I have seen a lot on the Poliblogs lately talking about the charitable donations by state. I concede, the Red states top the list for amount of charitable giving and the Blue states are at the bottom (Link). Not to be demeaning to the good people of the Red states that do sacrifice and give, but I think that would be expected since if you look at the list of charitable giving by state, it is very, very similar to the same ranking of states by poverty level (Link). Mississippi has the highest per capita charitable giving. It also has the highest per capita poverty. New Hampshire has the lowest per capita giving, but it also has the lowest per capita poverty. Louisiana has the second highest poverty, and is the 3rd most giving state. Minnesota is the 45th most giving state (pretty shabby) but has the 2nd lowest poverty rate in the country. Is it surprising then that a state that has less poverty would give less to charity? Additionally, Mississippi and Louisiana have two of the dirtiest environments. Minnesota and New Hampshire have two of the cleanest. Louisiana and Mississippi have two of the worst public school systems, Minnesota and New Hampshire have two of the best. Do you see a pattern emerging here? The states with the most social problems have the highest charitable giving rates since the states are not adequately addressing the issues. It would really speak poorly of the poorer states if their citizens did not give more.
For those of you out there who do give to charity, regardless of state or political leaning, thank you.
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2 comments:
2 comments:
1) people in red states are more likely to tithe to a church than people in a blue state
2) people in a blue state are more likely to make unclaimable charity (food/volunteering at food kitchen; clothing; time), artificially bringing down the numbers. I live in a blue state. I regularly donate to local causes (sponsoring children for christmas, kids for school, etc) that I don't write off. Doesn't mean I give less, just means I give differently.
I agree, red states probably do tithe more to the church, but since churches do a lot of charity work, I did not want to demean their contributions. I was hoping that a lot of the money goes to the needy and not the Farwell ministries.
I had not thought about the second point. Thanks for your comments.
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