Quote:
Originally Posted by BlueStreak
Right. Less charity and volunteerism, because there is less need for it.
Also, there is no way to know whether one is forgiven until the end of ones when whence he faces judgment. The whole pre-forgiven for events that have as yet to occur is a fallacy. It's like giving someone a pass at birth for any crimes he may commit later in life. It simply doesn't work that way.................unless you're born rich and connected, of course.
Dave
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The USA in 19th in terms of charitable giving as a percentage of Gross National Income. You'll note that nearly all of the countries above us are northern European social democracies who actually need less charity than we do. During my 11 years in Germany, I don't recall ever seeing a poor or destitute person. In contrast, the
USA ranks #34 in the world in terms of percentage of children living in poverty.
Luxembourg – 1.00%
Sweden – 0.99%
Norway – 0.93%
Denmark – 0.84%
Netherlands – 0.71%
United Kingdom – 0.56%
Finland – 0.53%
Ireland – 0.48%
Belgium – 0.47%
France- 0.45%
Switzerland – 0.45%
Germany – 0.38%
Australia – 0.36%
Canada – 0.32%
Austria – 0.28%
New Zealand – 0.28%
Portugal – 0.27%
Iceland – 0.22%
United States – 0.19%
When it comes to the Pope's point, from 2009 - 2012 the top 1%'s income went up 31.4%, whereas the income of the bottom 99% went up 0.4%.
http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/saez-...comes-2012.pdf