Counting is a simple but effective transitional device to
link several paragraphs.
However, there are several reasons why the government
should be cautious before dipping its hands into taxpayers' pockets.
First, although charities seem to add significant value at current
levels of funding, there is no guarantee that any extra money will produce
similar amounts of added value. It may be that charities' income and
outputs are around their optimal level, and that the value added would
fall as their income, and therefore their costs, rose.
Second, the study does not look at whether
the government agencies or private firms could perform good works more
efficiently than charities do. In research comparing care homes for
the elderly, Laing & Buisson, a health-care consultancy, has found
that charity-run homes are less cost-effective than ones run by for-profit
firms. Were this true of good deeds in general, it might be better for
the government to hire private contractors to care for vulnerable people,
instead of subsiding charities to do so.
First and above all, the "Decline and Fall"
is a good history. In its massive erudition, its phenomenal accuracy
and its sober judgment it still stands as the indispensable starting
point of any study of the Roman empire. Second, the work should
be read for the majesty of Gibbon's prose. This is eloquence in the
grandest manners, cunningly matched to its twin functions of narration
and explanation. It is not to be imitated, but to be studied and enjoyed.
