1/ Some things I've learned about charitable giving in the US and how to use giving to solve big problems [thread]:
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2/ Giving has been around 2% of GDP for over 40 years. This means giving is a relatively fixed pie, despite the fact that people always talk about how total dollars given is increasing (...with GDP).
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3/ The percentage of people who give is going down every year. It fell from 68% of people giving in 2002 to 55% in 2017.
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4/ The poor give a much larger percentage of their income to charity than the rich. The top 20% of Americans by income gave 1.3% of their income in 2011 compared to the poorest 20% who gave 3.2% of their income.
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5/ Despite the fact that the poor give a larger % of their income to charity, the rich give a lot more in terms of dollar amount, and this dynamic is exacerbated by rising income inequality.
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6/ More giving goes to religious institutions than anywhere else. Religious institutions take in 30% of total giving or around $125B per year.
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7/ Total giving in the US is tiny compared to gov spending. Total giving is $400B and gov spending is about $4T per year.
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8/ International giving is tiny compared to the problems it's tackling. International giving is 5% of total giving or $20B. If all of that went to Mexico, it wouldn't even cover current healthcare costs for 50% of the population.
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9/ Giving is a critical stopgap for the lucky few who benefit from it, but there will never be enough money to solve the big important problems like universal healthcare or education.
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10/ Only govs have the resources to solve the big problems. If you give or rely on giving and want to *solve* big problems, then your mission should be to help govs accomplish theirs by better collecting and using taxes. [end]
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Is it not pretty clearly absurd to aspire to *solve* such problems? I should have thought that any rational actor would limit himself to trying to make an inspiring dent in one of them, in hopes of encouraging widespread belief in the feasibility of doing more by similar means.
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