Great piece. Simple answers:
1. America is still more selfless than any nation on earth. We all need to remember this from time to time when castigating our own.
2. This is all different depending upon where you are in the US. As someone who has lived in rural and urban communities, it’s clear to me that the rich and/or the urban, either by virtue of narcissim or selfishness or graft from the gov’t trough, are not volunteering. The poor, religious, small town folks raised with values DO volunteer. Is this over-simplifying? Perhaps, but overall, very true. Michael Moore, for example, gives nothing to chairty, yet takes and takes and lies and lies.
Remember this fascinating John Stossel piece a few years back?
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JohnStossel/2006/12/06/who_gives_to_charity
