Study: Red states more charitable - POLITICO.com: Are liberals selfish?

Well, liberals want the government to be charitable for them. So, there ya go. Of course I wouldn't say the same is true for ALL liberals and conservatives. But the ideology of liberalism is more for government charities.

Not sure, I know people donate to help others, When I was working I alway donating, to salvation army, March of dimes, or when school sold things to help out, The other one
was Girl Scout Cookies. Maybe some states love to help each other more than others.

Generous folks come in all shapes, sizes and political affiliations. Having said that, the most generous and giving folks I personally know are conservative.

They're just incredibly generous with OTHER people's money.

Yes, they are. Liberals want what everyone else has, but don't want to work or it.

Liberals are real generous with everyone elses money. They never hold back when they can spend your money. But ask them to give and they suddenly become a bunch of whining entitlement babies.

Every time they make a study of this it always turns out that conservatives are not just more charitable but are much more charitable than liberals. This should really come as no surprise since most liberals think that government should be there to handle all of our problems and conservatives feel that we are our brother's keeper.

They are selfish with what is theirs, and generous with what is not.

Of course, this has been known for a long time. "Liberals" are very generous with other people's money!

Stupid poll unless the numbers are tied to the political party of the donors.

I think it also has something to do with the Bible belt; a lot of Rebuplicans are Christian. Christians tend to give more to charity. (Don't quote me on that, though.)

Too late ,,,you are already on record for admitting the truth. Don't hide from it now.

Uh oh...I deny everything...

Liberals only want to help others with someone else's money.

Just tells where wealth is located and the tax loopholes are proving their worth.

OK....so going with your theory....the fact that wealth is not located in Blue States tells you what?

Tells me your telling half the story..... Ask the oil barons.

Funny as heck. If you want to look at the closest to free market product that exists, it's petroleum. Plenty of producers, fungible product, geographically diverse base, very transparent information to the traders. It's not a perfectly free market product, but it's honestly fairly close. I understand you won't believe that, due to lack of experience. Trust me, Rockefellar is dead. I've seen his grave.

Wealth increases when governments don't conficate it and view making wealth as a desirable thing, to answer my rhetorical question.

Oil where did it all start, Texas the big blue state which is still cashing in on it, as well as, the blue Gulf states where all the refineries are located. A business not effected by the recession with multibillion dollar profits every year. Charity they can afford, for those cashing in on the oil. If the government confiscated the wealth, the top 2% wouldn't be holding more wealth than the rest of us combined, nor would they be holding more wealth than anytime in history. If it trickled down, as conservatives believe it does, there would be no need for charity and there would be no recession.

i think campaign money can tell two think in politic 1. who is despererate and 2. And who is the liar who claim that he/she doesn't have money to put america to work

I would have preferred an "Other" answer. I think there are some selfish liberals and some selfish conservatives. But the short answer is that whether liberals like it or not, conservatives are statistically more generous.

Agreed!

Well the average christian family donates three times as much money to the poor than the average atheist. So stop being hypocrites!

I don't see what difference this makes. First off not everyone that lives in a so called "blue" or "red" state is associated with that color so maybe the people in those states are just more generous in general. What kind of charity is involved in this study? I have given to homeless people on the streets so that wouldn't be counted, I have given my time on occasion so do they count volunteering? I have donated clothes, household goods, furniture, to organizations like goodwill, salvation army, etc. do they count those donations?
A study that is trying to insinuate that one political party is more charitable than the other is just adding to the divide of this nation, is a waste of time and money.

Wish you had given us choices other than agree and disagree. The eight red states that supported John McCain may contribute the highest percentage of their income but we don't know if they donated the most because these are relatively poor states. It is interesting to note that all of these states except Utah have below average per capita income; and all of these states received more money from the Federal Government than they paid in taxes. Here are how those states rank compared to the rest of the country. Income per capita is from 2009 and Federal Spend vs. taxes from 2005.

State Income/capita Rank Federal spending Rank
Mississippi 50th 2nd
Arkansas 48th 14th
Alabama 46th 7th
Tennessee 44th 19th
South Carolina 42dn 16th
Idaho 37th 20th
Georgia 29th 32nd
Utah 14th 29th

I've heard that Utah's one of the only states that's not completely bankrupt.

Perhaps Utah is not bankrupt because it receives $683/person in federal subsidies while NY and Ca both contribute more than $1,000/person to the federal government.

I feel like this is probably a skewed study. Not to say that people in blue states can't be religious but I feel as if most of the money given are religious organizations or charities. While this isn't a bad thing I feel as if its just a numbers game with more charities based in religion in red states the more money overall. plus I wonder if that includes other donations besides money, like clothes, cars, and other items that people need.

Elena Diamond asked this not that long ago and the answer I gave to her was alluded to in this article as well:

But it’s not just about politics — “religion has a big influence on giving patterns.”

“Regions of the country that are deeply religious are more generous than those that are not. Two of the top nine states—Utah and Idaho—have high numbers of Mormon residents, who have a tradition of tithing at least 10 percent of their income to the church,” the study states. “The remaining states in the top nine are all in the Bible Belt.”


Religious Liberals are the most charitable of any group, followed closely by Religious Conservatives. They are then proceeded by secular liberals and secular conservatives. Considering that the ratio of religious conservatives to secular conservatives is far larger than the ratio of religious liberals to secular liberals, it goes without saying that conservatives as a whole do demonstrate more charitable tendencies thanks in part to their commitment to faith-based organizations.

So in effect, it's not your political beliefs but rather your religious ones that determine what level of charitable giving you display.

Let's not fail to mention that tithing is not charity (which many see as a moral or social obligation) as it's greatest purpose is salary and facilities that are used to support the congregation.

Greedy is the word

Heh heh heh
This is no surprise...
They like to TAKE... Not GIVE

Amen!!!

well said, thanks for posting this graphic!

Penn is someone I would actually vote for.

Self centertered, entitlement mentality!

Liberals expect others to pay taxes to help the poor. Then again, some Liberals don't want to pay higher taxes either... Take Warren Buffet for example. When asked why he doesn't voluntarily pay more taxes, he answered because he doesn't trust government to redistribute the wealth and help the poor.

I don't think they are necessarily selfish but they do seem to think that government should handle all social ills rather than helping people on their own.

They are only selfish with their own money; they find it easy to give it away when it is someone else's.