system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do we need funding for things like scientific research, feeding the homeless, sending aid to Africa, etc? Shouldn't we be able to just DO those things without having to pay for the supplies necessary to do so if it's beneficial to mankind?

Sorry if this is a stupid question. I've never been able to wrap my mind around this. 

Okay, so cancer is terrible. We should cure it. We just need to donate money to whichever foundation we choose and let them deal with the research.
I get that. I just don't understand why the government/whoever is in charge of that decision can't just provide the money, tools, etc that we need. I know that money is necessary to avoid chaos (I guess), but can't we, as a species, just... I don't know... Turn a blind eye to currency when it involves things that are necessary for the continuation/well-being of the planet?

Please don't attack me if I'm speaking out of ignorance. This is something I have just never been able to understand.

**EDIT**: My question has been answered and I feel a little less ridiculous. Thanks guys!

And also. Don't go and downvote the other people in this thread that were also curious. We ask because we'd like to know, not because we enjoy living in ignorance... You're tacky and I hate you.
gpt
Nothing in this world is truly free. All resources are finite. Governments aren't able to do that because they would have to neglect something else. If there was a war going on, saving people dying from cancer be the last priority. Unless we lived in Utopia and all humans were altruistic, this will never happen because everyone wants something. Would you be willing to work in the farms for your whole life? You will get nothing in return but you know that you fed some starving children.