Americans are Generous, Especially Conservatives

Many people in the United States and throughout the world describe America as greedy. Such people direct especially harsh criticisms toward America's wealthy and conservative citizens. Is this perception of American culture accurate? No. America is the most generous country today and throughout history. What may surprise many people is the fact that America's conservatives donate more money as a percentage of their annual income and volunteer more time to charitable causes than liberals across all income brackets.

America's generosity is evident in its foreign policy and in its citizens' charitable donations and thriving nonprofit sector. One may also be inclined to include US federal domestic spending on social programs and federal grants to nonprofit organizations as another example of America's generosity. Although it is indicative of generosity, domestic social programs and grants are derived from mandatory taxation. It is not a voluntary donation to others so federal domestic spending is not part of this article.

Federal foreign spending is included in this article because foreign policy is one means by which countries may direct national generosity to the rest of the world. In a global perspective, foreign assistance must come from national governments as well as nongovernmental organizations (NGO), and Americans support both arms of foreign assistance.

With a fiscal year 2010 budget of $19 billion for obligated funds, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) of the US Department of State supports numerous causes abroad that help improve the lives of people in need. Along with direct aid, USAID contributes funds to NGOs. Some of the top NGOs USAID supports are the World Food Program, Catholic Relief Services, and the Mercy Corps. While USAID comprises the majority of US foreign assistance, other forms of US foreign assistance are directed by the US Department of Defense, the Treasury Department, and private donations from US citizens.

A May 2007 government report on foreign aid stated that "Of the $122.8 billion of foreign aid provided by America in 2005 (the most current data available), $95.5 billion, or 79 percent, came from private foundations, corporations, voluntary organizations, universities, religious organizations, and individuals." According to The 2010 Index of Global Philanthropy and Remittances, US giving rose to $132.1 billion in 2008, of which $96 billion was given from private entities and individuals during what was the beginning of the recession.

Domestically, many people consider fellow American's to be greedy, particularly the wealthy and conservatives.

Deroy Murdock deconstructed the myth that America's wealthy citizens are not generous in December 23, 2010 article Merry Christmas to America's Top 1 Percent. In the article, Murdock cited Sen. Bernie Sanders (D – VT) who cited IRS data that the Tax Foundation analyzed. Sanders' argued that affluent Americans' greed was like a heroin addiction, "They can't stop. They need more." Sanders lamented on the Senate floor on December 10, 2010 that "These people who are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Maybe they've got to go back to the Bible or whatever they believe in understanding that there is virtue in sharing, in reaching out, that you can't get it all."

Murdock discussed IRS data that the Americans for Tax Reform analyzed to determine how charitable affluent Americans really are. Ryan Ellis of Americans for Tax Reform said that, "[A]n IRS review of Returns with Itemized Deductions (columns CI and CJ) indicates that in tax year 2008, Americans who earned at least $200,000 filed 3,912,225 tax returns or 9.96 percent of that year's 39,250,369 total returns. This group deducted $72,336,640,000 in charity, or 41.83 percent of the $172,936,002,000 for such deductions that all filers claimed. In short, the top 10 percent of taxpayers paid 42 percent of all charitable deductions, worth $72 billion in 2008 alone."

Murdock continued by writing about the findings of The 2010 Bank of America Merrill Lynch Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy conducted by Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy. Murdock wrote, "This survey included 801 respondents who made at least $200,000 and/or enjoyed at least $1 million in net worth, excluding housing. The average respondent was worth $10.7 million." The study found that 98.2 percent of wealthy Americans contributed to charity, compared to 64.6 percent of the general population. The wealthy also donated eight percent of their income to charity in 2009, which was down 1.3 percent from 2008. The drop in giving was justifiable considering the recession. The study also found that 4-out-of-5 wealthy Americans volunteered their time to charities - 3X the national average - and that the average wealthy American "gave to charity the equivalent of 38 eight-hour shifts."

Overall, American charitable giving was $303.75 billion in 2009. The National Philanthropic Trust's philanthropy research revealed that, "While giving decreased in 2009, it should be noted that 2008 was the highest recorded giving level in US history, breaking the previous record of $314.07 billion in 2007. The recent decrease in giving runs concurrent with a difficult economic recession." The report continued, "The largest source of charitable giving comes from individuals, at $227.41 billion in 2009, or 75% of total giving, followed by from foundations ($38.44 billion/13%), bequests ($23.8 billion/8%), and corporations ($14.1B/4%)." Also, "Charitable giving accounted for 2.1% of gross domestic product in 2009" and that there were "1,238,201 charitable organizations in the United States, a 4% increase from 2008, and a 57% increase over the last 10 years."

The report revealed that Americans are generous with their money and time. Surprising to many people is Arthur C. Brooks' research on philanthropy. Brooks is the president of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and former Louis A. Bantle Professor of Business and Government Policy at Syracuse University.

Brooks' 2007 book, Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth about Compassionate Conservatism illustrated that conservatives are more generous with their money and time than liberals. Brook summarized his findings in a December 2006 article The Great Divide in American Giving. "The General Social Survey shows," Brooks wrote, "that people who oppose government income redistribution donate four times as much money each year as do redistribution supporters. Note that the charity gap is not due to anything the government is actually doing; rather, to what people think the government should be doing – in other words, nothing more than a political opinion." Brooks found that conservatives across all income levels donate more money and time than their liberal counterparts. Explained another way, conservatives donate more money as a percentage of their income than liberals in all income brackets.

Not only is America the largest donor of money to foreign entities, its citizens donates hundreds of billions of dollars to help those in need at home. The above information shatters ill-conceived stereotypes. Americans are an extremely generous people, and American conservatives are the most generous among them.