Is anyone surprised that when the times get tough the well-off stop contributing as much to charity, but the middle and lower classes increase their giving? I guess compassion for the less fortunate only stretches so far when your bonus is a few thousand bucks less than the previous year.
(Reuters) – Wealthy Americans contributed less of their incomes to charity while low and middle-income residents gave more in the years surrounding the Great Recession, according to a newly released report by The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
U.S. residents earning an annual $200,000 or more reduced the amount of income they gave to charity by 4.6 percent between 2006 and 2012, while those who earned less than $100,000 a year increased charitable spending by 4.5 percent of their pay over the same time period, said the report, issued on Sunday.
To the rich giving to charities is fine when they are making hand over fist large amounts of money. It is a cheap form of PR for them. But as the profits go down they show their true self serving side. PR is not that important, profit amounts are.
The Rich the true “TAKERS” in the USA.
They are too busy buying politicians.
Difficult to generalize from a report that doesn’t discriminate among the forms of charitable giving.
However, non-wealthy people understand hard times in terms of people and are more likely to stretch to help out those in need. Wealthier people (excluding Mormons that are always supposed to tithe or tithe plus to their church) donate to organizations. If they feel a bit pinched, trickle down the pinched works for them.