American generosity makes UN's 0.7% GNP targets look miserly

Not exactly a surprise - though it's a reminder (UN) that generosity in other countries often gets outsourced using taxpayer funds (IBD via SmallDeadAnimals):

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.