It seems like you can't go into any store anymore without them hitting you up for a donation to whatever, at checkout. It irritates the hell out of me. If these corporations want to virtue-signal what good corporate neighbors they are, why don't they donate their own money, instead of putting the bite on their customers?
It would be less irritating if their reasons for these continuing 'donation' drives were all altruistic, but they are not. What these damned donations allow them to do is declare a tax deduction for the charitable donation of millions of dollars of other people's money. It is a pretty slick idea, I'll grant them, but it seems a little sleazy too and it pisses me off to have to endure the admonishing stares of so many clerks when I tell them no. As for the charities themselves, I haven't even heard of most of the ones being pushed. I wonder how much of that money actually goes to help the intended beneficiaries of those charities?
Maybe I am getting more cynical as I get older, but the world is becoming more deserving of my cynicism. Now get off my damned lawn!
