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By Nic Horton | The Arkansas Project
Nic Horton
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas is often mocked for its “high” rankings among the states.
Following are some noteworthy ones:
- Second for highest barriers into industry,
- Fifth for most burdensome licensing requirements,
- Sixth for highest state and local sales tax rates,
- Seventh in government job growth,
- Fifth for worst in education,
- Third for fewest doctors,
- Eighth for sales tax collections per capita,
- Sixth for online porn sales,
- Fourth for teen pregnancies.
Way to go! But Arkansas has finally made the top 10 for a great reason — charitable giving.
According to a new report from the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Arkansas ranks seventh among the 50 states for charitable giving as a percentage of its residents’ income.
Conservatives often argue that government should tax less and do less charitable work, so individuals and religious groups can give more. Liberals counter that this would never happen, that “obviously if churches and individuals did enough charitable giving then government wouldn’t.”
But this study kind of debunked the liberal argument:
“The reasons for the discrepancies among states, cities, neighborhoods are rooted in part in each area’s political philosophy about the role of government versus charity.”
“Regions of the country that are deeply religious are more generous than those that are not. Two of the top nine states—Utah and Idaho—have high numbers of Mormon residents, who have a tradition of tithing at least 10 percent of their income to the church. The remaining states in the top nine are all in the Bible Belt.”
Oh, and tax policy also influences charitable giving:
“Tax incentives matter. State policies that promote giving can make a significant difference. At least 13 states now offer special tax benefits to charity donors.”
So despite living in an entitlement society where government is trying to take care of everyone by imposing astronomically high taxes and leaving taxpayers with smaller percentages of their earnings, people who believe in truly helping the poor still give above and beyond those who advocate for government charity.
Arkansas is doing great with charitable giving, despite excessive taxation and government intervention into charity. Imagine what we could do if we got the government off our backs.
