About a year ago Arthur C. Brooks, a professor at Syracuse University, published “Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism“. The conclusion: liberals are markedly less charitable than conservatives.
Some of his conclusions:
— 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.
With this in mind, this news comes as no surprise:
When it comes to giving money to charities, it’s not even close: the Palins are almost 12 times as generous as the Bidens, when measured by charitable contributions as a percent of Adjusted Grosss Income in 2006 and 2007: 2.79% average for the Palins in those two years, vs. 0.24% for the Bidens (see top chart above).
And even though the Palins ($294,000) earned only about half the income of the Bidens ($569,000) in 2006 and 2007 combined, the Palins gave almost 6 times as much to charity ($8,205) in those two years as the Bidens ($1,375), see bottom chart above.
Obama is no different. Law Professor Paul Caron writes in TaxProf blog:
What is surprising, given the recent controversy over Obama’s membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ, is how little the Obamas apparently gave to charity — well short of the biblical 10% tithe for all seven years. In two of the years, the Obamas gave far less than 1% of their income to charity; in three of the years, they gave around 1% of their income to charity. Only in the last two years have they given substantially more as their income skyrocketed — 4.7% in 2005 and 6.1% in 2006.
The last two years being the years where he is under public scrutiny.
In contrast, John McCain has given:
Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, has released his tax returns for the past two years, including details about the money he donated to charitable causes, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports. In 2007, he contributed 26 percent of his total income to charity.
Even the “evil” George Bush is markedly more charitable:
President and Mrs. George W. Bush certainly did their part. According to their 2005 tax return, the Bushes had taxable income of $618,694 and contributed $75,560 to charitable organizations…
In other words, liberals are generous with other peoples money, certainly not their own.
For more on this see here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
Update: Ted Kennedy was no different.
Palin’s belief in the coming end of days and millenial reign of Christ probably motivates her some to give extra to her fundamentalist church. McCain has the benefit of being married to an heiress, which pads his numbers. Not to knock his charitable giving, but it does need to be kept in perspective. It’s a little easier for people who don’t know how many homes they own.
True - but even if you compare millionaire to millionaire, the conservatives tend to give significantly more to charity.
Not just monetarily either…even time spent, like say, donating blood…is significantly done more by conservatives than liberals.
Remember that next time Biden says its “patriotic” to pay more taxes.
HP,
How much do you give with your “plush” Engineer job and a baby on the way?
Regardless, all the charity either of these groups give is a form of false charity…because it doesn’t fundamentally address the situations that maintain people poor…
Let me give you charity while i take advantage of you…and because i take advantage of you…I can continue to give you charity….
Nice…
Also, who is to say that there AGI is the lump sum of assets that these individuals have. In todays world, and with the accounting practices that we have seen as of late, Im sure they find plenty of loop holes to hind income, assets, and their wealth in general….
We need McCain to win do he can Drill, baby drill us to the ground…
WOOO HOOO!!!!
Gerardo,
Certainly more than Biden or Obama, that’s for sure.
For the record, I think privately run charity organizations, especially the religious kinds, have done more for poor people than any government program ever has, and ever could.
This all reminds me of this post on Al Gore’s home or on this post regarding vouchers, or on this post regarding minorities or this post regarding liberals or on this general post or … you get the idea. In other words, liberals want you to do the sacrificing, not them. They are too elite for such petty sacrifices.
I’d say most Americans of all stripes are tremendously generous with their money. During the last decade, each one of us have donated thousands of dollars to CEOs and financial magicians who’ve absconded with our hard-earned money. And in the coming decade, we’ll continue to be generous, paying off the trillions from this bail-out package.
Minor clarification: the bailout is not a “bailout” in the strict sense. The government is merely buying back Mortgage Backed Securities that with time may be worth more than what we paid for them. Not likely, but possible.
Either way…the true cost will surely be less than the full bailout amount.
With that said though, this does not mean I am for the bailout, merely correcting a misconception.
Since the government is paying much more than any of the expert investors are willing to pay (a premium far above the market price), I’m assuming that a profit is unlikely (though not impossible).
…For example, the Biden Breast Health Initiative, under the direction of President Jill Biden, Joe Biden’s wife.
See…now if only we had Jill Biden as VP.
Yup. LOL
Let the truth set you free. Please watch actual and factual film footage of Obama and those that influenced his socialist political views.
FW: FW: IMPORTANT - TUNE IN ON SUN EVENING
Barbara,
Got this from Cindy Beach via her sister Harriet Sikes at Stewart Title. I will be watching!! Dan
HELLO EVERYONE: IMPORTANT INFORMATION!!
SEAN HANNITY, OF HANNITY & COLMES ~ FOX NEWS, IS GOING TO AIR A VERYIMPORTANT DOCUMENTARY ABOUT BARACK OBAMA, SUNDAY NIGHT AT 9:00 PM. HE STATED ON THE AIR THIS EVENING THAT NO ONE IN THE NEWS MEDIA WAS WILLING TO DO THIS.
HANNITY IS GOING BACK TO OBAMA’S EARLIER DAYS, SHOWING EVEN THEN HIS TIES TO RADICAL PROFESSORS, FRIENDS, SPIRITUAL ADVISERS, Etc., HE STATED THIS EVENING THAT HE WILL SHOW IN DETAIL HIS TIES TO REV. WRIGHT FOR 20+ YRS (which we all know) HOW HE WAS PARTICIPATING WITH THIS MAN, AND NOT FOR THE REASONS HE STATES!
HE HAS UNCOVERED MORE OF OBAMA’S RADICAL LEADERS AND WE WILL SEE THINGS THAT NO ONE IN THE MEDIA IS WILLING TO PUT OUT THERE.
THIS WILL BE A NIGHT THAT YOU WILL KNOW MORE ABOUT OBAMA THAN EVER BEFORE. HANNITY IS VERY PASSIONATE ABOUT THIS PROGRAM AND ASKED THAT EVERYONE PLEASE, PLEASE WATCH~~
SUNDAY NIGHT, 9 PM.
HANNITY IS DETERMINED THIS INFORMATION BE PUT OUT THERE BECAUSE AS AMERICAN’S, WE STILL DO NOT KNOW ABOUT OBAMA!! WAKE UP AMERICA!!
THIS IS SERIOUS,EVERYONE. I KNOW MOST OF YOU WATCH FOX NEWS, AND YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE VOTING FOR, BUT IF YOU CAN, PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW.
THIS IS CRITICAL FOR OUR COUNTRY. MY PRAYER IS THAT WE, ALONG WITH SEAN HANNITY, WILL REACH SOMEONE/ANYONE BEFORE NOV. 4th.
WE MUST NOT GIVE UP!!!!!!!!!
GOD BLESS!!
THE EYES OF TEXAS DOES NOT KNOW THERE IS A CAPS LOCK KEY ON HIS KEYBOARD. EYES OF TEXAS YOU ALSO FORGOT TO TELL PEOPLE TO SEARCH YOU-TUBE FOR THE WORDS “HITLER OBAMA” AND “OBAMA TERRORIST” TO SEE THE OTHER VIDEOS OF OBAMA WITH HITLER AND TERRORISTS FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC.
WASN’T MCCAIN TENUOUSLY CONNECTED WITH SOME TERRORISTS WHO WERE TRYING TO BOMB NORTH VIETNAMESE VILLAGES?
There is a difference between those who want to bomb other countries vs those who want to bomb parts of the USA itself…I think that is the fundamental difference.
The Bill ayres Obama connection is simply asinine. The weather Underground plotted and took action in domestic terrorism when barack Obama was 8 or 9 years of age. Bill ayres current employment/social work shows a much different person than who he was or might have been.
The Jeremiah Wright connection is widely known and Obama has sided against his ex minister in denouncing wrights wild propaganda.
As many people as The republican party can come up with against Obama, the same can be done against Mccain Ex.(Keating, John Siglaub,Timmons, many advisers who served/serving as lobbyist). There is mud to be slung from both sides, it seems like republicans cannot get beyond these character attacks and debate Obama on the issues. The character of a person running for president should be judged, but this 6 degrees of association to a person who is shady is just dirty politics most of it should just be ignored, although i know it wont.
Also HP does this study consider Tithe as a charitable Donation? and does it factor time spent working as a volunteer at a charity as a donation of time?
I’m not sure but I think it does. It measures all forms of charity - including, as I said above, blood donations.
Regarding Keating with McCain vs Ayres with Obama - as you mentioned above, I think policy issues are the important stuff, so I try to stay away from this stuff…but I do think this (click here) makes sense on the fundamental differences.
The connection Singlaub to Mccain is worse than the Ayres Obama connection. Singlaubs group meant to terrorize and form prejudices against people in foreign lands through Death Squads and other forms of violent intimidation in the name of freedom and justice. They both hurt america, one domestically, other in the world forum.
Do you truly believe McCain and Obama support what these people did? If we want to take these associations into account, then let the record of each be cited. William Ayres who is associated with Obama has killed 0 people he targeted statues not intending to cause damaged to people. The person and organization that McCain was a board member of is the largest non governmental supplier of arms and material to right wing governments during the Cold War by its assistance they have killed an incalculable amount of people in the world.
To be honest, this stuff is a big dont care to me ReneB. Whether its Obama or McCain…on stuff like this, I tend to skip over. I focus more on policy and personal view differences. I only posted the link above for clarification.
With that said, yes, I think people will respect McCain more for his connection to this guy than Obama with his connection to this guy…but in the end, I don’t put too much weight on either one.