On Charity and Giving

I subscribed to the Freakonomics blog RSS because, though not consistent, Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt often post interesting ideas. Here's their latest post and a piece from the post that I had not thought about previously:

5. Friends and I often have discussions about the ancient religious command to tithe, or give at least 10 percent of your income. One thing I find interesting about such discussions is a point that never comes up: that when tithing was first instituted, there was nothing remotely like the current tax system, whereby 30 or 40 or even 50 percent of your money was already being “donated.”