This is America: The less likely you are to give back to your community, the more you give back to your community

Ryan Streeter

Which parts of our civic fabric are the strongest? We, the Tocquevillian Americans that we are, know that our communities, neighborhoods, churches, social networks, and associations are the cords that hold our beloved Republic together - more than business, more than government, more than anything.

But which threads within that fabric are the strongest cords?

Despite the bad news from a new Labor Department report showing a drop in volunteering last year, the data on volunteering show that we are still a nation of givers - people who sacrifice their time to make things better for others.

But what is most interesting is this: the greater our reasons for NOT volunteering, the more likely we are to give of our time to help others. 

The chart below shows this to be the case. Consider this:

• If you're employed, you have less time to volunteer...but you do so more than those who aren't working.
• If you have a bachelors degree, you're more likely to be working...and you volunteer more anyway.
• If you are a woman and you're married, you're more likely to have a bunch of commitments, many of which probably involved managing children in whose life you're more involved than your husband...and yet you volunteer more than your unmarried peers and the man in your life.
• If you're in the prime of your career, between the ages 35-44, you are super-busy in every way professionally and personally...and yet you volunteer the most.

This is America. The less likely you are to give back to your community, the more likely you are to give back to your community!