June 26, 2007
UNIQUE EVEN WITHIN THE ANGLOSPHERE:
The Big Question: Why do wealthy Americans donate so much to charity and rich Britons so little? (Andy McSmith, 27 June 2007, Independent)
The Americans, it seems, are privately more generous in giving than we are. New figures show that, last year, the US set a record for largesse, giving away the equivalent of almost the entire gross domestic product of Greece in private charitable donations that was an increase even on the bonanza of 2005, when America was moved by the plight of the victims of the Asian tsunami, the Pakistan earthquake, and Hurricane Katrina. In 2006, Americans dug into pockets and handed over 1.7 per cent of their country's economy, according to the report published yesterday by the Giving USA Foundation. In the same year, Britons gave away 0.73 per cent of the British economy, proportionately less than half as much.
It's remarkable they give as much as they do given how much more heavily they're taxed. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 26, 2007 9:32 PM
Comments
Brit's have so much of their money confiscated for redistribution to the downtrodden, it seems unreasonable to ask that they voluntarily give more.
Posted by: erp at June 27, 2007 9:03 AMThe headline was misleading in that it presumed the giving was mainly done by wealthy folks. The study showed that 65% of American households with income under $100,000 donated.
The interesting comparison was not so much Americans versus Brits. Americans gave 1.7% of GDP. Brits 0.73%. But then we come to the French who gave only a miserly 0.14% of GDP.
Posted by: KB at June 27, 2007 11:31 AM