Are the French Less Charitable than Americans?

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• Many of the debates I hear against public health care in the United Sates focus on the idea that illegal immigrants will be able to access health benefits. That doesn’t sound very charitable coming from the richest, most powerful country in the world. If you are an immigrant without papers in France (they call them “sans papiers”, not “immigrés illégaux”), you can get access to the French healthcare system for just €30/year (and it was free until 2011, but due to the rising health care deficit they decided to ask for a token payment). The French can be just as rabidly xenophobic as Americans, but I didn’t see anyone in Paris marching on the streets against health care for impoverished illegal immigrants.

• I think that it's important to point out how the deductions are made in both countries. In the US, you deduct the amount of your giving from your taxable income, so you don't pay taxes on that amount. In France, you deduct the allowed percentage of your giving, say 66% for most things, directly from the taxes you owe. If I give 100€, I pay 66€ less in taxes. That's a big difference from just deducting $100 from my taxable income and not paying tax on that amount. It feels to me like I'm getting more of an incentive in France because what I'm really doing is directing where a portion of my tax money goes.