Who’d a thunk? Guy did a study:
One noted that people who drink alcohol moderately are more successful and charitable than those who don’t
Well, good enough so far, but:
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 might be a goood cause, and all. Just needs OPM.*
* Other people’s money.
While I would agree with the study from my own anecdotal experiences (yes, yes, I know what the plural of anecdote is not), I find it difficult to read credibly, given the source. Hopefully it’ll be vetted and published in a source not quite as… tilted… to one side of the debate, because I’d very much like this to be “proven” true.
OK. Maybe we can build a group of anedotes to lead to a conclusion, if not ‘prove’ a point!
Al Gore $353 to charity http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/04/15/gore.taxes/
Dick Cheney $6.87 million to charity http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12318056/
A pretty conservative guy, I’m somewhere between the two figures annually, but well above the national average for my income level, according to the TurboTax comparison review.
Forwhateveritsworth.
I dunno about “moderately.” Didn’t Werner Voss give a very good account of himself in his last fight, against Britain’s best, while not only hungover, but, as some would have it, still a bit drunk?
He had had an interesting night, the one just before, I believe. (No girls, but talking and drinking with Tony Fokker)
Liberals and Conservatives and Valour-IT…
One of the most recent commenters on this topic is Neptunus Lex, who posits that the explanation for this is the liberal attitude, “It might be a good cause, and all. Just needs OPM (Other People’s Money). I think there’s some truth to that in many …
Manlydad –
Durnit, you beat me to the punch. When I read the piece, the first thing that came to mind was Al’s generousity back in ‘98. I went and found it, copied it and was ready to post…
I doubt that now that he doesn’t have to disclose, Al probably gives less – but that is OK, because he is spending so much of his own money trying to save the planet from us.
N
Now, how can you possibly overpay your taxes by $1.9 million; with the kind of wealth the Cheney’s have, you’d think their financial advisors would be more on top of things than that. That’s a big OOPS.
The whole study is interesting, especially coming from a mostly-lifelong Democrat who confesses he didn’t expect the results he got from his research.