Even misers are generous when they have other people's money to give. That's why foreign aid is not the best indicator of the generosity of a people. More indicative is private giving. President Bush recognized this today by stating: "The greatest source of America's generosity is not our government; it's the good heart of the American people." But media reports on the Indian Ocean tsunami relief efforts have maximized public giving and minimized private giving. Might this have something to do with the number of cheapskates abroad? Anecdotally, any waiter or waitress will tell you this is true when it comes to tipping. Statistically, the percentage of the gross domestic product spent in donations in various nations tells us this is true too. Donations in terms of the absolute dollar amount and in terms of the percentage of gross domestic product are greater in the United States than in just about every country in the world. Strictly as a percentage of GDP, U.S. private giving--excluding religious donations--exceeds private giving in Mexico by 25 to 1, Germany by 12 to 1, Italy by 11 to 1, Japan by 7 to 1, and Jan Hegeland's Norway by 4 to 1. Who says we're stingy?
We are "stingy." There are two standards, private giving or government giving, and it's mutually exclusive. Now, if George Bush had the cajones to say we'd rely on just private giving, then yes, we'd be way ahead. But he didn't have the cajones. And when they said we were stingy with only the $35 million the govt gave, George cut off his singular cajone and up'd the giving to $350 million! Let's all keep the flags at half mast for a week or so in memorial to George and his missing balls.
Obi Juan is an idiot. Obviously, at the very least, he did not donate anything to the crisis, and probably did has not paid any income taxes to help pay for the $350 million. Mutuallly exclusive? I don't think so. In both cases, it came from my earnings.
The US is somewhere in the middle of the pack for emergency aid, does pretty well on measures like trade protection and allowing in migrants, but remains very stingy in terms of development aid –and that’s including private flows. See here for more.
