Burnt Hill wrote:So what motivates someone to be charitable?
Charity. Pity. Fellow-feeling. Empathy. Imagination. The correct awareness that you are neither alone in the world -- and could not possibly be alone in the world -- nor alone in your capacity to suffer.
Love, even.
(Unless by "someone" and "charitable" you are referring only to millionaires with a potential tax problem and an accountant who also understands PR. Not everything that calls itself charity is truly charitable, no, obviously.)
And do you accept the Maslow pyramid as a valid representation of human needs?
It's a useful model. Certainly you cannot be charitable if you cannot survive. But many people have been charitable rather than survive at the cost of being uncharitable. Surviving (or even flourishing) at all costs is not, and has not ever been, everyone's priority. Examples are legion.