Just imagine... What if governments and economies drew it's support from a volunteer workforce rather that employees supported by taxpayer money? Can you imagine the trillions of dollars that could be completely eliminated from the federal budget, and more importantly, our deficit?

If 1 million New Zealanders can produce $3.31 billion dollars of measurable worth through volunteer efforts in one year; then 300 million Americans could produce nearly $1 trillion dollars of worth in 1 year. That's over 1/3 of our federal budget!

Bottom line: We need to be a nation of producers, not consumers.

http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/promoting-giving-and-generosity-crucial-d...

ComVoices, an independent network of more than 20 Sector organisations, is calling on New Zealanders to think about how they can give during a time when many communities are struggling.

"Giving both time and money is about making a choice; it doesn't require people to be rich, or to have more spare time than others,"

Volunteering is one way that more than one million New Zealanders a year give, contributing 270 million hours of work a year - worth almost $3.31 billion to New Zealand communities.