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Old 12-27-2008, 01:47 PM
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Compassion Gap

Conservative givers give more liberally than liberal givers

WASHINGTON -- Residents of Austin, Texas, home of the state's government and flagship university, have very refined social consciences, if they do say so themselves, and they do say so, speaking via bumper stickers. Don R. Willett, a justice of the state Supreme Court, has commuted behind bumpers proclaiming "Better a Bleeding Heart Than None at All," "Practice Random Acts of Kindness and Senseless Beauty," "The Moral High Ground Is Built on Compassion," "Arms Are For Hugging," "Will Work (When the Jobs Come Back from India)," "Jesus Is a Liberal," "God Wants Spiritual Fruits, Not Religious Nuts," "The Road to Hell Is Paved With Republicans," "Republicans Are People Too -- Mean, Selfish, Greedy People" and so on.

But Willett thinks Austin subverts a stereotype: "The belief that liberals care more about the poor may scratch a partisan or ideological itch, but the facts are hostile witnesses."

Sixteen months ago, Arthur C. Brooks, a professor at Syracuse University, published "Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism." The surprise is that liberals are markedly less charitable than conservatives.

If many conservatives are liberals who have been mugged by reality, Brooks, a registered independent, is, as a reviewer of his book said, a social scientist who has been mugged by data. They include these findings:

-- Although liberal families' incomes average 6 percent higher than those of conservative families, conservative-headed households give, on average, 30 percent more to charity than the average liberal-headed household ($1,600 per year vs. $1,227).

-- Conservatives also donate more time and give more blood.

-- Residents of the states that voted for John Kerry in 2004 gave smaller percentages of their incomes to charity than did residents of states that voted for George Bush.

-- Bush carried 24 of the 25 states where charitable giving was above average.

-- In the 10 reddest states, in which Bush got more than 60 percent majorities, the average percentage of personal income donated to charity was 3.5. Residents of the bluest states, which gave Bush less than 40 percent, donated just 1.9 percent.

-- People who reject the idea that "government has a responsibility to reduce income inequality" give an average of four times more than people who accept that proposition.

Brooks demonstrates a correlation between charitable behavior and "the values that lie beneath" liberal and conservative labels. Two influences on charitable behavior are religion and attitudes about the proper role of government.

The single biggest predictor of someone's altruism, Willett says, is religion. It increasingly correlates with conservative political affiliations because, as Brooks' book says, "the percentage of self- described Democrats who say they have 'no religion' has more than quadrupled since the early 1970s." America is largely divided between religious givers and secular nongivers, and the former are disproportionately conservative. One demonstration that religion is a strong determinant of charitable behavior is that the least charitable cohort is a relatively small one -- secular conservatives.

Reviewing Brooks' book in the Texas Review of Law & Politics, Justice Willett notes that Austin -- it voted 56 percent for Kerry while he was getting just 38 percent statewide -- is ranked by The Chronicle of Philanthropy as 48th out of America's 50 largest cities in per capita charitable giving. Brooks' data about disparities between liberals' and conservatives' charitable giving fit these facts: Democrats represent a majority of the wealthiest congressional districts, and half of America's richest households live in states where both senators are Democrats.

While conservatives tend to regard giving as a personal rather than governmental responsibility, some liberals consider private charity a retrograde phenomenon -- a poor palliative for an inadequate welfare state and a distraction from achieving adequacy by force, by increasing taxes. Ralph Nader in 2000 said: "A society that has more justice is a society that needs less charity." Brooks, however, warns: "If support for a policy that does not exist ... substitutes for private charity, the needy are left worse off than before. It is one of the bitterest ironies of liberal politics today that political opinions are apparently taking the place of help for others."

In 2000, brows were furrowed in perplexity because Vice President Al Gore's charitable contributions, as a percentage of his income, were below the national average: He gave 0.2 percent of his family income, one-seventh of the average for donating households. But Gore "gave at the office." By using public office to give other peoples' money to government programs, he was being charitable, as liberals increasingly, and conveniently, understand that word.

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Old 12-27-2008, 02:04 PM
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NPR did a report on this several weeks ago. Turns out, according to them, that giving is'nt so much a liberal or conservative thing but a religious vs non religious. Church goers tend to give more than non church goers. Just so happens that more church goers are conservative.
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Old 12-27-2008, 02:06 PM
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NPR did a report on this several weeks ago. Turns out, according to them, that giving is'nt so much a liberal or conservative thing but a religious vs non religious. Church goers tend to give more than non church goers. Just so happens that more church goers are conservative.
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Old 12-27-2008, 02:11 PM
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NPR did a report on this several weeks ago. Turns out, according to them, that giving is'nt so much a liberal or conservative thing but a religious vs non religious. Church goers tend to give more than non church goers. Just so happens that more church goers are conservative.
I believe that is simply a tactic to obscure the evidence that many of the liberals who want to spend tax-payer dollars on charity are simply hypocrites. They do not show such compassion for others when the money comes out of their own pockets.
"Just so happens..." I think it is more likely..., " As a result of their view of mankind, church-goers tend to be more compassionate, and conservative in their political outlook.
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Old 12-28-2008, 10:43 AM
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Are conservatives church-goes or are church-goers conservatives?

Interesting that conservatives give more and liberals make more.
Not what most seem to believe.

Conservatives are selfish, liberals are lazy and jobless.
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Old 12-28-2008, 10:50 AM
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We hold tenaciously to our childhood beliefs.
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Old 12-28-2008, 11:32 AM
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My mother-in-law is a recently retired Episcopal priest. She had access to the national and state Episcopal charitable statistics. These stat's were very interesting. On a state-by-state basis the wealthiest states give the least, CA and CT being dead last. The poorest states gave the most, MS at the top. Within states the poorest areas contributed the most and the wealthiest the least. This was in every case, and not by a little bit. Its interesting to say the least. Maybe the less you have the more you relate to those who have none at all? RT
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Old 12-28-2008, 11:50 AM
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My mother-in-law is a recently retired Episcopal priest. She had access to the national and state Episcopal charitable statistics. These stat's were very interesting. On a state-by-state basis the wealthiest states give the least, CA and CT being dead last. The poorest states gave the most, MS at the top. Within states the poorest areas contributed the most and the wealthiest the least. This was in every case, and not by a little bit. Its interesting to say the least. Maybe the less you have the more you relate to those who have none at all? RT
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Old 12-28-2008, 01:36 PM
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I just do not want to be preached to how much the liberals "care".
They care only, and as much as there is a political payoff. ( Same as repubs...)

Some liberals may not fit this trend--to them I say, " Thank You"
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Old 12-28-2008, 01:59 PM
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I think the difference between liberal and conservative giving is a function of not just religion, but also their view of the role and responsibilities of the individual and government.

The more Left one identifies oneself on the political spectrum, the more that person is likely to believe that the state, not fellow citizens, should take care of the poor and the needy.

That is why I believe citizens of conservative states in America give more charity than citizens of liberal states do.

To the Left, one is not only liberated from having to take care of oneself; one is also liberated from having to take care of others. The government will take care of me and of everybody else.
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Old 12-28-2008, 02:10 PM
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How were these data collected? I hope it's not just from IRS data.
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Old 12-28-2008, 02:15 PM
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The more Left one identifies oneself on the political spectrum, the more that person is likely to believe that the state, not fellow citizens, should take care of the poor and the needy.
In America, the state is (supposed to be) an agent of the citizens.


60Mins did a report on charitable giving. According to them, the most charitable people are the obscenely rich and the terribly poor.
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Old 12-28-2008, 10:55 PM
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IF the thread title concerns compassion on a personal level, then you'd better even the playing field- All this talk of who-gives-how-much is meaningless to me unless the sentence runs like this:

Group X gives a larger percentage of its income than group Y. Some statements in this thread say this, some do not.



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Old 12-29-2008, 07:11 AM
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IF the thread title concerns compassion on a personal level, then you'd better even the playing field- All this talk of who-gives-how-much is meaningless to me unless the sentence runs like this:

Group X gives a larger percentage of its income than group Y. Some statements in this thread say this, some do not.



-John
Group "C" gives more of their personal wealth and their time, both as raw dollars, and as a percentage of their income.

Group "L" gives more of other people's money, and claim to "care".
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Old 12-29-2008, 10:56 AM
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First of all this doesn't suprise me a whole lot. I have observed this myself. I do think a lot of conservative people see the difference between their personal financial state and that of someone who isn't as well of as a matter of hard work and luck and feel a certain obligation to share their good fortune with people who aren't as well off. I think that so called liberals view the stratification of the wealth between people as a more systemically structural issue and are inclined to address the source of wealth differences and no I don't mean wealth transfers but rather creating a system which permits a more equitable means of access to wealth generation. I liken it to teaching a man a fish as opposed to giving him a fish.

I think many so called liberals would argue that "People who reject the idea that "government has a responsibility to reduce income inequality" are people who benefit most from the maintaining the status quo.

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