December 20, 2005--Tis the Season to Be Scrouge

I don’t know about you, but I feel conflicted and guilty, at the risk of being politically incorrect, when on the subway I ignore anyone begging for money. Or for that matter avoiding eye contact much less reaching into my pocket to give to someone trying to collect money for the homeless. I feel especially upset with myself when I notice that those who tend to give are much less affluent than I.

I of course have all my rationalizations handy—they are really looking for money for booze, not food; or they will not turn in the money they collect to the Coalition for the Homeless but will keep it for themselves so they can buy wine or whisky. I even have “permission” from the City as the subways are plastered with signs that discourage giving money this way, encouraging you instead to contribute to real charities. But though I try to do that I am still haunted by the perception that people poorer than I seem to find a dollar to drop into the cup while the checks I write to Meals On Wheels or Oxfam in truth do not really amount to a significant percentage of my annual income, or what I could easily afford . . . and deduct from my taxes.

Thus I’m not sure that an article in yesterday’s NY Times about how higher income people are less charitable than people with modest incomes provided me with much comfort—I still feel pretty guilty about my own niggardliness. (See link below for complete report.)

Here’s the bottom line—Americans younger than 50 and who earn between $50,000 and $100,000 per year are two to six times more generous than those Americans who make more than $10 million! The percentages that they contribute each year to charities, when calculated as a percentage of their net worth, show that the lower income people give on average 2.5 percent of the value of their assets while those much wealthier give just 0.4 percent.

As a sidebar to this and counter intuitive to me at least, single men are considerably more generous than single women with the same incomes and assets—men contribute 1.5 percent whereas women give 1.1.

And no surprise, those older than 65, more likely to have fixed incomes, are among the least charitable. Perhaps this provides some solace for me as I sort of fit into that demographic. But to tell you the truth, I still don‘t feel very good about myself.

You?