Generosity Index

Michelle Malkin links to and also reformats to display the Generosity Index that ranks states by their charitable contributions. No shock here that blue states are ranked towards the bottom. The methodology used is really unfair thought since it doesn’t count liberal charitable giving by proxy – that is via the upper one percent of tax payers.

One interesting thing about the generosity index is that it is counter-intuitive to factors you might consider such as per capita income. This Per Capita State Ranking using 2000 data shows Mississippi as dead last yet in the generosity index they are number one. And Connecticut which is number one for Per Capita Income only ranks number 44 on the Generosity index. For the most part this trend plays out for most states and out of the top ten most generous states all but three are in the bottom ten of the income listing and the other three were in the bottom twenty.

This trend also seems to bear out in Democratic presidential candidates. President Clinton itemized used underwear that he gave to charity.

Like Al Gore, who donated a miserly $353 to charity as vice president in 1997, John Kerry may be a serial cheapskate.

During the early 1990s, with no apparent presidential aspirations, Kerry contributed the following amounts: $0 in 1991; $820, 1992; $175, 1993; $2,039, 1994; and $0, 1995. Last year, however, after media attention, he gave $43,735 [Source]