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Thursday, November 30, 2006

Conservatives more generous than liberals!

So here's a little interesting tidbit: conservatives donate more of their money to charitable organizations than liberals do, in spite of the fact they they earn slightly less money; and they are 18% more likely to donate blood!

20/20 (with John Stossell), conducted a test in Sioux Falls, S.D. and San Francisco, CA. They wanted to test the various myths about who "gives" and who doesn't. Liberals have always been touted as caring more about helping the poor, so they arranged for the Salvation Army to collect money in front of a Walmart in Sioux Falls and a Macy's in San Francisco, and Sioux Falls collected twice as much as San Francisco. So much for 'bleeding heart liberals'.
Apparently, of the top 25 states that 'give' the most, 24 were 'red' states, at least in the last presidential election.

They also found that those who give the most are the 'working' poor and the rich. The middle class, apparently, gives the least amount.

And as for Americans in general, we are the most generous people in the world, according to Dr. Carol Adelman at the Hudson Institute. We give more, as individuals, than any other country. We give, annually, billions of dollars in foreign aid through private organizations. Even more than the U.S. government does.

And so much for the myth that Americans are cheap.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't understand how you can say conservatives are more generous than liberals.

That 20/20 study did NOT prove that. All it proved is that people in Sioux Falls gave more at a Walmart than people in SF gave at a Macy's.

I can see the similarities you are trying to draw though. Sioux Falls = Midwest = Walmart = more conservative ; San Francisco = west coast = Macy's = more liberal.

Did they test giving/donating $$ through online at all? Did they include mailing in donations rather than collecting them as people shop?

Do you see how this "test" is flawed? Because I am telling you, if you want to talk statistics, that more liberals are more computer literate - therefor more liberals donate online. I would like to see the results on a study about that because I think the results would sway the other way.

Incognito said...

Hello my liberal friend,

Actually, as I recall, the study also mentioned that 'religious' people (who often happen to be more conservative) have a tendency to be more charitable in their donations. The study wasn't only based on the Walmart/Macy's "test".
But there are exceptions to every rule, just as research studies are not always scientific and scientific studies are not always foolproof. Take Viox and Bextra etc. Or polls or the Nielsen ratings.
I was just commenting on something I saw that I found interesting.
Not sure where you get your info re. liberals being more computer savvy. I'd be very interested. And I guess I'm the exception in that case, because I'm a conservative AND computer savvy.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hope you donated lots this past year, because I know I did. :-)