Poor People are more Generous

No poor person ever gave me a job.

When someone "gives" you a job, it's not charity or sharing. They expect something in return. Often more than they pay.

This is most definitely true from what I know from being a chugger, a door-to-door charity worker. You should have seen the houses I went to, some were huge and they would not give a penny. Go to a council house and they are very generous.

Splint Chesthair - a poor person isn't going rip you off, or bankrupt a nation.

And just where did these geniuses from the University of California at Berkeley get the money to conduct their vital research, including the $10 bills they so generously passed out? That's right, rich people. Rich people pay almost all of the income taxes which in turn are used to fund academic research and to provide subsidies to the poor:

"IRS data shows that in 2007—the most recent data available—the top 1 percent of taxpayers paid 40.4 percent of the total income taxes collected by the federal government. (The top 10 percent pay more than 70 percent of all income taxes) This is the highest percentage in modern history ... Remarkably, the share of the tax burden borne by the top 1 percent now exceeds the share paid by the bottom 95 percent of taxpayers combined ... To put this in perspective, the top 1 percent is comprised of just 1.4 million taxpayers and they pay a larger share of the income tax burden now than the bottom 134 million taxpayers combined." - The Tax Foundation

In 2009, 47 percent of households paid absolutely no taxes and more than half of those got a check from the federal government. The value of subsidies paid to those in the bottom 20 percent of households averaged more than $30,000. It's so much easier to be generous with other people's money.

Of course, only an academic would consider money received in exchange for completing a questionnaire "hard earned". We may have learned something of value from this experiment; teaching "poor" people to save money would go a long way towards eliminating the "economic inequality in society".

Your anger appears to prove their point.

Dead Che: No, we haven't learned that at all from this experiment. I've learned something about confirmation bias, though.

Poor people may be more generous giving to charities, but they don't create jobs which is really the most important part of the economy. Charity is great and all but I'll take one rich person creating a new business with 100 employees over 100 poor people donating $250 to some cahrity.

Ooops, I meant to say Rich people are evil and poor people are awesome.

Poor people don't create jobs? Depends on your viewpoint/bias re what constitutes "creating" the job. Over half of my career consisted of working with poor people; if by some magic they had not existed, either I or one of my colleagues would not have had a job.

I thought "duh" when I read the title of the article. Even when my family was at poverty level, my mom still gave to several charities. Also, for a few summers as a kid I went door to door raising money for a local clean-up project and people in large, expensive houses rarely gave as much as the people in more modest homes.

@Minnesotastan

And these poor people pay your salary? Awesome.

Spike Milligan complained that his mother used to put aside money for "The poor of the parish" - as he put it..."We WERE the poor of the parish."

Yeah, this is definitely not true. Anybody can say, "Yeah, I donate money, and I'm poor," but it's the rich people who keep the economy afloat (and I'm lower-middle class, but I won't let envy cause me to hate rich people; they deserve every penny they make; they dared be ambitious and work hard. I'm poor because I'm lazy, and I admit that. I'm not gonna punish someone else for my decision to not work hard, though).

Also, who cares about differences in different people's incomes? So what? What difference does it make? The only reason to bring up income inequality is envy and/or hate. If one person makes $5 and another makes $10, the 5-dollar person can make 10 as soon as he works as hard as the 10-dollar earner. Why people waste time and money bothering to see how great a gap there is between incomes of the rich and the poor is so stupid. Stop being envious of ambition.

I think part of the phenomenon is because poorer folks feel closer to the risk of needing charity themselves, they see more neediness first hand on a more regular basis. Say you're a grocery store checker. You're going to see a whole lot more needy people going through your checkout line during your day, trying hard to afford even simple groceries. It keeps you constantly aware that there are people struggling to buy food. If you're say, a chemical engineer, you're less likely to come in contact with poor people daily and it's easier to feel more distanced from the scope of neediness out there.

I think the other thing to consider is that more well-off folks tend to do more structured giving. They may be less likely to be as generous to every little cause that comes to their door than poorer folks because they do their giving in a systematic way and in bigger chunks. Like the person who mentioned when they were going door to door fundraising for a local project and got less response from fancy houses, may be seeing the result of that style of giving. The folks in the fancy houses may give a BIG gift to one or a couple of charities close to their heart once a year or may have donations to their chosen charities regularly scheduled (like a monthly deduction). They actually plan and budget for giving. So even though the poor folks may have been more open to whipping a few bucks out of their wallet when you came door to door, it doesn't mean that they are necessarily more generous than the rich folks.

Also, wealthy people get solicited A LOT for donations. Especially if they are also business owners. They get hit up all the time. Since they can't afford to give generously to everyone that approaches them for a donation, they have to pick and choose and usually choose one or a handful of projects they REALLY care about and concentrate all their giving on those projects.

I used to give a little bit to lots and lots of causes. Especially when I was even broker than I am now (and I'm by no means rich, just fairly comfy). I didn't have enough financial cushion to feel comfortable with donating a big amount to any one cause or to be able to schedule a regularly scheduled donation. So if a charity happened to colicit me on a day that I was extra flush, I would almost always contribute a little. Now that I'm a little more secure, I focus on one main organization (Kiva) and give to them regularly. I may not put a buck in every charity jar or a handful of change in every kettle or buy a candy bar from every school kid anymore. It probably looks from the outside like I say "No" a whole lot more often, but I'm actually giving a lot more money.

No, the title made me say "Duh" because poor people know what it's like to be poor

Che is the only one who backed up his statements with any stats, Miss C.

Sure, but they didn't pertain to the subject.

No, it toally has everything to do with it. Che was explaining that the richer have to pay an extra burden just because they pay more, therefore they felt their "donations" extracted forcibly from their wallets was doing a substantial amount to combat poverty already.

But bad news--even the stats don't gel with this study, either.

http://www.allbusiness.com/society-social/philanthropy-grants-gifts/12839861-1.html

"The bracket that pays the least, just 1.5 percent of income to charity, are those who make between $10,000 and $25,000. But they are not the poorest income bracket. Below them are those who earn less than $10,000 a year. But they give more to charity, 3.2 percent of their income. The percentage to charity for other income brackets includes: 3.04 percent for those who earn $25,000 to $50,000, 4.86 percent for those who earn $50,000 to $75,000, and 5.65 percent for those who earn $75,000 to $100,000."

I don't fault the poor for not ponying up more for charity than some that are better off, and I'm certainly not going to delude myself thinking that some obviously flawed study confirms what I want to believe about the world.

Most of the "charity" from the poorer sector is to church, which is really more of a membership fee than charity.

Those so called "facts" from Che is Dead are just BS, though.

They are "Rush Limbaugh" facts.

How exactly do rich people keep the economy afloat??

I see this every day. At my work (natural foods store), we give the customer the option to donate their bring-your-own-bag rebate to charity (we offer 3 charity choices). We're not asking them to give anything themselves, but rather to forgo the 10 cent discount and let us give it to a charity.

People spending hundreds of dollars on deli food and herbal supplements and $30 shampoo almost NEVER donate, while the kid counting out nickels to buy a few pieces of fruit and some bread almost ALWAYS does.

I have lost count of the number of times I've had people say "I'M THE CHARITY" while peeling their $100 bills off a bundle.

It makes me mad.

I'm sorta surprised no one made a "That's why they're poor!" comment/joke. Because... if you give away your money a lot, its harder to save it (and I'm guessing that someone who gives away money often probably spends it more freely than, say, a penny-pincher.) But I'm just 'supposing'.

I have little money but when I am asked to donate at the supermarket or some other store, I always say no. I prefer to give to the charities of MY choice, thank you and I don't LIKE being sollicited for money on a routine basis when I'm about to open my wallet. Just because someone doesn't say yes at the checkout doesn't mean they are stingy.

And all the anti-rich sentiment is just nonsense, isn't it. Why begrudge someone their wealth? Did they steal it from YOU? No, they didn't. Duh.

And the tax info is correct. A very few pay the most of what taxes are paid here in the USA. Be thankful for them and for a system that allows so many of the rest of us to get away with paying very little to the government in comparison.

Just to make it clear, just because you work harder doesn't mean you'll end up in the same place. I understand there's exceptions, but for the most part, America isn't a land of equality. Different people have different starting lines. Several things can affect where that starting line is including education (some public schools receive less income than others), race, and even how wealthy your parents are. So next time, think before you call someone "lazy".

Also, to my knowledge, tax is forced upon the individual. An important thing about charity is that it is a choice.

jocelynese, I would add health and inborn intelligence as starting factors as well.

There are billions of people in this world with IQs of 80 or 90 or so that lead normal lives, work hard, raise families, but never seen to catch a break or get ahead. They deserve a chance at a decent life just as much as those who spend their spare time typing opinions on the internet.

Judging by the comments here, I reckon rich people are less inclined to give to charity when their attitude is that if someone is poor, it's because they're lazy...

People without money know that's not necessarily the case (at all), because they're living it. So they give.

Wow, what a lot of anti-rich bias and stereotypes.

I especially like the "rich people peeling the $100 bills off the bundle". I've never seen someone do that in a grocery store. Must be interesting to shop there.

Rhinny, you work in a store that sells $30 shampoos? Why are you helping to contribute to such excess? Evil!

Maybe rich people are just less inclined to give because they know they're being judged. If they donate $1, people will say "Why didn't they donate $2? THEY can afford it."

Hello people that are somehow annoyed by the article. I assume you are rich and somehow feel attacked by the article because it implies that you have no heart. Also, I could be wrong but the article seems to talk about low-income people, not lazy-people-without-jobs. There's quite a difference there. You are generalizing, so I'm also generalizing; You have no heart!

I just find it funny that every time there's an article with statistics or some study results, this always happens. I guess when people personally disagree with a study when seeing the results, it's obviously because the study is biased or dumb, and there is absolutely no way it can be true.

A study, no matter how big it is, is still just a study and is not universal truth.

Personally I find it NEAT that low-income people are more generous, and that is all.

They pay people to do pointless surveys...i think thats what raises my ire.

> Splint Chesthair: "No poor person ever gave me a job."

So what's your point? That poor people are worthless?

No rich person ever became wealthy without the thousands of poor and middle-income people who either worked for them or bought their products.

> Che is dead: "... the top 1 percent of taxpayers paid 40.4 percent" of taxes.

And why shouldn't they? They own 40% of the wealth! Probably more.

And regarding the 40% of American who pay NO income taxes at all... they have no money left after paying their bills. I suppose you want them to pay their fair share and give the super rich a break? Sheesh.

> lulu: "And all the anti-rich sentiment is just nonsense, isn't it."

There is no anti-rich sentiment. It's an anti- "people who hate to help the poor, and make up all sorts of excuses for not doing so" sentiment.

> nifrek: "Hello people that are somehow annoyed by the article. I assume you are rich ..."

It has been my observation that it is not so much the rich defending themselves who make the rediculous comments you see here, but rather followers of the likes of Rush Limbaugh. They tend to be hard-working, healthy, white males with little capacity to think for themselves. They tend to be (self-proclaimed) strong Christians, but somehow forget the most important of Jesus' commandments.

I've often wondered who is more generous, the poor or the wealthy. I know that I became more generous myself after suffering hardship, and am more generous now that I'm somewhat poor than I was years ago when I had a great job and a lot of money. I was more self absorbed back then. BTW, that was when I was a conservative.

Like others, I've observed that poor people APPEAR to be more generous than wealthy people. But I think we need to remind ourselves that a wealthy person may be very generous but not one who wears it on his sleeve. Maybe he donates nothing at store checkouts, but hundreds of thousands to his favorite causes.

So while I find the study interesting, I take it with a grain of salt.