I have often found myself in heated political discussions with certain people on these boards where they make the claim that rich people donate more of their money than any other group in society to charity.  And these people are always so sincere when they make this claim that it is very easy to believe what they are saying.

However, they aren't telling the entire story.  Yes, rich people do donate the most money of any grouping in society to charity as they have more money to donate to charity of any other group.  However, as far as what percentage of their income that rich people donate  to charity goes, the poor are definitely the group of people in our society that donates the most money to charity while rich people don't even donate half of the percentage of their income to charity that poor people do each year.

Next time you're having a heated polticial discussion wth these people and they bring out the old the rich people pay the most to charity each year line, please remind them that in actual point of fact the rich pay the smallest percentage of their income to charity of any group in our society and that they only donate half of the percentage of their income to charity that poor people do.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/workplace/140178/guess_which_income_bracket_is_the_most_generous_in_the_u.s./

Well the reason could be psychological since they know what it is like to struggle and wish to help other people out. My parents would be considered in the highest bracket however they do a LOT for charity. I know something like 10% of what they bring in goes to charity and my sisters also do the same.............as will I when I finally start earning money.

Additionally conservatives are more charitable then liberals.

Your more likely to get a handout from Dick Cheney then Al Gore.

Which is another ammusingly statistical fact... but one you won't like.

The more conservative, religious and poor you are... the more likely you are to give a higher percentage of your money to charity.

Next time someone says conservatives don't care about charity... keep in mind they donate a higher percentage of their money then Liberals.

So really the issue is the same.  As the political system moves left... people will become more liberal, and will donate less to charity.  Will the governemt wellfare replace the effectiveness of charity? 

Hard to say.  Unless run well... of which there is no well run proposal yet.  It's likely to cost more and have just as many if not more holes.

Well you don't get rich by giving your money away.

A few thoughts ...

It appears that they are using gross before tax income to calculate the percentages. When you consider that the real (take home) income of the "Wealthy" is far lower (as a percentage) than their before tax income due to high tax rates, and the real (take home) income of the "Poor" is far higher (as a percentage) than their before tax income due to tax credits and welfare, it is very likely that the ratios would be closer if you calculated them based on after tax income.

Also notice that they are only counting cash donations to charities as giving to charities, which makes it difficult to really make a claim that one group is more charitable than another. When you factor in bake-sales, charity auctions, events, and lotteries/raffles there are a lot of ways people can give money to charity which is not (necessarily) a cash donation to a charity; beyond that, how do you calculate the value of the donation of food or clothing? If a "rich" person buys $20 worth of food every time they go grocery shopping and drops it into the food donation box anonymously how would that be tracked?

There is also the question of how they would CEOs of large corporations who choose to make $1 per year and, in many cases, donate tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to charity factor into the statistics? If a person donates $452,833,000.00 (a value representing 1 Million average "poor people" donations) and only earns $1 per year wouldn't that heavily impact the statistics?

What about corporations, how are their donations included? Does the 'Product Red' products count as a donation from companies like Apple, from the person who bought the product, or are they not considered charitable?

Just more evidence that lying with statistics is easy, and there is a far greater need for further education in statistics in grade school.

Percentage means nothing as far as I'm concerned. 4.2% of 10531$ (the average amount for the lowest income there) is a little more than 500$. Now only 2% of 73460$ (the average amount for the fourth highest) is almost 1500$. This data above doesn't even take into account the millions that the richest people donate annually. While its only about 1% of their actual income, its still a million dollars as opposed to 500$.

But that is like saying unless two people make exactly the same amount of money it is impossible to make a comparison in this respect.

except the states where the poor conservatives live, take more federal money from the taxes of those states where the greedy stingy rich liberals live

So... lower socialism like they want and there is no problem?

The biggest issue i tend to have is with people who champion the poor yet do jack to help them and fly around on jets drinking 200 dollars bottles of champaign.

If you think your tax rate should be 5% higher why aren't you donating that 5% to charity?

because I think government can do a better job than charity, however i'm perfectly fine with letting the red states rot if that's what they want