Good news doesn’t sell, which is probably why every generation thinks the world is in constant motion towards hell (although the trend for the last 200 years has been quite the opposite). Despite high gas and food prices and falling home values, Americans gave away a record $306 billion last year—an increase of $11 billion from the previous record year (2006). Of course, the few media outlets covering this story chose to focus on increased need, rather than supply (and charity is likely driven by supply), but we should take what positive news we can get.
I will defer mostly to my earlier post on charitable giving, but this milestone reminds us that prosperous societies are also generous ones. Some folks bemoan economic progress and rising prosperity as crises of overproduction or rank materialism. However, rising prosperity is really just the producing of more goods and services valued by more people, which also includes giving. Interestingly, it is rising prosperity that makes both voluntary giving (charity) and involuntary giving (welfare) possible. Public and private welfare are as much creatures of market economies as banks, factories, ports, and shopping malls. Anyway, this story serves as a reminder that if the market can stimulate a culture of prosperity and giving, then bringing market mechanisms into the firm can accomplish the same.
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