities would have an abundance of resources and assistance and poor communities would have very little. Charity shouldn't start at home. It should start with those that need it most.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] It isn't about making sure everyone has some help. We need to make sure those that need it most have a lot of help.