see, this is a better way to target tax cuts. but, it's very thatcherian, and there's a solid criticism of it.

when you target tax credits like this, you put charitable work in the dictates of the people making the donations. now, a chorus of people are going to tell me that that's democracy, and that's all fine and good to a certain point. but, it then gives top-down hierarchical organizations more power to carry out their interests, and that's a force that is working against democracy.

i'm going to use somewhat of a cliched example, and i'm using this because it's broadly untrue in 2015 but gets the idea across. it's something that i know from first hand experience happens in the developing world. i have a family member that volunteered for a christian aid group in haiti. when she got there, she was disgusted to find that the compound was located behind barbed wire fences and handed out food in exchange for conversion. not willing to convert, attend service and help build the church? no food, for you. sorry...

now, up here in canada, we're a long ways from private organizations holding food over the head of the poor in order to get them to do what they want (unless you want to talk about wage slavery). but, the idea of putting all this power in the hands of private organizations at the expense of the most vulnerable is a giant problem.

unfortunately, when you put the impetus for charity in the hands of private citizens, they disproportionately choose these types of organizations - in large part because it's membership in these organizations that are driving the donations in the first place. it's generally a fundamental aspect of the group, whatever the group is.

secular state aid gets around this by putting standards in place that minimize those interests.

in the end, it's more reducible to a concept of what democracy is than a question of which is more democratic. but, i'd argue rather strenuously that it's more democratic to put aid in the hands of the people (which, right now, unfortunately means the state) and let them distribute it based on need and based on targets determined by study, rather than allowing private interests to use it as a tool to carry out their social engineering objectives, regardless of the popular will or what has been determined to be (in)effective.

www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-stephen-harper-unveils-tax-credit-plan-for-service-club-memberships-1.3200851