Elaine Chao: Americans Are More Generous Than We Think | TIME Ideas | TIME.com

Elaine Chao: Americans Are More Generous Than We Think | TIME Ideas | TIME.com: ut in fact, people helping people is quite ordinary in this country. The layaway angels add to the long legacy of Americans’ generous nature. Last week, a worldwide study of charitable giving, by the U.K.-based Charities Aid Foundation, ranked Americans first in giving personal money, and time, to organizations and strangers. The ranking cannot be dismissed as simply to be expected of the richest nation. The Foundation’s survey report concluded that “the countries whose populations are the most likely to give are not necessarily the world’s most affluent.” Of the top 20 nations in giving, only five are in the top 20 of economic wealth.