When you put it that way...
Editor's note: GAH. Of course, I would majorly screw up and misread the numbers. As Anon pointed out below, the US has 300 MILLION people, thus significantly raising the amount per person that is given charitably each year. However, the numbers on the GDP foreign aid percentages are still solid:
I just finished reading Ron Suskind's The Way of the World, and one of the book's main themes was how in the past decade or so, America has lost its moral authority in the world by giving in to the specific temptations that come with great power: deliberate deceptions, a lack of respect and understanding for both our allies and our enemies, and on and on. More than once he mentioned the Marshall Plan, the post-WWII aid program to help rebuild Europe, as an example of our last great exercise in giving and also as a model for how to rebuild our moral authority through sacrificial giving. During the four years following WWII, the equivalent of nearly 20% of a year's US GDP was given in aid. As compared to now, when today we give less than .2% of our GDP in foreign aid. That is 0.2%, folks. Zero point two percent.
So, if as Anonymous pointed out, we give significantly to charities as individuals, why is it that our foreign aid has dropped so starkly? I really want to know, actually. Because obviously my brain can't process this kind of thing.
According to the U.S. & World Population Clock, there are more than 300 billion million people in the United States. According to The Center of Philanthropy at Indiana University, charitable giving rose this past year to $280 billion (still down from 2007's all-time high of $310 billion). Those numbers combine donations to everything from the arts to social programs to churches to education.While any number above 100 is staggering to little ol' math-challenged me—particularly when it comes to dollars—we're not actually giving very much at all in this country. Yep, many billions of dollars across the board. But nope, not even one dollar per person. Considering some of those recorded donations are large ones from corporations or uber-wealthy individuals, we're looking at a whole heckuva lot of people in this country who aren't being generous with their money. In fact, I'd call it downright stinginess.I know what it's like living paycheck to paycheck, and sometimes still not even being able to make ends meet. But those numbers tell me that either a tremendous amount of people have literally zero extra dollars to give for the benefit of society in general and other people worse of specifically, or we're just rather tight-fisted. Or, the people with most of the money are way more tight-fisted than they can afford to be.Regardless, it simply is not enough. We're the richest country in the world, and we give charitably less than one dollar per person per year.
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