Headline: Why the Rich Don't Give to Charity: The wealthiest Americans donate 1.3 percent of their income; the poorest, 3.2 percent. What's up with that? Ken Stern/The Atlantic; April 2013 Issue
Well, what is up with that? The standard explanations are variations on the theme of the poor being compassionate egalitarians and the rich being greedy assholes. (The a-word was actually used by an academic quoted in the above article.) To make matters worse, when the rich do give to charity, it's done strategically, to benefit their peers (or peers-to-be) and reinforce the class hierarchy. Not out of compassion but self-interest. Think art museums, symphonies, and ivy league colleges. Or so the narrative goes.
Let's look at the evidence. I couldn't find a government report confirming the rich paid a smaller portion of their income than the poor during the period covered in the 2013 Atlantic article - a period, btw, in which the rich were still smarting from a 26% loss of wealth due to the Great Recession. Plenty of people disputed the figures though. For instance, the head of the non-profit Charity Navigator said the middle-class gave a smaller portion of their income to charity than either the rich or poor, at 2.5%, 3% and 4-5%, respectively.
But for the sake of argument I'm going to assume wealthy people tend to give less to charity than poor people, as a portion of their income. The following charts provides a clue as to why this might be so:
Lower-income Americans go to church more than the rich. Churches collect money ("tithes") from parishioners. Tithes are tax-deductible as a charitable donation. Apparently, many churches installed ATM machines to make it easier to give when the collection plate comes around. Just think: the lion's share of charitable giving among the poor is to their church (and to their church's causes). The poor are also much more likely than the rich to go to church every single week and thus be asked for money in a public setting every single week. Talk about social pressure - no wonder the poor are so generous.
As for the rich giving out of self-interest, in solidarity with their fellow elites: give me a break. The rich give to educational institutions more than any other cause. Much of that money is given anonymously and goes to scholarships to help low-income students. Hardly a strategic move to maintain the unequal status quo.
I'm not saying the poor lack compassion nor that the rich are particularly virtuous, only that there's more to the story - a lot more.
Next: More to the story. Ambition, goal-directedness, and compassion.
Reference:
Paul K. Piff, Michael W. Kraus and Dacher Keltner, Unpacking the Inequality Paradox: The Psychological Roots of Inequality and Social Class. In: James M. Olson, editor, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 57, Burlington: Academic Press, 2018, pp. 53-124. ISBN: 978-0-12-814689-7