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Actually it does change it, and you should read the posts from others that have already posted explains why this really doesn't amount to much. Also, you get people like me who donate and don't count it into my taxes because I don't care to have it counted.
It actually does not change it. What are liberals doing in place of the church donations?
It actually does not change it. What are liberals doing in place of the church donations?
We are donating to those in need. You live in Portland, get outside of your place and ask the liberals you live around where they donate rather than C-D.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VTHokieFan
Doesn't change the fact that blue states are still giving less to charity, not being religious is not an excuse to not give charity. I admit you would have a point if let's say Utah gave 10.2% and Massachusetts both gave 9% income to charity, then I said Utah is more charitable. At the point, you could come in and make the point about the tithe. But, liberals states are so uncharitable, that it won't hold water under this situation. Sorry
You probably should have read the actual information from the Survey instead of just reading a summary article before making that argument.
Utah give the most by far, and no other conservative state is even close. That means they are an outlier not the norm, so to compare them to liberal states is moronic, because i could compare Utah to Mississippi and it would still be 3.4 percentage points difference in donations.
Maryland is a Blue State and ranks in the top 10 of giving. New Hampshire is considered a politically moderate state and they are dead last percentage wise.
There is also the argument that many people dont take deductions for charitable contributions.
All I am asking you to do is have an open mind and realize that conservatives tend to show compassion to the poor through private charitable contributions, rather than government programs: that not supporting food stamps or unemployment extentions aren't necessarily uncharitable acts in and of themselves.
I think this can be true some of the time. In essence:
-There are politically conservative people who are very altruistic with their giving.
-There are politically conservative people who are very stingy with their giving.
-There are politically liberal people who are very altruistic with their giving.
-There are politically liberal people who are very stingy with their giving (although this seems to be the smaller minority simply because politically liberal people in the mid and upper income brackets know that some of their money is going to be going to those of lesser means through taxation and are supporting this, while conservatives may be very generous towards donations to charities (as the article pointed out). Or they may not be generous period (if they don't support government programs to help those less fortunate and they don't donate to charities).
Doesn't change the fact that blue states are still giving less to charity
How do you define charity? The general assumption is that "charities" are organizations that provide assistance to the poor, and debilitated rather than the fact that the statistics are not complied based upon what these "charities" actually do but rather on the basis of the IRS tax code.
It is interesting that the states that give the most, are also the poorest and that may indicate a greater recognition of need it is also worth noting that these are also states that have 5 of the top 10 salaried Division I football coaches. And as I pointed out above, college athletic booster programs are "charities". Now that isn't to say that the disparity in charitable given is largely to benefit Division I football programs, it does throw up a red flag in the argument: what is a charity and what do these charities spend their money on.
Quote:
not being religious is not an excuse to not give charity
True but it is a deceiving statistic. When you control for religion, New York state moves to second place and Pennsylvania rises to fourth place. Being less religious means less giving to churches which... drum roll... are charities. So it is also interesting to point out that of the 10 highest paid mega church pastors 9 are in states that rank in the top 10 for charitable giving. And again, that isn't to say that account for any significant portion of receivers of charitable giving, it raises another red flag on the statistics. Does the a significant proportion of giving to churches actually go to providing aid to the poor and needed, or to build bigger better churches with better paid pastors?
The fact that all of this red state giving seems to not having much of an affect on the poverty rates of their states also raises question regarding the fabled superiority of private charity over government supported programs (these states also provide the most meager government supported social programs). So what gives (no pun intended)?
Well this should debunk the myth of conservatives hating the poor and hopefully demonstrate to liberals that compassion and charity needn't necessarily come in the form of government programs.
The study tracks giving as a percentage of income, some communities with large numbers of retired people appear to give a very high percentage of income.
When religious giving isn’t counted, the geography of giving is very different. Some states in the Northeast jump into the top 10 when secular gifts alone are counted. New York would vault from No. 18 to No. 2, and Pennsylvania would climb from No. 40 to No. 4.
It also did not include charitable donations not included in tax deductions.
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