U.S. More Charitable Than Any Other Country
According to an AP story via USA Today, Americans gave nearly $300 billion to charity in 2006, setting a record that even topped giving in 2005, which saw a surge in aid to victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma and the Asian tsunami.
Total American donations last year amount to an estimated $295.02 billion, which is a 1% increase over the 2005 amount ($283.05 billion) when adjusted for inflation. Of the 2006 amount, individuals accounted for 75.6%, or $223.03 billion.
Not impressed? Consider it from an alternative perspective, the percentage of GDP given to charity. In this case, the U.S. more than doubles the second place country, Britain. The U.S. ranked first at 1.7%, Britain was second with 0.73%, while France, with a dismal 0.14% rate, trailed countries such as South Africa, Singapore, Turkey and Germany. Who says stereotypes aren’t true?
This is a pleasing article to see, especially given the times we are living. While nearly the entire world hates the U.S. for our current government and its actions, it’s nice to know that we as the general public remain a good, kind-hearted people who maintain an interest in doing the right thing. Now, if only we could do something about that government situation…
You’re comparing apple with oranges. Factor in the tax levels and you’ll realise that in coutries like France – and a lot of other european countries -a significant part of people’s salaries already go towards the Welfare system, so people don’t have that much left to give and don’t feel that they should since the state already uses their money to fund healthcare, dole, housing, etc…
My 2 (euro) cents!
You are also forgetting the tax implications for charitable donations which are sizeable in the US but are not so in Europe. Also the french economy has fallen on its sword so there is not much money there to donate.
The American government gives a smaller % of GDP in foreign aid than nearly all developed nations. Other developed nations give more as a percentage, they just do it through tax and allow their government to give on their behalf.
Pat yourselves on the back for having such huge holes in your welfare system and massive class divide that the only way the poor survive is on personal donations.
if only more millionares and billionares and rich celebrities donated some $, things wouldn’t be that bad
Spoken from one who has had to ask for help from agencies here I can say that most in the United States are very charitable. Not so much in money either there are alot of good people behind the scenes at the food banks that really try to help people get the food they need in order to get by. Here in my town of Topeka Kansas we have a huge city wide effort about once or twice a year called Project Topeka it is a massive city wide food bank donation drive. People give so very generously to this every time. It is great to see how many people really do care and give of themselves in such a selfless way.
It would be nice if everyone can find a way to donate something, food, money, clothes, blood etc. Surely, we all have blood…no?
It would be nice to give voluntarily versus being compelled.
Listen to some of the comments here—They’re so happy that their government—taxes them to the point where they can’t afford to give where they want to give.
People all over the US were helping (in many different ways) during the Katrina, 9/11, etc, on top of all the taxes currently levied, on top of the tax money collected by the US government and given to countries worldwide (friends and foes)
European Socialists should pat yourself on the back for being that much closer to Communism then the US is (we’re only on the bullet train to Socialism)—we’ll see you there if things don’t change.
iChef Politikos
Phil wrote: “You’re comparing apple with oranges. Factor in the tax levels and you’ll realize that in countries like France – and a lot of other European countries -a significant part of people’s salaries already go towards the Welfare system, so people don’t have that much left to give and don’t feel that they should since the state already uses their money to fund health care, dole, housing, etc…”
You’re 100% right, that a welfare state like France (soon to be US) is taxed at a much higher percentage. Still though, 1.7/0.14= over 12.
Even if the tax rate in France were to be 500% more then in the US, France is still way sort of coming close to the US.
You are also forgetting that the bulk of American charitable donations are to local churches.
Interesting, I was just comparing the donation rates between Holland, USA and Canada in comparable one day media driven fund raising events. Canada is 1/10th the population of the US; Holland is some 1/18th the population.
Canada and the USA both raised $16M. Holland raised 83M Euros or appx $117M US dollars. I’m having a hard time rationalizing this reality with the financial wizardry stated above.
Sorry, I should have mentioned the fund raising was for Haiti.
Funny how its so bad over here in the U.S. because of the “class divide” and “holes in the welfare system,” yet people still flock here in droves and apply for visas like they were made of gold. I would like to see the statistic on churches. You seem to think that the churches aren’t good for people. Churches do a lot of humanitarian and service work on top of their spiritual services. Sounds like socialist countries enjoy helping eachother all be miserable by refusing to work and making those that do pay to wipe their ass. Screw the socialists.