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I was referring to this quote from the article. "If you tell a Dutch person you’re going to raise his taxes by 500 euros and that it will go to help the poor,
by benzim 17y ago
I was referring to this quote from the article.
"If you tell a Dutch person you’re going to raise his taxes by 500 euros and that it will go to help the poor, he’ll say O.K., he said. But if you say he’s going to get a 500-euro tax cut, with the idea that he will give it to the poor, he won’t do it. The Dutch don’t do such things on their own. They believe they should be handled by the system. To an American, that’s a lack of individual initiative."
- timr 17y agoThe same thing happens in America -- we talk a good game about charity being driven by individual donations, but we don't tend to donate very much. Last I heard, your average US charity has less than 30% of its budget met by donations.
- benzim 17y agoThat's simply not true. Compared to any other country people in the US give far more. "Gaudiani said Americans give twice as much as the next most charitable country, according to a November 2006 comparison done by the Charities Aid Foundation. In philanthropic giving as a percentage of gross domestic product, the U.S. ranked first at 1.7 percent. No. 2 Britain gave 0.73 percent, while France, with a 0.14 percent rate, trailed such countries as South Africa, Singapore, Turkey and Germany." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19409188/ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19409188/
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]