Americans More Generous Than Welfare-State Europeans

[Geee]

Investors Business Daily:

Benevolence: A European either living off or managing a nanny state would say that Americans' contempt for welfare regimes is based on greed. But if Americans are so selfish, how can they be so charitable?

 

In no European economy are the people more generous with their own money than the people of the U.S. According to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development data, which have been thoughtfully assembled by Cato scholar Dan Mitchell, the total of Americans' voluntary social spending reached 10.2% of GDP in 2009, the latest year for which numbers are available.

 

The only country that is remotely close in its generosity is the Netherlands, where the total was 6% of the nation's economy. Only two other nations, Canada and the United Kingdom, exceeded 5%. The U.K. totaled 5.3% of GDP, Canada 5.1%.

 

The rest hardly even register on the chart. The French totaled a mere 2.8%, the Germans 2%. Greece, Italy, Norway and Spain all failed to break the 2% mark.