The Forum > Article Comments > On philanthropy, especially in Australia > Comments
On philanthropy, especially in Australia : Comments
By Don Aitkin, published 10/7/2013Not only is Australia not like the US, but no country of which I am aware has a philanthropic culture like the US - and there's a good reason.
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You raise some interesting points, but I think there may be other factors at play. It is not only Australia that lacks a culture of philanthropy compared to the USA, but also much of Europe and, most relevantly, the UK. Our comparative stinginess reflects an ideological inheritance from the mother country, not a different pattern of economic development.
In particular, I think philanthropy is necessary and moderating counterpoint to the USA’s individualistic culture and comparatively under-developed state sector. In social democracies we expect the state to care for the disadvantaged and provide cultural public goods like museums and art galleries. We also expect the rich to contribute disproportionately to these activities, but they do so through comparatively high and more steeply progressive taxation. In the USA the rich person’s obligation to the community is expressed as a personal and voluntary duty, and far less through state-mandated redistribution, hence its traditions of philanthropy.
In general, across rich countries there is an inverse relationship between taxation as a percentage of GDP and philanthropy.
Which system is best depends on your ideological predispositions, I suppose. State-mandated redistribution seems to deliver more resources to the disadvantaged and public uses, but I wonder if something is lost when responsibility for others is a legal inevitability rather than a moral duty.
This is mainly an issue for the rich. The percentage of Australians who give money to charity is amongst the highest in the world, but the percentage of GDP donated is smaller, in part I guess because we do not have as many very large donations by the rich.