Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] [MLUG][Politics]Who Gives More? Conservatives or Liberals

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Thu, 30 Nov 2006, Vern Green wrote:

> We have had some discussion on these boards about this type of thing, 
> here is an article that you should read.
>
> http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2682730&page=1


I saw that show the other night.  It had a few good things in it. 
Apparently, many people believe that if they give things away, they will 
somehow magically be rewarded in the future (usually by God), so for those 
people, giving is an expression of self-interest.  Another very 
interesting idea was that maybe rich people shouldn't give their money 
away because they can do more good and create more jobs just by investing 
it well.

The thing about liberals and conservatives and how much giving they do was 
also interesting.  I don't know how they count things, but they claimed 
that of the 24 states that gave the most to charity, 23 of them were "red" 
states that voted for Bush in the last election.  Their use of Salvation 
Army buckets to assess the charitability of the local people doesn't make 
a lot of sense -- of course religious (Christian) people are more likely 
to give to that charity.

My wife and I don't give much to charity.  I spent 7 years of my life 
working for very low wages with mentally retarded men in an institution (3 
yrs), with "emotionally disturbed" children and adolescents (3 yrs) and 
with de-institutionalized adult psychotic patients (1 yr).  My wife spent 
11 years helping the poor in Ecuador and she still spends all of her work 
time (another 5 years so far) at a not-for-profit agency working with 
mentally ill and brain injured people.  Believe me, there are *very* few 
"conservatives" working at such places, and I can tell you that I never 
met a single one where I worked.  But I guess that's because they put a 
dollar in the Salvation Army bucket so they don't have to sacrifice any 
years of their lives in helping professions.

Mike

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