The Generosity Index

The post-election banter continues, as the blue states bemoan the fact that the \”hicks and hayseeds\” in the red states have held them hostage by re-electing George W. Bush to the Presidency. Some on the fringe left have created a new map of North America divided in to two areas, with the west coast states, the Great Lakes states and New England lumped together with Canada (the United States of Canada) and the rest of the country being dubbed \”Jesusland\”. I think it reveals their hatred more than anything, but I am proud to live in \”Jesusland\”.

Anyhow, the Catalogue for Philanthropy extrapolates some interesting data from the latest U.S. Census (2002). Essentially, the compute the generosity of the average person living in a state by taking each state\’s average income ranking and average charitable contribution ranking, and then subtracting the second rank from the first to get a single number for each state. As the site says, \”Generosity in not just how much you give, but how much you give in relation to how much you have.\”

So, how do the red and blue states pan out?

Click here to see the states ranked in order.

What I find fascinating is how each state voted in the 2004 election. Take a look at the ranking when we view it in terms of Red (Bush) states and Blue (Kerry) states.

I don\’t know about you, but I see a trend here. Isn\’t it interesting that the liberals tend to label Conservatives as greedy and as not caring about the needs of the less fortunate. This data and chart seems to lend a hand to solidly dispelling the myth that some disingenous Democrat leaders continue to chant. I am convinced that as a rule, conservatives give out of their own hard-earned money, while liberals like to do it using OTHER people\’s money, ie: tax dollars.