The Giving Tree

Lent.  Christians are now in this 40 day period in the church year leading up to Easter. For Christians, Lent is a time to prepare for Easter, to deepen one's spiritual life through prayer, scripture reading, fasting and alms giving, a time for self-examination and introspection.  What kind of a person am I and what are the impediments that keep me from being better?  For many Americans, the hard to admit answer is money. Try Mark Chapter 10 on for size.

The little book, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, is a life lesson in sacrifice for others couched as a children's book. It's a story of a boy - young man - old man and "the giving tree".  All through the man's life, the tree gives and gives and the boy takes and takes until in old age the boy realizes his self centeredness. Yet the tree continues to give, finally, its stump as a place to rest.  A timely Lenten lesson.



Last year I posted "Don't Stop Giving", which urged continued charitable giving despite the changes in the federal tax laws. But .. sad to say, charitable giving did drop significantly in 2018.  I believe that most people do not give for the tax break, but clearly there is a percentage that does exactly that.

The tax laws pushes many people who formerly itemized deductions into a standard deduction filing.  Roughly 25 million fewer tax payers itemized in 2018. That of course does not mean they are not donating to charity but rather they are doing so without a tax benefit and the data shows the giving amounts were reduced.

The 2017 tax law disincentives charitable giving. "Trickle down" tax policies, where the rich are rewarded with the expectation that this windfall will be passed along the those less fortunate is a trope that has been offered and accepted over and over again with the same results.  The truth is, "thems whats gots keeps."  When John D. Rockefeller was asked: "How much is enough?" His response was: "Just a little bit more". The camel through the eye of a needle comes to mind.  Before you dismiss this attitude as the sole purview of the super wealthy, bear in mind that in the eyes of the rest of the world, compared to themselves, most Americans are rightly in the Rockefeller category.

Roughly 70% of charitable giving comes from individuals. In 2018, gifts between $250 & $999 fell by 4% and gifts under $250 fell more than that. The total number of givers also declined. 

We were also assured that the tax windfall to large corporations, reducing corporate tax rates from 35% to 21%, would be passed along to employees. The claim was the new tax structure would yield $4k-$9k individual wage increases and the rich would not benefit at all. Instead, the most frequent corporate action has been massive executive bonuses and stock buybacks, ($1T[rillion] in 2018. This exceeds the annual total of R&D spending for US corporations for the year.) The point of stock buybacks is to drive up the stock price, which disproportionately benefits the stock-option holding executives and wealthy stock holders.  On the other hand, wage increases logged in at 2.7% in the first two years of the Trump administration compared with 5.8% in the prior two years.  The bottom of the wage pyramid fared even worse, a 0.4% increase (~$56).

But in my mind, the most outrageous outcome of this tax law is the impact on our children and grandchildren - the out of control deficit, which suddenly seems not to matter.  However, future taxpayers will face a deficit increasing by $1.9T over the next 10 years. So much for fiscal conservatism. And now we are told, corporations need yet another tax cut in 2020.

So, to we who have so much I offer a plea to give and give generously. To your church or a charity(s) that serves those in need.

Food shelves especially need replenishing after the holiday seasons.  Food insecurity impacts 40 million Americans, 11 million children.     https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/facts

"We who have much should be willing to share. It is not (only) for the poor, but for ourselves that we might become less narrow, less frightened, less lonely, less self-centered."     David Foster Wallace

There are hundreds of Bible verses on our obligations to the poor, the other.  If you were to be a Biblical issue based voter, you would be well to focus on serving the poor.

Copyright © 2020 Dave Hoplin

1 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-tax-bill-is-one-year-old-here-are-the-winners-and-losers/