Liberals often tend to describe America as a greedy and selfish nation driven by Hyper individualism and a capitalistic nature that clearly shows little concern regarding the common good or others worldwide.
This idea undoubtedly pervades America’s culture. According to a 2015 survey, 68 percent of Americans described themselves with the word “selfish,” which is the top negative trait.
On the other hand, and by possibly every measure, Americans are more generous with their money and time than anyone — including Europeans. American charitable giving indeed surpasses the entire GDP of several European countries.
When it comes to donating to charitable causes, Americans donate around seven times as much as continental Europeans per capita, according to the Almanac of American Philanthropy. Per individual, regardless of the differences in household income, Americans donate ten times as much of their income as the Italians, five times as much as Germans, three times as much as the French, and twice that of Italians.
Only Five Percent of American donations come from corporations and another fourteen percent from foundation grants. Over eighty percent of charitable giving comes from individuals. Moreover, this charity can widely be found deep within society. Each year, twelve out of twenty households in the United States of America give to a charitable cause, with each home typically donating somewhere around $2,000 to $3,000.
The entire nation is self-sacrificing and selfless. The more religious the US population, the more it is willing to give. In addition, even forty percent of secular Americans donate to charity, which, still, is better than most European nations.
The wealthy and the poor alike are indeed among the most generous people in the United States. In other words, Americans with low income are just as generous as the wealthy and donate more than most of the middle class. Wealthy Americans, Unsurprisingly, are the most givers, with the top one percent of the income earners contributing a third of all charity. And 1.4 percent of the wealthiest Americans are responsible for almost all charitable donations made at death.
Regardless of the stereotypes about the selfishly prosperous, wealthy Americans always pitch in whenever the nation is struggling. For instance, During the COVID-19 pandemic, nonprofit organizations saw massive increases in charitable donations from wealthy Americans. Nationally, grants to food assistance programs, including food banks, were up 667 percent and 800 percent in the hardest-hit mid-Atlantic states.
During the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Middle- and working-class people donated to their local charities, even as they struggled. A Bloomberg report showed more than 750,000 transactions to more than 100,000 charities.
Critics of the United States often argue that most charitable donations are given to religious groups and are consequently state obligations rather than selflessness. This also is a myth. Americans usually contribute three major causes that include household essential social services, charitable organizations, and health care.
Europeans may undoubtedly argue that they automatically donate to charity in high taxes that fund big social safety nets. However, in overall spending, the data shows not much difference between the United States and other developed nations, with each redistributing 20 percent of GDP. Once combined with the huge amount of charity, American generosity can’t be compared with other nations. The only difference is that most of the American donation is not a state obligation.
Many American celebrities and business people were among those who donated their time and money to Australian fire relief efforts in 2020. A majority of the donations to rebuild Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral came particularly from Americans. The church officials told the New York Post in June 2019 that the wealthy French who promised to give hundreds of millions of dollars to help rebuild the cathedral hadn’t paid a cent.
Instead, regular Americans had emptied their wallets in hopes of resurrecting Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral — with an estimated 90% of donations coming from the United States of America.
Americans were very generous toward the Parisian house of worship because the monument is very loved in America, said Michel Picaud, president of Notre Dame charity. Only a few French donors had contributed to the rebuild, while their wealthy countrymen remained on the sidelines.
Unlike the Europeans, who rely on the government to do their charity for them, Americans rely on communal and local help. These American cultural habits have created a society that both values and leans heavily on charitable causes.
David Harsanyi is a senior writer at National Review, whose work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, and numerous other publications. He is the author of Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent.
