Bleeding Heart Tightwads
December 21, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
The New York Times
Excerpt:
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
This holiday season is a time to examine whos been naughty and whos been nice, but Im unhappy with my findings. The problem is this: We liberals are personally stingy.
Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates.
Arthur Brooks, the author of a book on donors to charity, Who Really Cares, cites data that households headed by conservatives give 30 percent more to charity than households headed by liberals. A study by Google found an even greater disproportion: average annual contributions reported by conservatives were almost double those of liberals.
Other research has reached similar conclusions. The generosity index from the Catalogue for Philanthropy typically finds that red states are the most likely to give to nonprofits, while Northeastern states are least likely to do so.
The upshot is that Democrats, who speak passionately about the hungry and homeless, personally fork over less money to charity than Republicans the ones who try to cut health insurance for children.
When I started doing research on charity, Mr. Brooks wrote, I expected to find that political liberals who, I believed, genuinely cared more about others than conservatives did would turn out to be the most privately charitable people. So when my early findings led me to the opposite conclusion, I assumed I had made some sort of technical error. I re-ran analyses. I got new data. Nothing worked. In the end, I had no option but to change my views.
END EXCERPT
Always generous with OUR money, with THEIR money? Not so much
December 21, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
The New York Times
Excerpt:
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
This holiday season is a time to examine whos been naughty and whos been nice, but Im unhappy with my findings. The problem is this: We liberals are personally stingy.
Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates.
Arthur Brooks, the author of a book on donors to charity, Who Really Cares, cites data that households headed by conservatives give 30 percent more to charity than households headed by liberals. A study by Google found an even greater disproportion: average annual contributions reported by conservatives were almost double those of liberals.
Other research has reached similar conclusions. The generosity index from the Catalogue for Philanthropy typically finds that red states are the most likely to give to nonprofits, while Northeastern states are least likely to do so.
The upshot is that Democrats, who speak passionately about the hungry and homeless, personally fork over less money to charity than Republicans the ones who try to cut health insurance for children.
When I started doing research on charity, Mr. Brooks wrote, I expected to find that political liberals who, I believed, genuinely cared more about others than conservatives did would turn out to be the most privately charitable people. So when my early findings led me to the opposite conclusion, I assumed I had made some sort of technical error. I re-ran analyses. I got new data. Nothing worked. In the end, I had no option but to change my views.
END EXCERPT
See the 88 new taxes and fees in NY State...Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad.
Always generous with OUR money, with THEIR money? Not so much