Volunteer work is generally considered to be any unpaid work. Volunteers help with a variety of social issues, and without them, the world would be much worse off. Volunteers help people and pets in need. They help build homes, provide food, and more. These services add so much economic and social value to society, and yet they’re sadly overlooked.
The Direct Economic Value of Volunteer Labor
As of 2018, over $160B worth of labor per year is performed by volunteers, in the US (AmeriCorps). For comparison, that’s over 1/3 of the funds set aside for stimulus checks in the third COVID stimulus bill. Volunteering is important, because volunteers provide services that generally don’t translate well into professions.
And while volunteering is a noble act, it would be helpful for many of these volunteers if they could receive some financial compensation for their efforts. Moreover, it could fuel new interest in volunteer work. Sadly, the number of teens willing to volunteer and give to charity has been declining for a number of years. (EducationWeek)
Unfortunately, tasks performed by volunteers are usually difficult to monetize directly. Running a business around suicide prevention, animal welfare, and other services, isn’t going to work. Volunteers generally help those with little to no resources of their own.
Donations
One obvious method of raising funds to pay volunteers is through donations. Fund raising can help pull in a lot of money for needed resources, including materials, but also paid labor. Direct contributions to charities, various crowdfunding services, tipping services, etc all can help. Charitable contributions totaled roughly $450B as of 2020 (Giving USA).
But that figure also means that in order to fund paying volunteers an appropriate amount of money it would take more than a 30% increase in donations.
A Non-Tax
Volunteer work is such an important component of socioeconomic health, and yet we don’t do nearly enough to support and promote it. We could simply tax people more and use those taxes to fund volunteer programs. But doing so requires a constant battle in congress. It could take years before anything is done, and politicians could easily hold us hostage.
There is however an alternative to taxes and government run programs. All it takes is the creation of a specialized currency that volunteers are other people can use, and that’s accepted by a sufficient number of people for goods and services. By slowly increasing the supply of that currency, to match increasing demand, we can “tax” everyone who uses the currency, to fund things like volunteer programs.
I’ve talked about this kind of approach before. The idea is that everyone who holds the currency and volunteers to use it is volunteering a small portion of their purchasing power and letting the system put it towards social programs.
The Benefits of More Volunteering
Volunteering yields direct benefits to society. Food banks, shelters, suicide hotlines, and other services, help those in need, at least in the short run. But they can also help people get back on their feet. They can help improve local communities so that those communities can thrive.
The multiplier effect alone helps, and would help a lot in this instance. As volunteers have more money, they’ll spend more. This effect with ripple through the economy. This effect exist for current paid social welfare programs as well, such as jobs created by Habitat for Humanity. A case study considering the impact of Habitat for Humanity projects in Iowa considered the total economic benefit of such activities. Between wages, spending of those wages, spending on building supplies, and so on, $100 spent on low income house building and restoration resulted in a total in $150 in economic activity, a 50% additional return.
As fewer people end up homeless and sick, they can spend more time contributing to society, as well as simply enjoying their lives. Volunteer work to clean up pollution helps keep people healthy, reducing the costs associated with pollution related diseases such as cancer.
Globally, pollution results in roughly 9 million premature deaths, or about 16% of all premature deaths, and costs the global economy about $4.6T or 6.2% of the global economic output (Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health).
Overall, social welfare programs, and programs which rely on volunteer work, significantly contribute to economic and social prosperity. Further support for these programs can reduce deaths, and create a happier and healthier society.
