The FairTax, Join in!

[sieanr]

Eomund said:

hibikir said:

Eomund said:
I know that I give 15% of my total income PRETAX (gross income) to a charity. I know there isn't much of a tax incentive for me to give that much. I also know that America is the most generous nation in the world because the people are the most generous. Look at the terrible disasters around the country this past year. People are very generous and are always ready to lend a helping hand. We saw this even during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. (PLEASE DO NOT GO ON A RABBIT TRAIL ABOUT WHOSE FAULT THAT WAS...)

OK, that's all any rational person needed to know about the how honest your proposals are. Here's a wonderful claim based on nothing but your own experience, which probably doesn't involve more than 2 months outside of the US.

The US is nowhere near the top in Organ donation rate. For that, you'll have to look at Spain.

The US's foreign aid per capita, is under 20 cents per capita. Norway gives over a dollar.

Laws agains immigration are very popular. Even when it's legal immigration. Look at the movement to make sure DMVs become immigration offices, and immigrants can't get driver licenses longer than the length of their visa (when over 90% of visas are very short by design, and are lawfully renewed). Many other countries welcome immigrants, not unlike the US not 50 years ago.

So no, you are not right on taxes, and you aren't right on this one. Take off your red, white and blue glasses and go see how good chunks of NO are still a disaster area, while a lot of the money dedicated to relief is just pure profit for Bush's cronies.

 I would suggest that I see in full 8-bit Nintendo glory, not just a red, white, and blue tinted lens. 

If you don't accept that answer then I see the full range of technicolor provided to me by life.

Did I not ask that nobody go down that trail? You are suggesting that the problems of NO are now the fault of the Bush Adminitration.... I suggest you don't bring this up again as it isn't true.

 Now the top bolded part.

Americans give more to charity than any other country. We gave over 295 billion in 2006. (source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-06-25-charitable_N.htm) 

Americans gave $260 billion away in charity last year -- that's about $900 per person.  (source: http://www.casefoundation.org/spotlight/giveback/usa)

If you look at those tell me that America isn't the most generous country in the world. 

For starters I'd say there is more to charity than simple donating money, such as volunteer work.

But I digress. The big flaw with measuring money donated as the basis for how generous a nation is comes down to how wealthy that particular nation happens to be and how the super wealthy and corporations can skew that number.

For example, people in zimbabwe could donate a larger percentage of their time and money to charity than the majority of american citizens. However, add in people like Bill Gates and corporations donating billions and suddenly that skews the average to be greater than Zimbabwe. Of course this is a hypothetical, but certainly you get the idea.

However, I do have one very serious question; Do you think that Americans are innately predisposed to be more charitable than people in all other nations?