Monday, November 21, 2005

Speaks for Itself

The generosity index, which calculates the amount people give to charity in each state as a fraction of their total income, has been computed. You can see why the Democrats expect to take Colorado next time.



Posted for Buddy Larsen [HT Michelle Malkin]

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

As long as people get to deduct their church tithings (which count as charitable dedcutions in these types of rankings), churchgoers will come out on top in these things. For any kind of meaningful comparisons, you'd have to back out any contributions to groups (e.g. churches, private schools, etc.) where the giver directly benefits back from their contributions. You could make the case that country-club dues are really in the same category as these.

buddy larsen said...

Ed, I can't quantify--at the moment--but having been born in Alabama, raised in Louisiana, and living in rural Texas, I know for a fak that these Bible-Belt churches almost invariably direct large percentages of their incomes into 'missions' of charitable works. To equate this with country club dues is a mighty poor 'thanks' for such beneficial humanitarianism. And I say this as a semi-jovial critic of much of Bible-Belt life.

Rick Ballard said...

Buddy,

A useful rule of thumb for the evangelicals is 60/40 with operations taking 60% and outreach/mission taking 40%. Mainlines (the dying denominations with the bluish tint) run more towards 90/10 which is similiar to the tranzi NGOs which spend more on fund raising and keeping useless socialists on thier payrolls than they would ever dream of spending on actual aid.

Catholic Charities does about the best of any NGO with a 6/94 split. It must be the patriarchial dominance of the system that the nuns run that makes the difference. (Please don't tell Mother Superior that I said that.)

buddy larsen said...

Give Mother Superior credit, Rick, that she'd enjoy the fine compliment in your elbow to the eye of conventional wisdom.

Not to belabor the original point, and despite nits picked to the contrary, the rather stunning red/blue distribution adds a high brass note to the symphonic hypocrisy of the "party of the caring", wouldn't you say?

(And thanks, MHA, for posting it!)

Doug said...

"the rather stunning red/blue distribution adds a high brass note to the symphonic hypocrisy of the "party of the caring", wouldn't you say?"
---
They care enough that they'd like to give away more and more of your money.
That's why they are so offended by all you selfish right-wingers that try to frustrate every effort to that end.
Rightfully offended, I should say.