This comment was by RevPeake on the post North Carolina’s Unemployment Experiment
People are categorically not getting all they need from charity. As someone who has 15 years in non profit experience trying to help people get what they need I can state this as a cold hard fact.
Americans give less than 3% of their income to charity which is no where near enough to meet the need that exists. This rate of charitable giving was the same before income tax so the argument that we’d give more if we were taxed less doesn’t fly. We’re just not very charitable at heart it seems.
Here’s a number to think about: 400,000,000,000. That’s roughly how many dollars U.S. Americans spent on the Christmas Holiday season last year. That would be enough to feed every hungry person in the states or bring clean water to every area in the world that needs it. All we have to do is decide bread and water are more important than throw away Christmas items.
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I find it somewhat offensive the way the average citizen in many western countries is told they don’t give enough to charity. I remember the live aid concert about what, 10 years ago, and I remember all these music stars telling people to give money for the cause. The total amount they raised was far less than if every one of the musicians had donated $500k to $1mil instead (and considering the amount of wealth some of these musicians have, that’s a drop in the ocean). Oh, but they gave their precious time instead, how noble. Time doesn’t put food… Read more »
$400,000,000,000 equates to over $1,000 per man, woman, and child in the US. Somehow, this figure comes across as dubious.
While I’m always for pleadings to give more, the statement “We’re just not very charitable at heart it seems” is awfully unfair given that we are one of the most charitable countries in the world (if not the most) in private donations. That’s not just in terms of money, but also time.