The Poor You Shall Always Have...

The Bible talks quite a bit about giving, and - here's where things get a little uncomfortable for us liberals - conservative Christians seem to listen to that message more.  In his book, "Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservativism," Arthur C. Brooks says, "In 2000, households headed by a conservative gave, on average, 30 percent more money to charity than households headed by a liberal ($1,600 to $1,227)."  Roughly the same numbers of families gave on each side of the political divide, but conservatives simply gave more.  It would be interesting to see more recent numbers, to see if that donation tendency is continuing, but I couldn't find any.

What's also not mentioned in that number is whether liberals still gave as much money in general.  Brooks is only talking about "charity"; however, if liberals gave to non-charitable groups, such as political groups pushing for tax reform and so on, we might simply draw the conclusion that liberals and conservatives believe their money is better spent in different places.  To figure it out, I looked at the source where Brooks got his data: The Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey of 2000.

Turns out, the SCCBS doesn't provide exactly the data that Brooks is claiming, unless he is privy to data that is not available to the general public.  The data they published sorts people into groups of monetary contributions, such as "None" or "More than $5000".

Or as I would ask it "which color on this graph represents how much you spent on contributions"

The survey did NOT provide information about exactly what kinds of funds those charitable contributions went to beyond one simple distinction: religious or non-religious.  Thus, whether the charity is something that benefits the poor in America, or overseas, or whether it spends most of its money lobbying Congress, we don't know.  All we know is whether it's a religious or non-religious donation, and which range of money was spent.

We also don't know for certain the political ideology of those reporting their donations.  People responded with what they considered their own political ideology to be, and there were questions asked that help narrow that based on party-line politics (such as whether immigrants are "too demanding" for equal rights). 

Here's what I can draw out of it:

• First, there were 29,233 respondents.
• 478 of them didn't know what their own political ideology was.  75 refused to answer.
• 8,375 were classified as "middle of the road" or "other".
• 8,756 were moderately conservative; 3,437 were very conservative.  The total # of conservatives was 12,193.
• 5,744 were moderately liberal; 2,357 were very liberal.  The total # of liberals was  8,101.
• 4,090 of the mod libs self-classified as Christian (72.0% of those who did not refuse to answer).  1364 of the very liberal did, too (58.2%).
• 7,750 of the mod cons self-classified as Christian (89.2%).  3084 of the very conservative also (90.2%). 
• Here's the data for how conservatives and liberals gave to religious organizations
• Moderately Conservatives reported giving:
• 1696 people (1765 weighted) - $0 (23.6%)
• 914 (948) - $0-100 (12.7%)
• 1797 (1826) - $100-500 (24.4%)
• 954 (938) - $500-1000 (12.5%)
• 1549 (1537) - $1000-5000 (20.6%)
• 466 (465) - $5000+ (6.2%)
• Very Conservatives reported giving:
• 698 (754) - $0 (25.2%)
• 282 (312) - $0-100 (10.4%)
• 540 (574) - $100-500 (19.2%)
• 368 (379) - $500-1000 (12.7%)
• 663 (678) - $1000-5000 (22.6%)
• 286 (299) - $5000+ (10.0%)
• Moderately Liberals reported giving:
•  2013 (1873) - $0 (39.7%)
•  643 (592) - $0-100 (12.5%)
•  1147 (1048) - $100-500 (22.2%)
•  489 (440) - $500-1000 (9.3%)
•  680 (613) - $1000-5000 (13.0%)
•  176 (155) - $5000+ (3.3%)
• Very Liberals reported giving:
• 1085 (997) - $0 (50.4%)
• 258 (237) - $0-100 (12.0%)
• 374 (376) - $100-500 (19.0%)
• 158 (148) - $500-1000 (7.5%)
• 199 (176) - $1000-5000 (8.9%)
• 53 (45) - $5000+ (2.3%)
• Now, let's adjust for Christianity - we are, after all, wondering whether Conservative Christians donate more than other groups:
• Moderately Conservative Christians reported giving:
• 1214 (1260) - $0 (19.2%)
• 811 (833) - $0-100 (12.7%)
• 1662 (1679) - $100-500 (25.6%)
• 898 (880) - $500-1000 (13.4%)
• 1472 (1459) - $1000-5000 (22.2%)
• 446 (447) - $5000+ (6.8%)
• Very Conservative Christians reported giving:
• 518 (550) - $0 (20.7%)
• 243 (265) - $0-100 (10.0%)
• 505 (540) - $100-500 (20.3%)
• 350 (364) - $500-1000 (13.7%)
• 641 (655) - $1000-5000 (24.7%)
• 271 (280) - $5000+ (10.6%)
• Moderately Liberal Christians reported giving:
•  970 (931) - $0 (27.9%)
•  508 (473) - $0-100 (14.2%)
•  973 (888) - $100-500 (26.6%)
•  433 (395) - $500-1000 (11.8%)
•  585 (532) - $1000-5000 (15.9%)
•  142 (123) - $5000+ (3.7%)
• Very Liberal Christians reported giving:
• 405 (396) - $0 (34.3%)
• 173 (153) - $0-100 (13.2%)
• 290 (299) - $100-500 (25.9%)
• 129 (123) - $500-1000 (10.6%)
• 168 (149) - $1000-5000 (12.9%)
• 41 (35) - $5000+ (3.0%)
• So increasingly liberal political viewpoints do associate directly with lower religious contributions, for Christians.  What about for contributions to non-religious organizations?
• Moderately Conservative Christians reported giving:
• 1956 (2114) - $0 (31.4%)
• 1377 (1396) - $0-100 (20.8%)
• 2020 (1994) - $100-500 (29.7%)
• 666 (627) - $500-1000 (9.3%)
• 552 (506) - $1000-5000 (7.5%)
• 95 (88) - $5000+ (1.3%)
• Very Conservative Christians reported giving:
• 978 (1053) - $0 (38.5%)
• 514 (534) - $0-100 (19.5%)
• 670 (700) - $100-500 (25.6%)
• 234 (236) - $500-1000 (8.6%)
• 174 (173) - $1000-5000 (6.3%)
• 37 (36) - $5000+ (1.3%)
• Moderately Liberal Christians reported giving:
•  1017 (1031) - $0 (30.1%)
•  725 (684) - $0-100 (19.9%)
•  1145 (1029) - $100-500 (30.0%)
•  394 (352) - $500-1000 (10.3%)
•  333 (273) - $1000-5000 (8.0%)
•  73 (61) - $5000+ (1.8%)
• Very Liberal Christians reported giving:
• 427 (444) - $0 (37.4%)
• 230 (233) - $0-100 (19.6%)
• 308 (290) - $100-500 (24.5%)
• 124 (100) - $500-1000 (8.4%)
• 118 (103) - $1000-5000 (8.7%)
• 23 (16) - $5000+ (1.3%)
• Thus we see that, for non-religious giving, Liberal Christians are bigger givers than Conservative Christians, but only slightly.  

There is a problem with all of this data, though: It asked a question of people about how much they believe about their own donations - that is, it doesn't require them to consult their tax forms or bank accounts and verify that this is the amount they gave to religious organizations, only how much they feel they have given.  Rather than the idea that conservatives donate more often than liberals, it could indicate that conservatives simply believe that their donations are far larger, throughout the year, than liberals do.  Without tax data to back it up, we can't know whether conservatives actually donated as much as they believed they did.

What goes unanswered in this, then, is whether those charitable contributions that go to religious organizations are going to run the church, going to political activism, or actually going to the poor.  A great example of this is the Catholic Church, which reportedly received $170 Billion in 2010, and handed out $5 Billion to the poor.  That's an unimpressive handout of 2.9%.

What have we learned?

1. That Conservatives believe themselves to donate more to religious organizations; liberals to donate less.
2. That those religious organizations may not give their money to the poor, since they have their own non-poor concerns such as operating costs and evangelism.
3. That across non-religious organization giving, giving is relatively even, and perhaps even weighted slightly toward Liberals.
4. That Arthur C. Brooks is full of crap.