Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Poorer people are often more generous than rich people.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-helpful-brain/202206/are-poorer-people-more-generous
Remember the story of Oseola McCarthy?
In a profile, The New York Times wrote, “Oseola McCarty spent a lifetime making other people look nice. Day after day, for most of her 87 years, she took in bundles of dirty clothes and made them clean and neat for parties she never attended, weddings to which she was never invited, graduations she never saw. She had quit school in the sixth grade to go to work, never married, never had children and never learned to drive because there was never any place in particular she wanted to go. All she ever had was the work, which she saw as a blessing. …
“She spent almost nothing, living in her old family home, cutting the toes out of shoes if they did not fit right and binding her ragged Bible with Scotch tape to keep Corinthians from falling out. Over the decades, her pay — mostly dollar bills and change — grew to more than $150,000.” In 1995, McCarty contributed her savings so that Black students at the University of Southern Mississippi could receive something she never did — an education.
Thanks for sharing this story! Very inspiring.
I am genuinely surprised by the posters with high incomes claiming they donate nothing or very little with "no guilt."
I'm a "no guilt" person. Honestly, it doesn't even occur to me to feel guilty about not giving my money away? I was raised to be a functioning and contributing member of society. Volunteer, obey laws, work hard, pay taxes, return library books - I would feel guilty if I wasn't doing those things. And of course we donate here and there to fundraisers. I totally accept it's all in how we were raised and I actually find this discussion really interesting. Honestly, I can't imagine prioritizing giving 5-10% of my income away to charities or a church over, say, saving for my retirement or kids' futures. It feels like a totally different mindset.