With the tsunami or post-Katrina or the earthquake in Pakistan, you had so many choices where to give your money. And maybe you gave something to your religious institution. Charitable giving seems so, well charitable. So very caritas. After all, nothin' says charity like sayin' it in Greek. Charitable donations give a warm humanitarian feeling, so different from the coldness of taxes and government.

Or is it?

No doubt, you've probably given some charity all through the year. Last year at this time, there was the tsunami, and since then so many disasters that have pushed people to open their purses. And on the negative side there were some hucksters who set up fake charities and pocketed the proceeds.

In the remaining days of this year, you may be sorting through all those requests for donations and deciding what to give to whom. I certainly will.

And why? Why the rush?

Well, because at this time of year we are even clearer on what the connection between charity and taxes.

Our taxes support charities. There is no clear division.

Whenever someone gives to a charity and takes a tax deduction, your taxes cover those lost taxes.

Put another way, you are subsidizing someone else's charitable choices. So think about all the religious or charitable causes you do not like.

[Pause here to consider the list of 501(3)(c) organizations you do not like. Yes, you are supporting them . . . and you have absolutely no way to control what they do with your subsidy to them.

Let me make this even clearer.

At least when government creates and runs a program you get some control via lobbying, FOIA, or other accountability mechanisms. I know this is not direct control, but compare it to the accountability you get with private groups' spending.

Look at their books? When exactly do we ever get to do that with a private corporation?

With government you do get legal and constitutional accountability. There is FOIA, Open Meetings Acts, and on and on . . . many laws that require that governments open their books and doors. I know it's not perfect. But we have pledged only to make a more perfect union - not to achieve perfection. That is our task, pushing in our feeble human way for that greater perfection.

But once something goes into the private sector . . . all such accountability is gone. The only accountability mechanism in the private sector is the market and jail time if the perps are caught doing bad things. And maybe, should it be, that you hear something bad, you will not toss a coin in their kettle. And that's a big if.

• charity
• taxes