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Comment by bluegatty | Hacker News Reader

" And the entire point of an NGO is to get around restrictions on what governments can do" - no, they can serve many purposes, and there are tons of things governments should not be doing.

They are entities that have a civic purpose, not for profit.

Yes, they can in some cases support political causes, that is normal.

You seem to have a narrow view of what 'community' is aka something is either a 'charity' or 'government' - the world is more complicated than that.

" That set of properties can and should draw significant criticism. " - no, the properties of fine.

They can be scrutinized like any organizaition: charity, private company, ngo, government, etc.

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Yours is the naïve view of someone who has never looked at how the sausage is made. There are hundreds of billions each year flowing through NGOs. Where do you think this money comes from. Hint: its not your friendly grandma.

You should take some time to learn what NGO's are.

America Medial Association, AARP (retired people) are NGOs, they advocate for their causes, that's perfectly reasonable and normal.

They are not 'for profit' obviously, and they're not strictly charities.

People can group together and organize as they please. Donations to NGOs are not tax deductible.

1) Its spelled Medical

2) We have different regulations for different types of institutions

3) NGOs specifically exist to get around those regulations

4) A lobbying group (AARP) should have specific rules around how it can function. Lumping them with a professional standards organization makes it impossible to have reasonable anti-corruption laws. That's why NGOs exist, to make it impossible to enforce corruption laws. There is literally no other reason for it to exist as a category. We already have categories for lobbying groups and professional groups and charities.

"They are entities that have a civic purpose, not for profit."

If they had a true civic purpose, they would call themselves charities. The specific reason they don't is because an audit of their spending wouldn't meet the standards of a charity. Remember, charities can take government money. They just can't do it in exchange for a service. NGOs can. That's not about civic purpose. Its about different administrative standards. Standards that allow abuse. That's the entire point of them using the term NGO instead of charity.

You're failing to convey what an NGO is, and fail to provide any evidence that either NGOs, Charities or Public / Private companies are structurally more inclined to fraud.

NGOs are not charities, they exist for a different reason.

The American Medical Association is 'civic purpose'.

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