>The majority of charitable contributions by Americans are private donations to private charities. It has been the habit of Americans to donate privately and decide how much and to whom they want to give. Is that about to change? With the economy down, there are less charitable donations when they are needed most. Add to that the new tax law changes which will limit the tax write-off for charitable contributions down to 28% from 35% and the rich will give less. Charitable organizations are worried. It looks like the donations typically given by private citizens and corporations will have to come from the government in the future. That will have the effect of the U.S. 'appearing' more charitable than before (when it comes to global charities), but in essence, the government will be deciding how much and to whom the monies will go. That of course will require another tax increase to cover those costs in the future. We aren't there yet, but are we moving in that direction? If so, will it be acceptable to the majority when we get there? Is it a good thing or a bad thing?

I got these numbers from a 2003 report on why Canadians should be able to do better in private charitable donations - currencies in Canadian funds.

What is particularly interesting is that Norway, which is a fairly generous welfare state gave 24 cents per capita in private charitable donations while the U.S. gave 5 cents in private charitable donations per capita.

So, if you are correct in your analysis that private charitable donations will diminish as the welfare state increases, how do you explain Norway? Switzerland was at 7 cents.

Btw, government donating on a per capita basis by Norway was way ahead of the U.S. also.

Canada, unfortunately does resemble your scenario. More per capita donations by the government than the U.S. (17 cents vs 13 cents), but lower in private donations (2 cents vs 5 cents). Personally, I makes me wonder if, on this side of the pond, we aren't simply more selfish.