tanzanos said:
The very notion that one must receive recognition for helping others is immoral and unethical.
I agree with this. Recognition for charitable giving has always seemed like self-aggrandizement to me.
However, as an American, I don't think this is really the reason why conservative individuals will tend to push for having social services handled by private charities instead of government agencies. It's a bit more complex than that, and there are probably several reasons.
In general, conservative individuals believe in two things: keeping money in people's pockets, and less government interference and/or regulation into their lives (at least when it comes to economic matters). Frequently this translates into lowering taxes and cutting government programs.
Some even see taxation as a form of government theft, but this is not true for all. Others have a rather isolationist attitude about taxes: they don't want to pay taxes for a service they won't use.
Keep in mind, also, that charitable donations are tax deductible. Philanthropy is spurred, in part, by the ability to deduct donations from one's gross income at the end of the year, and thus lower the amount of tax one must pay to Uncle Sam every April.
There is also the myth of the American Dream, coupled with a skewed belief in the results of hard work. It is a cultural myth in America that wealth is generated by hard, diligent, dedicated work. While it is possible to work hard and become financially prosperous (the rags-to-riches story we love so well), the unfortunate flip side of this is that we tend to believe that poor people are poor because they are lazy, regardless of how hard they actually work.
Poverty is thus seen as a moral failure, not the result of unfortunate circumstances. Thus conservatives often see government programs as a matter of taxpayers rewarding poor people for moral failure, not as an essential safety net needed to ensure the health and safety of all citizens. This attitude is not helped by propaganda such as the
myth of the welfare queen, but it's easier to believe in such myths when they help support one's own position.
A dirty little secret Americans don't like to admit is that we place the value of a human life on money. We value humans who live above subsistence level, who make more than minimum wage, who don't have to work 3 jobs just to survive, and who have a nice home, car, and family. We value the image of prosperity, which is probably one reason why we're so far in the credit hole right now and why our economy is collapsing like a flan in a cupboard.
So the reasons why many Americans would rather place social support in the hands of private charities rather than government are manifold, and I suspect recognition is not a primary motivation.