Shortly after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Congress passed a bill to compensate the families of the victims. More than 98 percent of the families of those who died filed claims, and by June 2004, the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund had authorized payouts to more than 5,000 people, totaling almost $7 billion. The average payout for a death claim was $2 million.
 This government funding was a mistake. Though well intended, it was unnecessary and counterproductive, and set a truly bad precedent. Before the government’s fund had cut its first check, we Americans had given generously to help 9/11 victims’ families. Within 10 months, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office, we had given $2.4 billion to various charities, which, in turn, distributed roughly $1.6 billion of that money to the victims and their families. Of course, some of the funds went to those injured in the attack. Assuming that even $1 billion went to the families of the approximately 3,000 killed, that amounts to more than $330,000 per person. The same thing happened following the Asian tsunami in December. Individual Americans had given millions before the U.S. government had sent a penny.
One of the first things I noticed about Americans when I moved here from Canada is how incredibly generous they are. The average American, according to the British magazine, the Economist, gives more than one weekly paycheck to charity each year, the highest rate in the world. Though the Economist didn’t say why, I will: It is because we have more economic freedom than most other countries, and that freedom has made us wealthy. Our wealth, in turn, has led us to share. Also, because our welfare state is less extensive than that of most other rich countries, we do not wait for government. Instead, we create communities that support our members. Author Alexis de Toqueville noted this fact as early as 1835.
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