To follow up somewhat on David's comments.
The US is the most generous country in history; but, you wouldn't know it by looking at some statistics provided by institutions such as the UN because the don't count private giving--only the government's percentage of GDP.
Here are some stats on private organizations involved in various types of giving:
-500,000 churches, synagogues, and mosques
-37,000 community service agencies affiliated with United Way
-27,000 private foundations
-3,300 voluntary hospitals, national associations such as the Red Cross, Salvation Army , Alcoholic Anonymous and the like.
-Thousands of suicide prevention centers
-5,000 volunteers work for Recording for the Blind
-5 million people in 20,000 community crime watches
-7,000 farm cooperatives
-9,000 miscellaneous cooperatives
-700,000-800,000 mutual aid groups of all sizes that donate time to aid fellowman such as aid to the blind, diabetes, the crippled,etc.
-The Civil Air Patrol has 60,000 members and 7,000 aircraft.
-In 2012 Philanthropy organizations gave $312 billion to private charities.
So, one can see there are a tremendous number of people involved in helping their fellow man here in the USA. Of course, this doesn't count what other things we do for overseas countries through private organizations. We just don't stop and really analyze how much giving Americans do. I would rather see the federal government get out of it completely, with maybe exception of military, and turn charity assistance to the private sector.
Dee