Monday, December 26, 2011

Germany: Sorry, I gave at the State

The US is the number 1 most charitable nation in the world.

Germans like to see themselves as "giving," but of course when it comes to voluntary giving they actually suck. In fact, most of Europe "gives" by taking money from people at gunpoint. That would be "stealing," friends.

Germany is #26.

Of course, I suppose Germany could claim they gave at the Euro. Still, strong evidence that Tocqueville was right, and state action crowds out private initiative and personal moral responsibility. So, for all my German friends who jabber about how generous Germans are and how stingy American are... how do you like us now?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, this is a weird study. How were the indicators measured? What counts as helping a stranger? And what as volunteering?

So the German welfare state might be taking away the money, but also the "burden" that one has to bother himself with the indicators of the World Giving Index.
Does that make the citizens less free?
One could argue, that it is morally doubtfull/questionable, but who are they to judge?
What defines a moral person?

One could easily argue the morality in the US is declining, with a look at the rising inmate numbers per 100,000 population in the US. Furthermore being the country with the highest incarceration rate in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States

I for my part loved you, the US, before, although you suck in other studies.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/09/map-us-ranks-near-bottom-on-income-inequality/245315/

Anonymous said...

I don't understand why is it so hard to see equality as a public good. I may want everyone in my country to help as much as possible, but feel that, well, since everybody is helping, what difference does my contribution make. So I can favor an obligation to give. That way I contribute knowing that everybody else does. Of course, as with any public good, there may be people that really wouldn't want the good to exist in the first place. However, if a large majority does want it to exist, I think it would be ok to risk forcing some to contribute involuntarily.

I don't know anything about the evidence, but I think Germans, on the whole, are happy with giving through the state. In that sense, they are, collectively, generous.