Low-Income Americans are the Most Charitable Americans

by Leigh Graham · 2009-05-31 13:00:00 UTC
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Suddenly this lapsed Catholic is feeling her CCD education come rushing back:

...America's poor donate more, in percentage terms, than higher-income groups do, surveys of charitable giving show. What's more, their generosity declines less in hard times than the generosity of richer givers does.

...the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest survey of consumer expenditure found that the poorest fifth of America's households contributed an average of 4.3 percent of their incomes to charitable organizations in 2007. The richest fifth gave at less than half that rate, 2.1 percent.

We're talking people who make less than $11k per year versus over $150k per year.  And these charitable rates don't count remittances to immigrants' home countries.  The middle-class, what's left of it, is also less generous than the lowest-income Americans.

The article suggests that the poor are helping one another - their friends and family and neighbors - weather hardship.  I take this as yet another indication of the insipient nature of class segregation in this country; apparently we don't help one another unless we know one another?  And it's pretty easy to ignore the poor if you neither live near or work with them.

The whole piece is worth reading.  It talks about the potential influence of religion, as well as the fact that the poor generally don't earn enough to even benefit from a tax deduction for their generosity.  "In effect, giving a dollar to charity costs poor people a dollar while it costs deduction itemizers 65 cents."

Last night I watched this couple spend $500,000 on a wedding that they considered green because they used recycled materials for some things, never mind the 3 rooms full of lighting, the enormous quantities of food, and the transportation costs associated with Italian organic fabrics.  That ain't green, and "trickle down" - we learn again - is clearly not an anti-poverty strategy.

(Photo titled "charity muggers" by satguru, with the following caption: "Luckily these two were too busy chatting to try and accost me. I prefer to decide when and who I give to charity, thank you.")

Leigh Graham
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