Professor Arthur C. Brooks writes that conservatives are more generous than liberals -- which is certainly true -- but wrongly believes that his claims are new.
In the book, he cites extensive data analysis to demonstrate that values advocated by conservatives -- from church attendance and two-parent families to the Protestant work ethic and a distaste for government-funded social services -- make conservatives more generous than liberals. ...The book's basic findings are that conservatives who practice religion, live in traditional nuclear families and reject the notion that the government should engage in income redistribution are the most generous Americans, by any measure.
Conversely, secular liberals who believe fervently in government entitlement programs give far less to charity. They want everyone's tax dollars to support charitable causes and are reluctant to write checks to those causes, even when governments don't provide them with enough money.
It's not hard to understand... liberals are self-indulgent hypocrites who want to feel good about themselves by forcing other people to "give". Conservatives actually care about doing good, so they donate their own money to charities of their choice rather than "give" through taxes to a government program.
"These are not the sort of conclusions I ever thought I would reach when I started looking at charitable giving in graduate school, 10 years ago," he writes in the introduction. "I have to admit I probably would have hated what I have to say in this book." ..."I know I'm going to get yelled at a lot with this book," he said. "But when you say something big and new, you're going to get yelled at."
The generosity index came to this same result in 2003, if not earlier.
