When Jesus told the wealthy young man, “Give your riches to the poor,” what apparently mattered to him were not the poor, but rather the soul of the wealthy man for whose salvation this sacrifice was merely a means or symbol. Later on, Christian alms retained the same character; they represent no more than a form of asceticism, of “good works,” which improve the chances of salvation of the giver. The rise of begging in the Middle Ages, the senseless distribution of alms, the demoralization of the proletariat through arbitrary donations which tend to undermine all creative work, all these phenomena constitute the revenge, so to speak, that alms take for the purely subjectivistic motive of their concession—a motive which concerns only the giver but not the recipient.

XREF: Connects to broader critiques of charity as self-serving, echoing arguments about performative philanthropy and the Weberian theme of religious motives shaping economic outcomes.

XREF: Connects to broader debates about charity as self-regarding virtue versus other-regarding action, relevant to ethical critiques of performative giving.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 409