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A new study finds that wealthy people are more likely to donate to charity if they live in areas with high levels of economic inequality. This is a challenging study that suggests the opposite is true.
Hand put coins into glass jars for donations and donations.
important facts
According to a new study published Wednesday in the journal Pro Swan, Wealthy people who live in places with high economic standards tend to give more to charitable donations and social actions.
Prosocial behavior is voluntary behavior intended to benefit others and can take the form of positive interactions, sharing and offering help, and behaviors that reduce stereotypes.
The study analyzed IRS data on charitable donations, volunteer data from the British Understanding Society, and inequality data from postcodes.
According to the National Philanthropic Trust, 86% of wealthy households maintained or increased their giving in 2021 despite uncertainty about the potential spread of COVID-19.
Americans can deduct money donated to charity from their taxes, but a report released in 2019 found that Business history review It concludes that this will only benefit by protecting the “voluntary contributions to public goods” of the wealthy.
Contra
A 2015 study published in psychology and cognitive science We find that high levels of economic inequality make wealthy people less generous than lower-income people. However, when inequality was generally low, there was no correlation between generosity and income. The report concluded that wealthy people are less likely to donate in situations of high economic inequality because they fear losing their “privileged status.”Another study published in natural aging People living in poorer countries may be more willing to donate to a hypothetical charity than those living in a richer country, especially if that charity is helping people in their own country. got it.
big number
175 billion dollars. According to a report by Wealth-X, this is the amount that the world's wealthy donated to charity in 2020, accounting for more than a third of global individual donations. $85 billion alone came from America's billionaires.
Main background
It has long been believed that people with high incomes are more selfish than people with lower incomes.Research published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Wealthy people have been found to be less likely than lower-class people to ask for help from strangers in need. This paper hypothesizes that this is because lower-class people are forced to become more community-oriented as a way to adapt to a more hostile environment. We also know that people in the upper classes behave more unethically than people in the lower classes. Several studies have shown that wealthy people break traffic laws, lie in negotiations, cheat to increase their chances of winning prizes, support unethical behavior in the workplace, and engage in unethical behavior. It became clear that people were more likely to show a tendency toward decision-making. Although data on household income, wealth and donations is sparse, households earning at least $2 million a year account for a significant portion of total donations, according to EconoFact data. 88.3% of households with annual incomes of $2 million to $5 million donate an average of 3.44% of their income. 95% of households with annual incomes of $10 million or more donate an average of 8.6% of their income. However, middle-class households with incomes between $50,000 and $75,000 give an average of 7.6% of their income to charity, and the poorest fifth of Americans give 4.3% of their income to charity. Donating.
tangent
According to the Census Bureau, 37.9 million people lived in poverty in the United States in 2021. Conversely, the United States has the largest proportion of billionaires of any other country. forbes As of November 2022, the total wealth of American billionaires reached $4.48 trillion. Some argue that large corporations like Amazon exist only at the expense of the welfare of workers, and that billionaires exist only because of injustice in general. The 2022 World Inequality Report points out that billionaires account for his 3% of the world's wealth, a huge amount owned by just over 2,600 people.
References
Forbes 37th Annual World Richest Ranking: Facts and Figures 2023 (Forbes)
