It is a myth that there are huge numbers of working-age Americans who don’t pay federal taxes. As your own cite indicates, “just 14% of households pay neither income nor payroll tax and two-thirds of them are elderly.”
I don’t donate to NPR but I donate to MPR because if I’m listening to radio, I’m listening to the Current.
(I support that station too)!
[slight hijack]
I used to be skeptical/annoyed about fundraising mailings in general, particularly ones that came to me when I’d already given money . . . . and then I worked at a non-profit arts organization. Not only are those mailings vital for revenue generation, but the costs to print and bulk mail thousands of letters is really quite small. Your letter probably costs 50-60 cents, materials and postage included.
At my organization, we sent two mailings a year, one in November, and one in April. The November mailing would be the “large” mailing, sent to a large group of people fitting certain criteria, including people who had given us any money within the last three or four years. In April, I’d use the same criteria, excluding anyone who gave money between November and April.
So, if you gave money between April and November, you’d get two solicitations a year from us, and if you gave between November and April, you’d only get one. Maybe not perfect, but it ensured that at one point during the year we knew we were sending communication out to all of our, er, constituency.
[/slight hijack]
For the same reason that others have to pay for all kinds of things that they’d rather not like military action in Iraq or farm subsidies or various congressional investigations. That’s how it works. No one agrees with 100% of the Federal Budget. What an insanely stupid question.
To answer the OP, I donated to NPR when I listened to them but I don’t listen to them anymore.
For a few years I didn’t, thinking that although I have it saved as a programmed button in my car, I never really listen to it. But then I realized just how much of my daily commute I really do spend with it on, and if I have to run out on the weekends I always try to catch Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me or one of the other quiz programs, that I figured I should pony up.
So yeah, now I do (WNYC in NJ).
I don’t donate to our local station, but I donate to public radio podcasts–This American Life, Radiolab, and 99% Invisible.
Mom annually donates to WDAV, because she feels NPR music stations are under supported compared to talk stations.
Hi-Fidelity member of WBEZ in Chicago- great station!
Also give to Wisconsin Public Radio.
I’m a sustaining member of both Colorado Public Radio (based in Denver) and KUNC, which is based in Greeley. I listen to the former more than the latter, but KUNC starts All Things Considered an hour earlier than CPR does, and on the weekends I can switch from *Car Talk *to whatever’s playing on the other one. Other than Colorado Rockies’ baseball games, almost all of my over-the-air radio listening is through NPR.
I’m very, very glad NPR exists, and my support of it is a very small price to pay for what I receive in return.
Yes, I donate every year to KPBS, San Diego, which is really the only station I listen to now. For music, radio just doesn’t seem to be the best option anymore.
Same. I’m a sustaining member of Minnesota Public Radio and listen to the Current most days. I grew up in MN but live in Chicago now.
This attitude is part of the reason government is so jacked up in America.
I should be forced to give money to a radio station because other people are unhappy? Talk about the insanely stupid.
That’s not what I meant at all. The point is that the budget is massive and it goes to many thousands of things. No one is going to be happy with all of them. Do you seriously not comprehend that? That’s how it works in every democracy that has ever existed.
That’s not what you meant at all? Really? Other people being forced to pay for wars and farm subsidies as justifying why I should be forced to pay for a radio station. Is there any other possible interpretation besides “tough luck, other people are unhappy too?”
Again, I’m asking a specific question and I’m getting generalities about the budgetary process. I’d like a specific, compelling reason why I should be forced to give money to a radio station if I don’t wish to.
Ookay, let’s crank through the math then.
Federal income tax revenue was 42% of the total in 2010: Corporate income taxes made up 9%, excise taxes 3%, other 6%. Note that the general public partly pays corporate taxes via higher prices and certainly pays excise taxes. Just to correct a popular conservative myth. Set aside payroll taxes (40%). Given 2.4 trillions of total revenue gives us $1.44 trillion of non-payroll taxes. That’s $1,444,000 million. 18/1,444,000 = $1.247e-5 or 0.000012. Multiply that by a tax bill of $50,000. Again, I’m assuming an affluent person that pays more in federal income taxes than many Americans earn in a year. That comes out to 62 cents per year for NPR, and most income tax payers will pay far less than that obviously.
Thousands of dollars: bizarre and wishful whining.
So it’s inconceivable that Michael Bloomberg has paid more $2,000 dollars his entire lifetime towards NPR?
But all that’s a dodge. Even a cent being forcibly extracted from an individual to pay for a fucking radio station is outrageous. Not money to pay for infrastructure or to support public education; not money for foreign aid or to support public health, but for a radio station.
Because you live in a representative democracy. The elected people of congress come up with a bunch of compromises that end up in budget allocations. That’s it.
Do you have a compelling reason why I have to give money to subsidize corn farmers in Iowa?
What is your alternative? I’d really like to know.
Technically it’s programming for many thousands of radio stations across the country and enough members of Congress thought that it was educational or worthwhile in some way.
Have I ever insisted you subsidize farmers in Iowa?
My alternative is not to be forced to pay for a radio station if I’d rather not.
That members of Congress think it is worthwhile is not a compelling reason that I should be forced to pay for a radio station, or programming for a radio station, etc, etc.
I mean really, you’re clearly a very smart person. Can’t you think of at least 5 examples of really bad decision making on the part of Congress off the top of your head? To say nothing of terrible decisions made by other deliberative bodies.
I’m not insisting that you pay for NPR either. When have I ever done that? In our system we all have to pay for everything. What is your alternative to that?
So the question really isn’t about why you should pay for it. The question is why does Congress choose NPR as something to fund. I suppose that differnt members of Congress have their reasons. Some like the programming. Some might have cut deals so that their pet projects get funded too. Some don’t bother reading the fine print and didn’t even realize that they were funding it. Since it’s relatively such a small amount of money, some don’t want to waste time on that battle.
There are loads and loads of things like that in the budget, many way more frivolous than radio programming.