Religion In US 'Worth More Than Google and Apple Combined' (theguardian.com)

A new study says religion in the United States is worth $1.2 trillion per year. Not only is that equivalent to the 15th largest national economy in the world, but it's more than the combined revenues of the top 10 technology companies in the U.S., including Apple, Amazon and Google. The study, "The Socioeconomic Contributions of Religion To American Society: An Empirical Analysis," was conducted by Brian J. Grim from Georgetown University and Melissa E. Grim from Newseum Institute. The Guardian reports: The Socioeconomic Contributions of Religion to American Society: An Empirical Analysis calculated the $1.2 trillion figure by estimating the value of religious institutions, including healthcare facilities, schools, daycare and charities; media; businesses with faith backgrounds; the kosher and halal food markets; social and philanthropic programs; and staff and overheads for congregations. Co-author Brian Grim said it was a conservative estimate. More than 344,000 congregations across the U.S. collectively employ hundreds of thousands of staff and buy billions of dollars worth of goods and services. More than 150 million Americans, almost half the population, are members of faith congregations, according to the report. Although numbers are declining, the sums spent by religious organizations on social programs have tripled in the past 15 years, to $9 billion. The report points to analysis by the Pew Research Center which shows that two-thirds of highly religious adults had donated money, time or goods to the poor in the previous week, compared with 41% of adults who said they were not highly religious. The analysis didn't account for the value of financial or physical assets held by religious groups, or for "the negative impacts that occur in some religious communities, including [...] such things as the abuse of children by some clergy, cases of fraud, and the possibility of being recruitment sites for violent extremism."

Comments

Re:God loves you.

[gweihir]

Religion is the most vicious killer pathogen family ever. (Yes, it is a pathogen family of the type "malicious meme".) Hence its followers have been long at work to create a "big lie" to gloss over that or to make it seem justified. Of course, any sane, rational person finds out sooner or later that those afflicted with religion are full of it, but sane and rational people are in short supply. Otherwise the human race would have overcome this dangerous and infantile nonsense a long time ago.

Nope. That's biased misrepresentation.

[denzacar]

From the actual source.
https://www.philanthropy.com/a...

Religion has a big influence on giving patterns.
Regions of the country that are deeply religious are more generous than those that are not.
Two of the top nine states - Utah and Idaho - have high numbers of Mormon residents, who have a tradition of tithing at least 10 percent of their income to the church.
The remaining states in the top nine are all in the Bible Belt.

When religious giving isn't counted, the geography of giving is very different.
Some states in the Northeast jump into the top 10 when secular gifts alone are counted.
New York would vault from No. 18 to No. 2, and Pennsylvania would climb from No. 40 to No. 4.

Their presentation is biased, cause they know not that "data and finger-wagging [don't] inspire people".
I.e. It would do them no good to NOT praise religious donors by presenting them as NOT better than those donating to secular donors.
Particularly by adjusting for tax exemptions.

Tax incentives matter.
State policies that promote giving can make a significant difference and in some cases are influencing the rankings.
In Arizona, charities are reaping more than $100-million annually from a series of tax credits adopted in recent years.

Where would that "red state" end up on the "giving scale" should those $100 million per year be controlled for?
Cause is it really giving if you're making money out of it?
Which sounds a lot like making a profit.

And it gets particularly interesting when it comes to what kind of donations are promoted by the legislature - i.e. Republicans.

A second problem is that the dollar-for-dollar tax credits are available only to those charities approved by the Arizona Legislature, including religious schools.
Other charities qualify only for a state income tax deduction, worth no more than 4.1 cents on the donated dollar.

...

So the working poor and public schools can get $400 each from married taxpayers, while private schools can get more than five times as much, with a dollar-for-dollar state tax credit.

It takes about $100,000 of income to qualify for all five credits.
A married couple meeting that threshold can give $1,200 to public schools, the working poor, and military relief, plus $2,062 to private schools at no cost if their state tax liability is that high.
If they're in the top tax bracket, the couple can turn a profit of $1,292 if they itemize on their federal income tax return.

...

The most suspect part of the Arizona scheme is that it heavily favors private schools, most of which are religious, by giving not just the largest credit, but two separate credits.
Catholic schools are by far the largest single beneficiary of the private school tax credits.

When the government is favoring one group over the other it may or may not be discrimination.
Like how promoting growth of small businesses is not discriminatory towards big businesses.

But when the government sets the rules in such a way that it NOT ONLY favors the rich, but it actually awards the rich who only give to the rich with the money from the state coffers, while penalizing everyone for giving to the poor - that's quite literally taking from the poor and giving to the rich.

By Republicans.
The anti-Robin Hoods.