Americans have the distinct reputation of being incredibly selfish. All things considered, it’s not exactly unearned. That said, every year, Americans also quietly give a rather astonishingly large amount of money to charities, particularly during the holiday season. Over $400 billion, in fact, 75 percent of which was for those less fortunate. And that’s simply the cash and goods. Beyond that, 60 million Americans each donated an average of 120 hours of their time to charities. This is, incidentally, more than the federal government spends on all of its welfare programs combined. What does this actually mean? Join James Harrigan and Antony Davies as they discuss this and more on this week’s episode of Words and Numbers.

Show Notes:

Penguins fan gets a kidney

South African politician calls on people to kill whites

Foolishness of the Week

Nurse denied life insurance

Topic of the Week: Giving

Giving Tuesday

Statistics of US generosity

Arthur Brooks: Who Really Cares?

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Antony Davies on Twitter

James R. Harrigan on Twitter

Antony Davies on Minds.com

James R. Harrigan on Minds.com

Words & Numbers Backstage

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