And We Thought It Was For The Tax Deduction....

With a hat tip to the TaxProf Blog, I simply must post regarding the most recent compelling and ground-breaking work done by the readers of Freakonomics.  (Should H&R Block Hire Models to Increase Charitable Giving?)  Freakonomics updated its readers on its fundraising campaign for Freakonomics Radio, as follows. 

Your comments and e-mails were also a great window into a better understanding of what makes someone want to donate to a given cause or not. You pointed out incentives we overlooked, or overvalued, or undervalued. ... Here, for instance, is one my favorite comments, from a reader named Eric Kennedy:

[Y]ou forgot a primary reason why people donate to charity: to impress their attractive tax preparers. I’m not kidding. I’m very attractive and worked as a tax preparer for two years. I’ve seen this first-hand. I now find myself considering the impression I will make on my attractive tax preparer. The most effective way to boost nation-wide charitable giving, would be to staff H&R Block with models and encourage them to make comments about the size of people’s annual donation amounts.

I must agree with Mr. Kennedy's assessment, although I will neither confirm nor deny whether I have participated in the preparation of tax returns that contain significant charitable deductions...and that fact would, of course, have no bearing on my scholarly assessment of Mr. Kennedy’s observations in this regard.

EWW