WILLisms has some interesting statistics on Charitable Giving. As a percentage of income, conservatives give between 3.7% to 4.5% of their income, while liberals give from 1.2% to 1.5%.
I followed his source of these statistics to Rich Gov, Poor Gov: Why Obama can't Fix the Economy which had an interesting analysis of our current administration. Scott Martin starts with:
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Last night, as I reread Robert Kiyosaki's 1997 Bestseller Rich Dad Poor Dad, I realized why Barack Obama will be unable to do what is necessary to fix America's economy. It's not just that he believes in government intervention in business, although that's a big part of it. But what makes it even worse is that President Obama is Poor Dad.
For those who haven't read the book, let me give you the gist so you can follow along. The author uses a fable, loosely-based on his life growing up. The purpose is to compare and contrast the differences between his highly-educated and professional father (who he refers to as Poor Dad) and his best friend's father, an informally educated, business savvy mentor (who he calls Rich Dad). I don't wish to debate the merits of the book, which I believe are plenteous if you can distinguish the good advice from the bad. It's irrelevant here, because I am only going to focus on the advice that is, in fact, generally good and true.
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Janine and I both read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad." There were some good points in there, but you have to be careful in trusting everything in the book.
Scott's main points are:
1. Poor Dad accumulates liabilities, while Rich Dad accumulates assets.
2. Poor Dad believes the rich owe the poor.
3. Poor Dad doesn't give charitably, Rich Dad gave liberally (by which I mean "not at all like a liberal.")
4. Poor Dad thinks management (capital) exploits labor.
5. Most importantly... Poor Dad, while highly educated, doesn't understand economics.
Scott concludes with:
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President Obama cannot and will not come up with policies that will improve the economy over the long haul. Sure, our economy should improve eventually, if only because America's greatest asset is its productive citizenry and the fact that things can hardly get worse. But Poor Dad's policies will never restore America to what it could, and should, be.
For that, we need someone who thinks like Rich Dad.
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Technorati tags: charity
5 comments:
hehe nice blog
That is interesting.
Hmm...
[wheels turning now]
~Luke
People who regularly attend religious services are more likely to donate to charity (91% vs. 66% of those who do not regularly attend services) and are more likely to be politically conservative (the so-called "God Gap" in recent elections). A study found that the average annual giving among the religious is $2,210, whereas it is $642 among the secular. That's even after controlling for income, education, age, race, and other characteristics.
What I find most interesting is that the difference is not explained simply by religious folks donating to their church/house of worship. Religious people donate more to nonreligious causes than secular folks do (71% to 61%).
The Hoover Institution has an interesting article on the subject here.
Crimson Wife - thanks for the link. It is interesting that there is such a difference between religious and non-religious.
There's also quite a bit of selection bias going on- people who are selfish aren't likely to want to give up their Sunday mornings to sit in church hearing about how God wants them to help the needy, KWIM?
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