Okay, that headline is going to have to be changed!

So, apparently Massachusetts residents aren't giving a lot of money to charities.

The wealthiest Massachusetts residents give much more of their income to charities than wealthy people in the rest of the country, according to a forthcoming report on charitable giving by two Boston College researchers. But working- and middle-class families in Massachusetts, burdened by the state's high cost of living, are not nearly as generous as families with comparable incomes nationally.

Well ... I can't agree with that last sentence, and I see nothing in the article to back up the study's assertion that it's because of the high cost of living that people are being cheap.

The cost of living and tax rate in our state limits the philanthropic ability of middle- and low-income households, relative to their counterparts in other states," according to the report, titled "Geography and Giving: The Culture of Philanthropy in New England and the Nation."

I haven't read the study, so I don't know how they came to that conclusion. I think they give the average resident too much credit.

Instead, I think it's just people's point of view. "Take care of yourself," seems to be the typical resident's mantra. "Mind your own business," is another way to put it, and also, "Don't bother me."

In some ways, this line of thought benefits us all (libertarian, in a way?) in others, it doesn't.

I think we're all just cheap.

Source: Wide gap shown in Mass. charitable giving - By Peter Schworm, The Boston Globe