thinking about how crowdfunding of people instead of products often is like paying taxes to a third party so they can extract a toll so that someone can get assistance taxes should fund
but also how it helps break some of the cycles payday loan etc places exploit if you can get someone above them or keep them from falling into more debt and just even buy space to breathe
This is on my mind constantly right now, rechosting my own mutual aid request dailyish, and every other one that comes across my feed when I see it. If we're gonna have a state, this is the one thing they should be doing; but the tax-funded aid that I am explicitly qualified to receive and have paid directly into in vastly larger quantities than I've ever taken or ever will is being gatekept from me on multiple fronts. Endless hoops to jump and I've yet to see a penny. So instead I have to come over here and ask people who mostly are only better off by a hair.
At least I know where to aim my gratitude.