Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Do you feel guilty?

I'm curious. This has nothing to do with...well, anything relevant really.

You know those organizations that send you mailing labels with your name and address on them? In the hopes you have some sort of moral compass and will decide to donate to their cause instead of just using them without contributing to their cause at all? Because what kind of person would use the free labels without donating? A horrible one, I imagine.

Or, I should say, imagined. Past tense.

I think it's clear I'm not someone to look up to in regards to morality, or even ethics but even I didn't have the audacity to use the labels if I didn't donate to the cause.

Until I just got these super cute little dog and cat labels from the Humane Society. I'm not planning on donating, for a couple reasons. One, it's the beginning of tax season and I only donate to my charities at this time and the Humane Society isn't on my list. Two, I only started getting solicitations - and a shitload of them - from the Humane Society RIGHT AFTER I put my cat to sleep. So that alleviates the guilt.

But I'm curious. Do you use them?

8 comments:

heidileanne said...

I normally don't, but when we were doing Christmas cards this year I started writing our return address by hand since I didn't want to make my own labels, and my husband pulled out the one's we'd just gotten and told me to just use them and save myself the effort. I caved, used them, and do feel a little guilty for not donating. . . but not enough to have stopped me from doing it.

Mrs. Ziggy (aka jsugrin) said...

I guess my moral compass is way off because I've always used them. Here is my logic, I didn't ask for them to send me this crap and the small amount of cash I work very hard to carve out of our budget go to causes I find to have a pressing, immediate need (like homeless children, housing for cancer patients undergoing treatment away from home ect). The other side of the coin for me is, so if I don't use the things then what, I trash them right? My compass finds it was worse to toss some useful into the landfill when I can put it to use than to use it without bowing to the guilt of their sending it to me.

Lesley Schooler said...

Ditto Mrs. Ziggy exactly

Alison said...

Of course!! My rational... Maybe I can't doanted to them, but it it would be a straight out waste of their money for me to throw the labels away!

The GVZs said...

I definitely use them because the alternative is that they would get tossed in the trash, and in my opinion that's way worse!

AP said...

Ditto- what the last 4 have said. Though I admit to not using ALL of them, I might keep 2/3 of the page, but not the whole thing... I guess that assuages my guilt a bit :)

GingerB said...

Put me in the immoral category because I always use those labels, and I curse when I have to make my own for all the blasted x-mas cards because I don't have enough free labels. I think they were foolish enough to give away stuff, and waste not, want not. I also keep the nickel or dime some non-profits glue to a card although I will not under any circumstances pick a penny up off any surface that is not my own. Suze Orman wouldn't want to know me.

Selena said...

I LOVE this post. I only use the cute ones...and I always PLAN to donate...at some point. But somehow I never get around to it. I am a horrible person.