Givers and Non-Givers

America is split into two nations: givers and non-givers. Approximately three-quarters of Americans give their time and money to various charities, churches, and causes. The other quarter of the population does not. That is what Arthur Brooks found and wrote about in his book, Who Really Cares.

His book runs counter to the conventional wisdom of our day. We are told that liberals are charitable (because they advocate government redistribution and welfare programs) and conservatives are not (because they oppose some of these policies). The problem with the argument is that is assumes that government programs are charity. They are not. Charity is defined as a voluntary gift from someone.

So the first thing we should do is properly define charity. Once we do that, we can look at who are the givers and who are the non-givers. Brooks found that households headed by a conservative gave 30 percent more money to charity than households headed by a liberal. He also found that this difference in giving was not due to income differences. Actually, liberal families earn an average of 6 percent more per year than conservative families.

The differences in giving also went beyond money and time. Consider the difference in blood donations. Conservative Americans were more likely to donate blood each year, and they also did so more often than liberals. He found that if liberals and moderates gave blood at the same rate as conservatives, the blood supply in the United States would jump by about 45 percent.

You also see differences when you look at the 2004 presidential election. Brooks found that traditional red states were more charitable than the blue states. For example, of the 25 states that donated a portion of their household income above the national average, 24 of those states gave a majority of their popular votes to George W. Bush. Of the 25 states below the national giving average, 17 went for John Kerry. Brooks also found that people in red states volunteer more than people in blue states.

It looks like the people most likely to give money, time, or even blood are those with conservative values. I'm Kerby Anderson, and that's my point of view.