The Gift of Giving

Fire of Liberty

With the one year anniversary of the horrific tsunami that struck Asia, one is reminded of all the folks in the UN and other world capitals calling the US government "stingy" because it didn't donate enough of its GDP to disaster aid. I guess the folks in the UN and other world governments forgot that while they sat still condemning the US and arguing over how to respond to, the US was the first government to respond to the disaster by dispatching the USS Abraham Lincoln, various support ships as well as the launching of 20 to 30 helicopters and aircraft into the zone to offer rescue support and the much needed airlift of food and medicine. Even better, the US government decided that the relief offered by the US Navy, Air Force, and Marines was much more effective than the mere donating of gobs and gobs of money into a large UN fund which would be literally wasted or pilfered away by the thugs and kleptocrats that seem to get their mits on such funds. In fact the American people tend to voice their outright opposition towards its government sending money to the UN and other world bodies by donating their money towards private charities that publicly account for their spending. The drift towards these charities and away from the opinion of anti-American elites like Jan England, UN Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs, is clearly evident in this editorial in today's edition of the Wall Street Journal. Just take a look:

Even by U.N. standards, it was a particularly absurd anti-American slur -- although it no doubt expresses the view of many foreign elites, who have come to believe that government is the only true source of goodness and charity. In the weeks and months that followed the tsunami, American citizens dug deep into their wallets, donating some $1.78 billion to the relief effort in Asia -- dwarfing the contributions of other developed nations. Since October Americans have also contributed $78 million to assist the casualties of the Pakistan earthquake.

And lest there be any doubt that the Good Samaritan ethic is alive and well in America, consider the latest totals of charitable giving to help the New Orleans victims of Hurricane Katrina. The Center for Philanthropy at Indiana University announced last week that the total value of private donations in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has reached $3.12 billion, thus "setting what is believed to be a record for a single disaster and recovery effort." This tsunami of aid dollars was donated in just three and a half months.

More astounding still is that this Gulf Coast aid is only a little more than 1/100th of what Americans donate to charities and churches every year. The quarter trillion dollars a year that Americans provide to sustain the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, the American Cancer Society, their local churches, universities and such is greater than the entire GDP of most countries. Bill and Melinda Gates have given more dollars to fight AIDS and malaria in Africa than have many nations. And all of this comes on top of the $1 trillion in taxes that Americans pay each year to support government income-transfer and benefit programs.

This generosity in money and volunteerism has been a hallmark of American society since its earliest days. Some 150 years ago Alexis de Tocqueville lauded the impulse of Americans (in contrast to Europeans) to set up churches, schools, orphanages, hospitals, homeless shelters and other civic aid organizations throughout the land.

What impels Americans to engage in such kindness to strangers? We suspect that Americans give to private charities because they recognize that these initiatives work best. Bobby Jindal, the Congressman from New Orleans whose own home was badly damaged by flood waters, tells us that "by far the most effective relief efforts have come from private charitable aid organizations. FEMA and other state/local government agencies set up bureaucracies and red tape, while private businesses and charities moved in swiftly to alleviate the human suffering on the ground."

I'm cool with the US government and its people making decisions and taking actions that get the folks in the UN upset and makes them say disparaging things about the US because it shows us that we're doing something that is probably working much better than the UN could ever think about doing. So America, keep getting under Mr. England's skin, its rather fun to watch.