I ran across this in the July 10th, 2008 issue of the Liberator. The sources are a Giving USA report and other related media coverage. I however was unable to find the report on their website.

According to Giving USA’s latest report:

• 2007’s record $306.4 billion in charitable giving is a rise of about 1 percent from the previous year, adjusted for inflation.
• Individuals accounted for the largest share by far. Indeed, most charitable giving — $229 billion or about 75 percent total – comes from individuals.
• About two-thirds of households with incomes under $100,000 give to charity.
• Half of individual giving went to religious groups. Religious congregations received one-third of the $306.4 billion, an increase of 2 percent from last year and a record dollar amount.
  
• As economic woes have increased worldwide, Americans are responding by redirecting some of their giving. Donations to international aid, environmental and human-services groups rose the most in 2007.
• Donations to international charities showed the single largest gain — a rise of about 13 percent.
• On average Americans gives 2.3 percent of their disposable income to charitable causes.
• Americans rank first in the world in giving as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), at 1.7 percent, followed by Great Britain (.73 percent). (These are 2006 figures.)

And this is after being taxed 50+ percent by federal, state and local governments. People ask how possibly could a free society take care of those in need… this is how. Just like it is now and was in the past. Real charity.

http://www.mpp.org/…

http://www.mpp.org/…

FBI Uniform Crime Report

For the fourth year in a row, U.S. marijuana arrests set an all-time record in 2006, according to the just-released FBI Uniform Crime Reports. Marijuana arrests totaled 829,627, an increase from 786,545 in 2005. Similar to previous years, 738,916 or 89 percent were for possession, not sale or manufacture, and marijuana possession arrests again exceeded arrests for all violent crimes combined.

**Marijuana arrests constitute 5.54 percent of all U.S. arrests, costing taxpayers $10.7 billion.

**The total U.S. marijuana supply is 14,349 metric tons annually, with a retail value of $113 billion.

**Marijuana prohibition diverts the entire $113 billion in sales from the legal, taxed economy. Based on the White House Office of Management and Budget’s estimate that 28.7 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product goes to federal, local, and state governments as tax revenue, marijuana prohibition costs $31.1 billion in lost tax revenues annually.

Or the government could simply re-legalize growing, distributing and consuming it and leave it be. How many of those 800+ thousand arrested did time in prison? How long will this ridiculous attack on our freedoms continue before the public realizes it’s absolutely a losing game. The only legitimate way to change a persons behavior is through education and discussion. You can do that alone and not waste billions of dollars and explicitly mess with people’s lives or you can continue the ‘War on Drugs’ and add to the problems perceived to exist with doing the drugs in the first place.

UPDATE:

Another interesting marijuana story: http://www.leap.cc/…

http://www.usatoday.com/…

Americans give twice as much as the next most charitable country, according to a November 2006 comparison done by the Charities Aid Foundation. In philanthropic giving as a percentage of gross domestic product, the U.S. ranked first at 1.7%. No. 2 Britain gave 0.73%, while France, with a 0.14% rate, trailed such countries as South Africa, Singapore, Turkey and Germany.

What was that about Americans being selfish and cheap?