Put your money where your mouth is

Barack Obama strongly supports giving financial aid to the poor and less fortunate when other people's money is on the line (i.e., through government spending, which of course is financed by taxpayers like you and me). So surely he must set a good example by making generous charitable donations with his own money, right? Apparently not. (Though in charity to Senator Obama, I do hope that there is more to the story.)

This reminds me of Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's Tax Me More Fund, where he invited tax-increase advocates to voluntarily contribute some of their own money to the state treasury, in order to set an example of their willingness to pay higher taxes. Not surprisingly, the fund generated very little money. And studies have shown that on average (with many individual exceptions, I'm sure) conservatives tend to give more to charity than liberals do. Arthur Brooks has written an entire book on this subject, called Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism. Here is an excerpt from the book:

The conventional wisdom runs like this: Liberals are charitable because they advocate government redistribution of money in the name of social justice; conservatives are uncharitable because they oppose these policies. But note the sleight of hand: Government spending, according to this logic, is a form of charity.

Let us be clear: Government spending is not charity. It is not a voluntary sacrifice by individuals. No matter how beneficial or humane it might be, no matter how necessary it is for providing public services, it is still the obligatory redistribution of tax revenues. Because government spending is not charity, sanctimonious yard signs do not prove that the bearers are charitable or that their opponents are selfish....

To evaluate accurately the charity difference between liberals and conservatives, we must consider private, voluntary charity. How do liberals and conservatives compare in their private giving and volunteering? Beyond strident slogans and sarcastic political caricatures, what, exactly, do the data tell us?

The data tell us that the conventional wisdom is dead wrong. In most ways, political conservatives are not personally less charitable than political liberals—they are more so.

(read more)

Of course, it should be noted that despite the overall trend, there are certainly many liberals who are very generous with their own money, and some of them may even be politicians. Also, it is certainly possible for a politician to be a hypocrite and still make good policy proposals. But politicians like Senator Obama (and others), who call for increased government spending on social programs, would have a bit more credibility (with me anyway) if they first put their own money where their mouth is. I still might disagree with them, but at least I would be more inclined to listen.