is this what altruism looks like? Modest Needs appears to
be a site where one person (unidentified) promises to give you money if you
"need" it:
I have decided to create and fund Modest Needs,
a website dedicated to those people who find themselves faced with unexpected
expenses that, though relatively minor, threaten to stretch their budgets
to the very limit. Beginning 1 April 2002, I will be distributing
10% of my monthly income to assist people who find themselves in that position.
If youâo[dot accent]re already in this
position, or if you ever find yourself in this position, all you have to
do is let me know. Iâo[dot accent]ll do whatever I can to help you.
No kidding.
Itâo[dot accent]s just that simple. 
Sounds like a sort of great idea. The site allows you to
donate through PayPal or Amazon, and the ledger says that there is
currently nearly $800 available for request. The catch is that there is $13,059.75
in requests. No surprise there. The beauty of this is that it could become
a sort of repository of need -- something to counter-balance the Bushies
when they say the military needs another billion dollars. We could point
to Modest Needs and say, what about these people? What about these needs?
The drawback is that, for the most part, this will only reach a class of
people who are already doing well enough to have internet access. In other
words, I don't think this is the way to reach the people who need help most.
This is a way to keep the bottom of the middle class from falling into lower-class.
That's not a bad thing, I'm just sayin'...
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