In the last post on this Blog, I attempted to start a
discussion about one particular aspect of being a citizen: that as such one
must put some ‘skin in the game.’ We
talked a bit about the meaning of that phrase and came to the conclusion that
its origin may have been in the world of finance, and may have been mostly used
to indicate the commitment of an inside executive of a company. In other words, if that inside executive used
some of his or her own money to purchase company stock, he or she would be
known as having ‘skin in the game.’
Taking that concept to a broader definition, we applied some key
elements to the phrase ‘skin in the game’ as it might apply to a societal
(political) movement, and came up with a few like:
v voluntary
contribution
v
investing directly with some
self-risk
v
a charitable or selfless motivation
v
a sense of obligation
At this point, it probably makes sense to ask: how are we
doing as citizens and as a leading democratic society in the area of meeting
our obligations as citizens? How much
are we investing ourselves in activities and organizations that promote a
service to others? And, how are we doing in terms of our overall commitment to
national and community service? I’ve
picked out a few general categories by which to measure ourselves:
Contributions to political campaigns, Voting, Charitable works, and Volunteerism.
Let’s have a look:
CONTRIBUTIONS to
Political Campaigns:
The Nation.com reports somewhat shocking statistics
related to the effects of the SCOTUS Citizens
United decision:
§ Only 26,783
Americans donated more than $10,000 to federal campaigns in 2010—or, about one
in 10,000 Americans. Their donations accounted for 24.3 percent of total
campaign donations. [Sunlight
Foundation]
§ Average donation from that elite group was $28,913. (The
median individual income in America is $26,364) [Sunlight Foundation]. Amount the Karl Rove–led Crossroads GPS claimed
it would spend on the 2012 elections: $240 million. [On the Media]
§ A shocking 72 percent of political advertising by outside
groups in 2010 came from sources that were prohibited from spending money in
2006. [Committee for Economic Development]
§ In 2004, 97.9 percent of outside groups disclosed their
donors. In 2010, 34.0 percent did. [Committee for Economic Development]
§ In 2012, totals in all elections included 2,354,232 individual
contributions totaling $610,515,819.
§ In 2014, there were 3,103,280 contributions totaling
$1,124,379,388 (Followthemoney.org).
§ Out of the total number of eligible voters, that would
mean that in 2012, less
than 11% actually made a campaign contribution, and probably less than
that since some of those 2.3 million donors probably gave more than once.
VOTING Statistics (from Statistic Brain Research Institute)
Total number of Americans eligible to vote 218,959,000
Total number of
Americans registered to vote 146,311,000
Total number Americans voted in 2012 Presidential election 126,144,000
Percent of Americans who voted in the 2012 Presidential
election 57.5 %
[Want more Voter
Registration by Demographic stats.? – see http://www.statisticbrain.com/voting-statistics/]
Top Reasons Cited for Not Voting
Too busy
conflicting schedule 17.5 Illness or disability 14.9
Not interested 13.4
Did not like candidates or issues 12.9
Out of town 8.8
Don’t know 7.0
Registration problems 6.0
Inconvenient polling place 2.7
Transportation problems 2.6
CHARITABLE ACTIVITY:
Giving
by individuals makes up the vast majority of contributions received by
nonprofit organizations. Giving
USA 2015 estimates
that individual giving amounted to $258.51 billion in 2014, an increase
of 7.1 percent in current dollars from 2013. This accounts for 72 percent
of all contributions received in 2014.
Source: Giving USA 2015: The Annual Report
on Philanthropy for the Year 2014 (Chicago:
Giving USA Foundation, 2015), p. 26.
VOLUNTEERING:
(Numbers in thousands)
September 2012 September 2013 September 2014
Number
Percent Number Percent
Number Percent
Total both sexes....................... 64,513
26.5 62,615 25.4
62,757 25.3
Men.................................... 27,238
23.2 26,404 22.2
26,375 22.0
Women
.................................
37,274 29.5 36,211 28.4
36,381 28.3
Age
16 to 24 years 8,776 22.6
8,466 21.8 8,469 21.9
25 to 34
years.........................
9,513 23.2 9,118 21.9
9,291 22.0
35 to 44
years.........................
12,527 31.6 12,098 30.6
11,783 29.8
45 to 54 years......................... 12,777
29.3 12,184 28.2
12,204 28.5
55 to 64 years......................... 10,619
27.6 10,191 26.0
10,331 25.9
65 years and
over...................... 10,301 24.4
10,558 24.1 10,679 23.6
Race and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity
White................................... 53,778
27.8 52,685 27.1
52,201 26.7
Black or African American............... 6,316
21.1 5,637 18.5
6,094 19.7
Asian................................... 2,524
19.6 2,525 19.0
2,513 18.2
Hispanic or Latino ethnicity............ 5,635
15.2 5,838 15.5
5,982 15.5
Educational attainment
Less than a high school diploma......... 2,177
8.8 2,204 9.0
2,100 8.8
High school graduates, no college ...... 10,527
17.3 10,138 16.7
10,075 16.4
Some college or associate degree........ 15,832
28.7 15,562 27.7
15,494 27.3
Bachelor's degree and higher ........ 27,202
42.2 26,244 39.8
26,619 39.4
The national government’s Corporation for National and
Community Service (that oversees programs like VISTA, AmeriCorps, the Senior
Corps including Foster Grandparents) boasts about its website that it is “home
to the most comprehensive look at volunteering and civic life in the 50 states
and 51 cities across the country.” Here
are the “Quick Stats” it presents for your consideration:
·
In 2013, one in four adults (25.4 percent) volunteered
through an organization, demonstrating that volunteering remains an important activity for millions of
Americans.
·
Altogether, 62.6
million Americans volunteered nearly 7.7 billion hours last year. Based on the Independent Sector's estimate of the
average value of a volunteer hour, the estimated value of this volunteer service is nearly $173 billion.
- More
than 138 million Americans (62.5 percent) also engaged in "informal
volunteering" in their communities, which includes helping neighbors
with such tasks as watching each other's children, helping with shopping,
or house sitting, and more than a third (36.3 percent) are involved in a
school, civic, recreational, religious, or other organization.
- The
top volunteer activities included fundraising or selling items to raise
money (25.4 percent); collecting, preparing, distributing, or serving food
(24.2 percent); providing transportation and general labor support (19.6
percent); tutoring and teaching youth (18 percent); mentoring youth (17.3
percent); and lending professional and management expertise (15 percent).
- Volunteers are almost twice as likely to donate to charity as non-volunteers. Nearly eight in 10 (79.2 percent) volunteers donated to charity, compared to four in 10 (40.4 percent) of non-volunteers. Overall, half of all citizens (50.7 percent) donated at least $25 to charity in 2013.
We can definitely learn some valuable insights from these
raw statistics:
1)
We are a charitable nation; we do give large amounts of money
and time to causes and politics.
2)
We have a core of volunteers at about 25% of the population
who keep coming back to serve others year after year.
3)
Interestingly, the % of those volunteering by various age
or racial groups does not vary to any great degree, but lack of education seems
to be a very influential factor in terms of less giving, voting and
volunteering.
4)
Individual charitable contributions are at the core of
our giving – a huge 72%
5)
As a nation, we are pretty generous when one sees the
amount given in total charitable contributions in 2014 -- $358.48 billion
dollars – plus the amount our volunteer hours contribute - $173 billion!
6)
For all levels of educational attainment, volunteers were
most likely to volunteer for religious organizations, followed by educational or
youth service organizations.
But here’s the rub: we are NOT necessarily
world-leaders in terms of our degree of involvement by our citizens. Here are some other items to consider:
A.
We seem satisfied to have just 25% of our population
carrying the heavy need for volunteer work on behalf of others.
B.
We seem satisfied with an electorate that too often votes
in numbers below 50% of those eligible to vote, and we seem satisfied that only
66.8% of eligible voters are even registered to vote! Both
Sweden and Australia, for example, manage to get more than 96 percent of their
citizens on the books. The Swedes pull this off through virtually automatic
enrollment. Plus, the Swedes maintain a
national database that includes the name, address, place of birth, and marital
status of each individual.
C.
We seem to be a nation that is comfortable with a
military made up of young men and women who volunteer their service on our
behalf – a total of 1,429,036 on active duty (and another
1,100,000 in reserve). Yet that number
on active duty is only about 12% of those men and women who are eligible and
fit for military service, and about 4.4% of the total population. Reporting on this in 2011, the NY Times warned that less
connection between the military and the rest of society could lead to
less-informed decisions about whether to go to war, because conflicts and the people
who fight them are not part of most people’s everyday lives.
D.
As a nation, we have allowed our electoral system to
become infected and overwhelmed by the insidious dominance of large
contributions from the richest individuals and corporations. Individual and public tax contributions are
not driving the system as they should, and the SCOTUS decision on Citizens United has left us with legal
bribery by unknown donors as our accepted standard. It is beyond disgraceful; it is appalling.
What needs to be said and recognized, in conclusion, is
that we have the framework and some of the concepts that are needed for a
revolution in our attitudes toward national and community service. What you may not know is that the Corporation
for National and Community Service touts one of the most important truths of
our system of governance: “Volunteering and civic engagement are the cornerstone of a
strong nation.”
And, little noticed outside the field of voluntarism is
the tremendous effect that one of their early programs-- called “Learn
and Serve”-- has had on our school-age young people. The idea of volunteer work as part of the
secondary school curriculum and activity (and its subsequent emphasis on
college campuses) -- – now called “service learning” -- has engendered a sense
of community service and volunteering as important facets not only of
citizenship, but of life itself.
If Hillary Clinton and/or Bernie Sanders want to change
this country in a way that can have some lasting effects for all of us, then I
suggest we add this to the national debate.
We need a national
and community service initiative that implants the concept of service to
the people of our nation and our communities as a necessity of citizenship; and
let us not forget our relationship to the world at large. The CNCS used to house the Peace Corps until
the Reagan years, when it was moved over into the Department of State (where it
probably belonged at that time) although one could question whether it got the
attention it deserves in that environment.
I am suggesting the inauguration of a movement
toward national and community service that places some obligation and
responsibility upon all citizens. I hesitate to use
the word “mandatory” but I believe that such service is as vital, crucial and
integral to our political, economic and spiritual well-being as any rights or
protections that we so vigorously proclaim.
So Bernie – here’s a thought: if you believe in single-payer health care
and universal suffrage as rights and not privileges, how about touting a belief
in universal service to this country as an inescapable responsibility of
citizenship?
And Hillary – if you believe, as I know you do, in the
importance of family leave and women’s rights such as equal pay, and in the
right of all children to a world-class education, how about adding the giving of
service to community and nation as a responsibility incumbent upon all who can
reasonably serve?
And for all those right-wing candidates on the Republican
side, I have something for you as well: if you believe in the responsibility of each
individual for his or her own welfare and advancement, how about providing a
platform for every citizen to help, assist, create and mentor that
responsibility. And if you believe that
every citizen has the responsibility to contribute to the welfare of this
nation, not taking a handout but putting forth effort to pay taxes, get an education,
be responsible family members and contribute to the economy, then how about
getting on board the national service train because the volunteer efforts in
this country are worth $173 billion last year alone, and they result in demonstrable
PERSONAL GROWTH. And, if every citizen
is giving back to their country in one form of service or another, they will be
contributing to their own advancement and to the welfare of other citizens and
non-citizens alike.
This national service movement is not a liberal or
conservative idea – it is an American idea, with ideological principles and
outcomes integral to each side of the political divide. So get on-board. Here’s an outline of my thoughts about this:
A.
NATIONAL SERVICE INITIATIVE
1)
Urge Upon All Citizens
beginning in grade school: the equivalent
of 4 years or 4,000 hours of community service donated over a lifetime or all
at once
a)
Make it mandatory for
some as an obligation to this country
(1)
Undocumented
immigrants who want to earn a temporary visa and eventual citizenship
(2)
Anyone on parole or
probation
(3)
Anyone sentenced to prison
(4)
Anyone in juvenile
detention
(5)
Anyone convicted of a
crime against persons or property
(6)
All corporations or
businesses that receive tax dollars as a subsidy, rebate, incentive, or
government contract
(7)
All persons who earn
over $1 million the majority of which income has been derived from the coffers
of government or the pocketbooks of ordinary citizens (and non-citizens)
b)
Provide Incentives to
volunteer for all citizens who do not already have access to:
(1)
Tax breaks
(2)
Scholarships
(3)
Grants
(4)
Loans
(5)
Stipend payments
(6)
Job training and
internships
(7)
Child Care
(8)
Transportation
(9)
Healthy food
(10)
Tutoring
(11)
Mentoring
In other words, this national service program
is also an opportunity to provide volunteer help to certain of the volunteers
themselves to enable them to volunteer in the service of others, and to enrich
their own lives at the same time. It has
already been demonstrated by the CNCS that community service is a two-way
street that provides rewards for the nation, the recipients of services and for
the volunteers who provide them. It’s a win-win-win proposition!
c)
Expand Choice of
service
(1)
A Good Works Corps –
dedicated to the revitalization of inner city communities
(2)
Neighborhood watch –
not spying on others, but watching for, mentoring and developing future leaders
(3)
Mentoring – an
indispensable tool for assisting in the positive development of young people
(4)
Expand CNCS programs –
they are all worth expanding because they are proven to pay dividends
(5)
Establish stipended
Volunteer Internships – start internships off on the right foot by paying
something right away to people involved in training and continue stipend until
a wage can be paid
(6)
Citizen Advisory Groups
within public offices – we need ordinary citizens in the offices of government
at all levels as auditors, advisers, and advocates for citizens
(7)
Allow CNCS to certify volunteer
programs as qualified for required years or hours of national service
(8)
Allow informal
volunteering to count toward quota – as above, define what these entail
(9)
Voluntary Military
Service must be counted toward national service
d)
Expand the Corporation
for National and Community Service
(1)
Combine all current
and new domestic programs under one roof
(2)
Consider bringing
foreign programs such as Peace Corps under the CNCS if that would be productive
and protective of these programs, and assure that goals and purposes are
aligned between foreign and domestic programs
(3)
Bring in other
volunteer programs that are now independent (if feasible) as Affiliates of
National Service, such as:
(a)
Big Brothers-Big
Sisters
(b)
Meals on Wheels
(c)
Habitat for Humanity
(d)
MADD
(e)
Volunteers for America
(f)
AARP
(g)
Global Vision
International
e)
Expand Database to
include all volunteer statistics (encrypt personal data)
f)
As CNCS does now,
expand efforts to involve all levels of government, as well as the private
sector in the monetary and in-kind support of these efforts
In essence, under this plan (except for the Military), the Corporation for
National and Community Service would become a clearinghouse, a trainer of
trainers, a repository of data and of resources, a broker, an advocate and a
certifier of appropriate volunteer service as well as the certifier of those
who meet their obligation of years or hours of national service. However, instead of emphasizing only the aspect
of meeting a quota, it
would be the mandated duty of CNCS to broaden the concept of giving back to
one’s nation and community as a life-long endeavor and responsibility. It would be incumbent upon this agency to
make real the aforementioned concept that
“Volunteering
and civic engagement are the cornerstone of a strong nation.”
Do we need to
remind ourselves of that potent phrase used by John F. Kennedy in his First
Inaugural speech – it should be familiar -- and a national service movement
should make it another cornerstone of its call to service:
“Ask NOT
what your country can do for you; ask what YOU can do for your country.”
Going back
even further to our origins, have we Americans lost sight of Thomas Jefferson's sense of active citizenship? If a government body gives rights to the people, then those same people have
certain responsibilities to uphold. This would be most obvious at a country or nation-state level, but could also be of wider scope
(global citizenship). The implication is that an active citizen is one who fulfills both their rights and
responsibilities in a balanced way. (Wikipedia)
I end this posting by saying that this proposal
is but an outline of possibilities, and a work in progress. There are other plans out there that should
be considered. Here are just a few links
if you are interested in pursuing this subject further:
https://www.opm.gov/about-us/doing-business-with-opm/small-business-program/ --parallels some of the concept but for small
businesses
