who really cares

The title above is the title of a book I'm currently reading. Occasionally I will hear or read statements charging that Christians are selfish or Republicans are greedy or that Americans don't share with those who are less fortunate. Those statements make me wonder, "Where did this person get their information?" It turns out that the people making those statements don't know what they're talking about. They are just parroting something that they have heard or they are just speaking out of their own prejudice, hatred or bias. It might be surprising to find out who is charitable and who isn't charitable.

The author of "Who Really Cares" explains why people give and why people don't. His explanations are based entirely on data. They are the fruit of years of analysis on charity and lots of work by scholars who have looked at the giving puzzle. The author sought to discover the facts about charity--whether they happen to conform to preconceived notions or not--as revealed by the evidence.

The author said that the results he found were not the conclusions he ever thought he would reach when he started looking at charitable giving ten years ago. The author said, "I have to admit that I probably would have hated what I have to say in this book." His bias was that the rich want tax cuts because they are uncharitable; Europeans care more than Americans about the world's poor; socialism is more compassionate than capitalism and so on. He thought that political liberals--who, he believed, genuinely cared more about others than conservatives did--would turn out to be the most privately charitable people. He had to admit that his views about "charity" amounted to little more than unquestioned liberal pollitical beliefs.

So, who cares the least? If caring means that you actually do something and not just talk...young liberals--perhaps the most vocally dissatisfied political constituency in America today--are one of the least generous demographic groups out there. Caring even less would be secular conservatives who tend to be single men of low income and little education, a small portion of the population. Secular liberals are well educated, and have the highest average incomes but give away less than a third as much money as religious conservatives and about half as much as the population in general.

Residents of Massachusettes give away only 1.8 percent of their incomes to all types of charity each year, which is the lowest in the nation.

In the year 2000 religious people--who, per family, earned exactly the same amount as secular people, $49,000--gave an average of $2,210 vs. $642 given by nonreligious people. They also volunteered more than twice as often.

People who pray every day are more likely to give money to charity than people who never pray (83% compared to 53%)

Religious people are more charitable in every measureable way--including secular donations, informal giving, and even acts of kindness and honesty. Religious people give more money than secularists to charities like the United Way, are more likely to volunteer for the PTA, give gifts of money to family and friends, more likely to give blood, to give food or money to a homeless person, to return change mistakenly given them by a cashier and to express empathy for less fortunate people.

Four demographic groups:
religious conservatives are the most charitable group (50 million people)
religious liberals come next in charity (18 million people)
secular liberals come next in charity (30 million people)
secular conservatives are the least charitable (20 million people)
As you can see, religion is the key ingredient.

I found this amazing. Who is most likely to say that they can't afford to give? People with a higher income.

This also was fascinating. Families in San Francisco give almost exactly the same amount to charity each year as families in South Dakota: about $1300. The average family in San Francisco County makes $80,822. The average family in South Dakota makes $45,364. So this means the average South Dakotan family gives away 75% more of its household income each year than the average family in San Francisco. When asked why people in South Dakota donate so much of their incomes to charity an executive at the South Dakota Community Foundation immediately responded: religion.

It turns out that the Church has made a huge difference in creating a culture of people who care. Are there unmet needs? Of course. But without the Church and its influence and teaching I'd hate to see where this world would be. When entertainers, politicians and others others make outlandish statements about how they would like to ban religion I wish that they could get a rush of truth to their head. Just reading this book would be a good start.

don't count out the Bears

It was pretty hard to watch the Bears struggle in the first half this past Sunday. The Giants were living large with their pretend jump shots and many other shows of celebration. They looked strong and dominant and invincible. As the Bears headed for the lockerroom it probably looked to many people that the Bears weren't nearly as good as their record shows. As the commentators were doing what they get paid to do...yapping...I thought, don't count out the Bears just yet.

That thought turned out to be prophetic. Rex Grossman may have a clone that plays for him occasionally but isn't quite as good as the real thing. I don't know how else to explain how horrible he can play and then he goes into the locker room and for some unexplained reason he starts throwing perfect passes. This guy threw three touchdown passes in nine football minutes. That's not bad.

One thing the Bears are showing us is that if you're going to watch them on TV you'd better watch the whole game because they are anything but predictable. If you go for a walk around the block you may just miss out on some fabulous, exciting football.

Go Bears.

partisan politics

Partisan politics is ruining this country. The video footage I saw of Democratic Headquarters showed excitement, smiles and enthusiasm. The Democrats are back in power. Top Democrats are saying, "We are ready to govern." They are saying they want to work together with the Republicans.

The only thing is, I'm sure Republicans will remember all the filibusters, delays and political maneuvering of the Democrats to oppose or at least slow down almost every Republican idea that was proposed for years. Why weren't the Democrats "ready to govern" for the last several years? Why weren't they willing to work together? Now we'll go into several years where the Republicans will play the role of spoiler.

Partisan politics is killing us. Washington does not think of what is best for the nation. They only think of what is good for their party, getting power, keeping power and whatever is good for their party.

I've been watching Obama. He's shown who he is in this election. Everything coming out of his mouth is partisan politics just like all the rest of them.

Joe Lieberman stands tall. Betrayed by his party because he stood on principle. He refused to play partisan politics. His own party tried to beat him every way possible. He decided to run as an Independent and he won. Good for you Joe Lieberman, may your tribe increase.

Primanti Brothers Part 2

We slide into the seats behind the counter and we can see right away that this is the place to be. There are three older women running the grill and everything behind the counter. Two of them have on Primanti Brothers t-shirts that say in bold letters, "Bite Me."

The lady on the left is brandishing a bread knife slicing up bread for the sandwiches. A 50ish man and a 20something girl are waiting tables. Both of them come up to the grill and inform the cooks that certain customers want this and that and they're not happy about their order. The lady with the knife starts waving the knife around. She says, "Tell them to come and talk to me, I'm not afraid of them." She rants on for 30 seconds or so and the conclusion is, "This is what you get, like it or get out." The servers go deliver the message. Nobody leaves. More people just keep coming in the front door.

The sign says that all sandwiches come with french fries and cole slaw. I don't like cole slaw. I'm wondering if they would make a substitution. We're sitting at a stainless steel counter which should imply cleanliness but the counter needs to be wiped off. It's pretty obvious that as busy as the "bite me" ladies are it probably won't happen.

The lady with the knife turns around and smiles at us holding her knife. She asks us what we want. We all say a steak and cheese sandwich. No one asks for substitutions. The "bite me" lady with the knife smiles and says, "That was easy." I can see that she might spare our lives if we're careful.

Here's how the sandwich is made. The meat and melted cheese comes off the grill and is placed on the bottom piece of bread. A fistful of frenchfries is mashed on top of the meat and cheese. One of the "bite me" ladies places a sliced tomato in the palm of her hand. She then grabs a fistful of coleslaw with that same hand and mashes coleslaw and tomato on top of the french fries. The top piece of bread is put in place and the whole thing is wrapped loosely and placed before you. The sandwich is about 8 inches tall.

I don't like cole slaw but it tastes good right on the sandwich with the frenchfries and everything else. In Pittsburg, cole slaw is made without mayo. If we were to go back we would get the double egg and pastrami sandwich because that's what the regulars say is the Pittsburg favorite.

Stop by anytime. I mean anytime. Primanti Brothers in the strip district is open 24 hours but it's cash only. I can't imagine what the "bite me" ladies would do if you tried to pay with plastic.