The WSJ on Giving...

A very interesting commentary appears in The Wall Street Journal Online in regards to giving tendencies. It seems that there are significant differences in the giving habits of Americans. Let me share just a few eye-opening quotes from the WSJ commentary.

"Americans who weekly attend a house of worship are 25 percentage points more likely to give than people who go to church rarely or never. These religious folks also give nearly four times more dollars per year than secularists, on average, and volunteer more than twice as frequently."

Comparing those who support bigger government vs smaller government, the WSJ points out that, "People who oppose government income redistribution donate four times as much mney each year as do redistribuiton supporters."

"People who opine that government is 'spending too little money on welfare' are less likely to give food or money to a homeless person that people who oppose greater welfare spending."

"Couples are more likely to give to charity, and the simple act of raising children appears to stimulate giving as well. Data show that people who see their parents behave charitably are far likelier to be charitable themselves as adults."

"People who fail to donate money to charities are only a third as likely as donors to give money to friends and strangers. Non-donors are half as likely as donors to give blood. They even are less honest: Non-donors are much less likely than donors to return change mistakenly given to them by a cashier."

"America's working poor give away at least as large a percentage of their incomes as the rich, and a lot more than the middle class."

"Today's conservatives outperform liberals on most measures of private giving."

You can read the entire article here.