Participation Reward

A system of moral incentives for charity should appear in Russia

According to various sources, more than half of Russian citizens are poor . Moreover, paradoxically, 35% of them are working and hardworking citizens, including 70% in the field of culture and art. 60% of the rural population receive wages below the subsistence level.

The extinction of the Russian population and its degradation has reached catastrophic, unprecedented proportions. 32% of children are born healthy. There are now more street children in Russia than there were in the early years of the civil war.

The social security system has been reduced to the point of absurdity and is in need of a radical overhaul. And the most offensive thing is that this is happening in a country where 30 to 40% of the earth's mineral resources are concentrated. The anticipation for a better and fairer life is running high.

On the other hand, a very small part of the population of our country is becoming fabulously rich, spending huge amounts of money on lavish entertainment and remaining indifferent to the plight in Russia .

In 1990, when oil fields belonged to the state, we were 2.2 times ahead of the United States in terms of production per well. Now we are 1.8 times behind the United States in this indicator. In addition, we have one and a half times more people employed in this area. In the oil and gas complex, production per person has fallen 1.8 times over 15 years. And the rate of renewal of fixed assets was reduced from approximately 8.6 to 2.2%. The picture is similar in the energy sector.

In my opinion, Russia’s GDP growth is not only due to oil and gas production, but about a quarter is formed due to chronic underpayment of wages to employees. And first of all, for state employees. It is this part, which makes up the intellectual core of Russia, that we are making even poorer. Our hourly wage today is about half the UN minimum wage. And according to this indicator, we are behind the United States by 9.6 times, Germany by 13.4 times, France by 8.5 times, and Canada by 10 times.

I think the time has come to dispel the old Soviet stereotype that we live poorly because we work poorly. World statistics and our experience refute this thesis. It seems that the time has come to admit another truth: we work poorly because we live poorly.

Unlike the most economically developed countries in the world, the main contribution to the growth of Russia's total net income comes not from labor or even capital, but from rent - income from the use of land, the territory of the country, its natural resources, main pipelines, transport, communications, monopoly position manufacturers of important products. Rent accounts for 75% of total income, which in its overwhelming majority does not fall into the pocket of the state. This is the result of the imperfection of our current tax system.

Paradoxically, the main component of tax revenue in our country is labor, and more specifically, the wage fund. About 70% of tax revenues are associated with it, although the majority of the population of our country, as already noted, has prohibitively low salaries. In this situation, our state employees, pensioners, agricultural workers and other categories of workers are unlikely to be able to count on a quick improvement in their social situation.

If Russia is building a market economy on the basis of privatized public property and countless natural resources, business must bear a certain social responsibility to the state and people. Moreover, this responsibility must be enshrined in law.

First of all, in my opinion, it is necessary to pass a law changing the flat scale of income tax to a progressive one, as is customary in many civilized countries.

Obviously, given the huge gap between the poor and the super-rich, the size of which is ever increasing, there is an urgent need to establish an institution of charitable activity in Russia, as was typical in pre-revolutionary Russia and accepted throughout the world.

Moreover, the state should take on this concern by improving the regulatory framework and tax laws that encourage businesses to invest in charitable programs.

State support can be expressed not only in the provision of tax and other benefits to subjects of charitable activities, but also in the creation of a system of measures for their moral encouragement, which can significantly expand the circle of participants in this activity and increase the amount of resources for its implementation.

In pre-revolutionary Russia, the state used many forms of encouragement for philanthropists - they were awarded orders and other insignia, given honorary titles, their names were given to charitable institutions and organizations, and they were promoted. They could even move to another class.

Who does not know such outstanding and progressive Russian philanthropists as Mamontov, Morozov, Tretyakov, Novikov. Members of the imperial family, ministers and commanders-in-chief of individual military units had the right to submit petitions for rewarding benefactors. Petitions were submitted to His Imperial Majesty, who submitted them to the committee on the service of officials of the civil department and on awards.

Now the first sprouts of charitable activities are appearing in Russia. For example, the charitable foundation “Center for Assistance to Street Children” created at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation. Over five years, the fund received over 180 million rubles. to provide assistance to 1,377 children's institutions, which educate about 90 thousand children.

On a free basis, the RF Chamber of Commerce and Industry also created a non-state open-type pension fund to provide pension services to enterprises of various forms of ownership and individuals. It has already accumulated more than 400 million rubles.

In 2006, the Institute of Civil Society Problems, with the support of the Canadian Civil Society Foundation, with the participation of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation and some other organizations, conducted a public opinion study on the impact of non-economic government incentives for charitable activities.

A special conference was held on this topic in January 2007 at the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. Discussions and surveys were conducted in ten constituent entities of the Russian Federation, mainly with the participation of entrepreneurs and representatives of charitable organizations. Here's some data:

-- 98% of respondents believe that measures on the part of states to morally encourage subjects of charitable activities stimulate their participation;

-- 54% of entrepreneurs rated public recognition of merit in the field of charity by the state as “significant”;

-- 62% believe that there is a need to establish special awards for charitable activities to popularize them;

-- 74% of respondents believe that the nomination of a philanthropist for encouragement should be carried out by both state and public structures that have a high status;

-- 91% supported the establishment of mandatory public procedures when nominating a philanthropist to ensure transparency and objectivity;

-- 98% of respondents believe that government incentives for charitable activities can be equally applied to Russian and foreign individuals and legal entities;

-- 51% of respondents believe that when rewarding and encouraging individuals and legal entities for charity, restrictive measures should be introduced for lawbreakers who have connections with criminal structures and morally discredit themselves. It is also proposed to introduce restrictions or prohibitions for candidates for deputies at all levels, persons involved in criminal business (drug trafficking, prostitution, etc.), having a dubious reputation, low public rating;

-- 74% of respondents consider it necessary to give philanthropists the right to control the use of funds allocated to them;

-- 84% of the discussion participants were in favor of adopting a special regulatory document regulating state incentives for charity.

The participants in the discussion were almost unanimous that by using measures of moral incentives for charitable activities, the state can thereby attract additional resources to solve socially significant problems without financial or other benefits. If the state is interested in this, it must clearly indicate its attitude towards charitable activities and take the necessary practical steps to implement these measures in practice.

At the same time, our benefactors cannot be aloof from the extremely disastrous situation of the majority of the country's population, which has developed in recent years as a result of the artificial privatization of public property and natural resources given to us by God. Charity is a spiritual and moral duty of rich Russians to their people and state.

Evgeniy SMIRNOV, First Class Civil Service Advisor