Average amount Americans spend on fast food each year: $500
Average amount Americans spend on charitable donations: $900
"People in our world are swimming in money, but in order to get the city's rich to give a lousy thousand dollars to the poor who are drowning in front of their eyes, you have to parade little black kids in front of them and give them party favors. I've read all of Dickens and most of Edith Wharton, but I can't recall coming across anything quite so monstrous. Perhaps I should read more Trollope."
—Felix Rohatyn, from Manhattan, Inc., April 1986
Percentage of all charitable donations that come from the top 3% of the population: 50
Percentage of wealthy American men who were motivated to give to charity by tax incentives: 41
Percentage of wealthy American women who were motivated to give to charity by tax incentives: 29
"The dynamics of it is that you say to yourself, okay, we've got to raise X money. Let's just let the ticket price rise to a thousand-dollar fee. Okay, if you're going to do that, my gosh, we have to give them a really good dinner, we have to have some really good music, we have to have a spectacular person for the entertainment, we have to have magnificent flowers, we have to give each woman a present to take home to remember that she came to this wonderful thing. That's where I think it gets out of line. I mean, wait a minute, isn't this to take in money and not give out money? You know, let's not have party favors. I think that's defeating the purpose."
—Elizabeth Rohatyn, from Manhattan, Inc., April 1986
Estimated amount Americans gave to charity in 2002: $240 billion
Percentage of which comes from individual Americans: 75
Percentage of which comes from corporate philanthropy: 12
Percentage of Americans living below the poverty line who believe that "poor people today have it easy": 31
