🚀 go-pugleaf

On Wed, 27 Jun 2007 01:14:08 -0500, David Agnew
<DavidAgnew@nospam.nul> wrote:

>On Tue, 26 Jun 2007 22:28:54 -0500, CJT <abujlehc@prodigy.net> wrote:
>
>>Lugar is too little, too late.
>
>Bush has already guaranteed the bankruptcy of America and the eventual
>military coup that will follow.  Americans who voted for Bush deserve
>the government that will execute them.

The economy is running at peak performance. A military coup is
impossible in the US. You're a lunatic.

BTW - FYI :  Americans set record for donations in 2006

By VINNEE TONG Mon Jun 25, 12:31 AM ET

Americans gave nearly $300 billion to charitable causes last year,
setting a new record and besting the 2005 total that had been boosted
by a surge in aid to victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma and
the Asian tsunami.

Donors contributed an estimated $295.02 billion in 2006, a 1 percent
increase when adjusted for inflation, up from $283.05 billion in 2005.
Excluding donations for disaster relief, the total rose 3.2 percent,
inflation-adjusted, according to an annual report released Monday by
the Giving USA Foundation at Indiana University's Center on
Philanthropy.

Giving historically tracks the health of the overall economy, with the
rise amounting to about one-third the rise in the stock market,
according to Giving USA. Last year was right on target, with a 3.2
percent rise as stocks rose more than 10 percent on an
inflation-adjusted basis.

"What people find especially interesting about this, and it's true
year after year, that such a high percentage comes from individual
donors," Giving USA Chairman Richard Jolly said.

Individuals gave a combined 75.6 percent of the total. With bequests,
that rises to 83.4 percent.

The biggest chunk of the donations, $96.82 billion or 32.8 percent,
went to religious organizations. The second largest slice, $40.98
billion or 13.9 percent, went to education, including gifts to
colleges, universities and libraries.

About 65 percent of households with incomes less than $100,000 give to
charity, the report showed.

"It tells you something about American culture that is unlike any
other country," said Claire Gaudiani, a professor at NYU's Heyman
Center for Philanthropy and author of "The Greater Good: How
Philanthropy Drives the American Economy and Can Save Capitalism."
Gaudiani said the willingness of Americans to give cuts across income
levels, and their investments go to developing ideas, inventions and
people to the benefit of the overall economy.

Gaudiani said 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 percent. No. 2 Britain
gave 0.73 percent, while France, with a 0.14 percent rate, trailed
such countries as South Africa, Singapore, Turkey and Germany.

Mega-gifts, which Giving USA considers to be donations of $1 billion
or more, tend to get the most attention, and that was true last year
especially.

Investment superstar Warren Buffett announced in June 2006 that he
would give $30 billion over 20 years to the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation. Of that total, $1.9 billion was given in 2006, which
helped push the year's total higher.

Gaudiani said that gift reflects a growing focus on using donated
money efficiently and effectively.

"I think it's also a strategic commitment to upward mobility exported
to other countries, in the form of improved health and stronger civil
societies," she said.

The Gates Foundation has focused on reducing hunger and fighting
disease in developing countries as well as improving education in the
U.S. Without Buffett's pledge, it had an endowment of $29.2 billion as
of the end of 2005.

Meanwhile, companies and their foundations gave less in 2006, dropping
10.5 percent to $12.72 billion. Jolly said corporate giving fell
because companies had been so generous in response to the natural
disasters and because profits overall were less strong in 2006 over
the year before.

The Giving USA report counts money given to foundations as well as
grants the foundations make to nonprofits and other groups, since
foundations typically give out only income earned without spending the
original donations.