According to tonight’s edition of 60 Minutes, at least 19 U.S. states are outsourcing welfare benefits calls to… India.
Um… what about giving the welfare recipients those jobs?
In contrast to the story about U.S. corporations outsourcing to India, they aired a story about the Greyston Bakery, which not only creates employment for some of those who need it the most — people who need a hand climbing out of a life that went off the rails — but plows its profits back into the community by funding daycare centers, clinics, and counseling services. And somehow, despite all this social good, the bakery is a $5 million a year business. It provides baked goods to some of the most prestigious restaurants.
Tasty. I love this kind of thing, it’s why I like D.C. Central Kitchen, which employs and trains men and women and enables them to take control of their lives.
If I had a business — well, I do, kind of — I’d love to engineer it in such a way that it made the community and world a better place. Not just make me and the stockholders wealthy. I do have my own business, a freelance design company. Well, I call it a company, when really it’s just me. But the thing is, I spend more on the company than I take in. The most I’ve made in a year recently is about $5,000, because most of what I do is provide services for good causes. I rarely keep a list of the stuff I do or promote them, I just enjoy doing it. I like doing things behind the scenes, kind of a machiavellian philanthropist. Sometimes I toot my own horn, but not often. I definitely toot about the DVD I just finished, because it took about a year to complete and represented a pretty big investment of time and money. But the proceeds will benefit the Gerda and Kurt Klein Foundation, which promotes tolerance, diversity, and an end to hunger. And is a small token of appreciation for the incredible example of Gerda and the late Kurt Klein, two people who have touched my life — and the lives of many others. Each time I met them, they were incredibly gracious and loving, despite the hardships they had seen. I aspire to be even slightly as giving as they.
i’m not there yet. And I might never be. But, I try.
