Compassionate Conservatives

In a book highlighted by George Will in the Post yesterday, an author found that though liberals are stereotyped both politically and personally as caring more about the less fortunate in our society, conservatives are doing more to help.

The book cites the following:

• Although liberal families' incomes average 6 percent higher than those of conservative families, conservative-headed households give, on average, 30 percent more to charity than the average liberal-headed household ($1,600 per year vs. $1,227).

• Conservatives also donate more time and give more blood.

• Residents of the states that voted for John Kerry in 2004 gave smaller percentages of their incomes to charity than did residents of states that voted for George Bush.

• Bush carried 24 of the 25 states where charitable giving was above average.

• In the 10 reddest states, in which Bush got more than 60 percent majorities, the average percentage of personal income donated to charity was 3.5. Residents of the bluest states, which gave Bush less than 40 percent, donated just 1.9 percent.

• People who reject the idea that "government has a responsibility to reduce income inequality" give an average of four times more than people who accept that proposition.

It is a somewhat logical conclusion while conservatives reject that the government should care for the poor, they step in themselves. While liberals believe the government should do more, and so they dedicate their efforts to change the government, instead of donating their own time and money to the problems at hand. The question that follows then, is if we really care of the social and economic inequalities in our society- why aren't we asking more of ourselves and of our government? In a era of explosive growth of social entrepreneurship, our generation is doing more to attack problems head on which we feel the government has not, or is not capable of, effectively addressing. But the two are not mutually exclusive, and for either to be truly effective they must communicate best practices and work alongside each other rather than overlap and waste funds.

This piece is also interesting when read with recent trends among evangelicals in mind. Evidence shows that Christians are becoming more progressive (do not read liberal) as younger generations become increasingly concerned with widespread social inequities, global warming, etc. If the author argues that amounts given to charity fall along religious lines, his data may be in the early stages of changing to show that as the conservative party loses some of those religious members, the balance may sway to show democrats giving and doing more.