>You keep forgetting that the majority of donations and aid from the U.S. come from her citizens as private donations, not public money. That has always been our way throughout history.

On the other hand, I don't believe that any country reports as its (own) "foreign aid" those dollars provided by citizen's private donations.
In cases where a government may give funds to some "NGO" (like CARE or whatever) then I can see that $$$ being included in government reporting.

I think it was with the tsunami that the Canadian government said it would match every dollar given privately. But it was never clear if it was to go to the same beneficiaries as the original donations or to their own efforts.


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>>>Riiiight. Ok so it's only .17% of our GNI - but its still the HIGHEST dollar amount of any country. So we give more $ than anyone - yet it's still not enough huh? Maybe instead of the Netherlands giving .81 they whould try to give 10.0 so you guys can catch up to us.
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>>Lets see, the US has approx 18-20 times the number of dutch citizens. So how would you expect giving more than the US?? Our GNI simply is much less. All has to be seen in proportions, and that is not too favourable to the US.
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>>Anyways, the argument was whether the US is exceptional generous in terms of financial aids. The answer is: not compared to other western countries.