Dobson whacks McCain

Phil, do you accept government authorized tax receipts for your private donations? If you don't, millions of Americans do, so don't try and make it sound like Americans are just tripping all over yourselves to give your money away out of the simple goodness of your hearts.

"The figures I cited are widely available from numerous sources to anyone who has 30 seconds to do an internet search."

Utter nonsense, making one internet search for such info from scratch would require AT LEAST 30 seconds. But if I recall, you criticized me for only citing one source.

Kitty's point is well taken - apparently you don't have the 30 seconds to cite those numerous sources from the net.

Phil, do you accept government authorized tax receipts for your private donations? If you don't, millions of Americans do, so don't try and make it sound like Americans are just tripping all over yourselves to give your money away out of the simple goodness of your hearts.

First of all, I know plenty of people (like myself) who've never bothered to deduct our charitable giving on our tax forms (not that I'm against it). That being said, it sounds like you don't have a firm grasp on how tax deductions work. If you think Americans are donating to charity because it's financially rewarding, well, you're just plain wrong.

However, America's generosity is aided by the fact that our total tax burden and regulatory burden is lower than most developed countries (the majority of which are steeped in socialism). Further proof that socialism does not create a more just or charitable society but rather stifles the individual's capacity for generosity.

Kitty's point is well taken - apparently you don't have the 30 seconds to cite those numerous sources from the net.

I'm mystified that we're even having this debate because this truly is a no-brainer for anybody who cares to be informed.

Nonetheless, if you insist that you're incapable of doing the simple research it takes to confirm my assertion that America is the most generous nation on the face of the earth (by any measure); allow me to present you with some web links that will jump start the process for you:

We'll start with an exhaustive comparison compiled by "Charities Aid Foundation," an organization based in the UK (www.cafonline.org). They've gathered data from all the available surveys and have published a pdf that breaks down charitable giving among the developed nations. Here's a link to the pdf:

http://tinyurl.com/26rbnh

Be sure to check out page 6 for a comparison of charitable giving levels as a percentage of GDP. You'll see that America more than doubles any other nation on the list. The entire document is an excellent read with some very interesting insights.

Here's a link to an article that first appeared in the WSJ Europe:

http://tinyurl.com/2jje6f

I highly recommend the whole article but here are some highlights:

"Statistics have long shown that the amount of charitable giving in Europe lags far behind that in the United States. But the reason probably has more to do with discouraging tax rules than innate differences in generosity of spirit."

"While giving totals have moved sharply upwards in America, to a point where philanthropic donations now account for 2% of GDP, the British trend has gone in the opposite direction. The proportion of households donating to charity has actually decreased by 10% since 1978."

"As for the corporate world, approximately one percent of all US company profits before taxation go to charity. The corresponding figure in Britain is 0.2%."

Again we see that high tax and regulatory burdens, that are a staple of socialist economies, lead to less charitable societies rather than more charitable societies.

Here's a couple of links from the AFP to round out our primer:

http://tinyurl.com/359gjn

http://tinyurl.com/33edzo

That should be enough to get you started. BTW, you're right, it did take me longer than 30 seconds to assemble these references; it took me about 15 minutes.

Thx