U.S. ranks 10th in study of ‘most thoughtful countries’

If Santa is checking his list for nations this year, the United States is definitely in the nice column: A new study ranks the U.S. as the 10th-most thoughtful country in the world.

Philanthropy, equality and family support are the three main factors that got the U.S. into the top 10 of the Most Thoughtful Societies Index 2021, published by the Berlin-based greeting cards app MyPostcard. The company compiled data on every nation from various sources including the World Bank, the Council on Foreign Relations and proprietary surveys.

“It is interesting to see how certain factors relate to one another and therefore can tell a lot about the situation of both funding and political policies within each country,” Oliver Kray, founder and CEO of MyPostcard, said in a press release. “This suggests that countries around the world understand the importance of funding high-quality education and health care to improve the quality of life of their inhabitants.”

The nine most thoughtful countries in descending order were the Netherlands, Canada, Finland, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Germany, Iceland and Ireland.

The U.S. received an overall score of 93 out of 100, placing it just ahead of Switzerland.

Mr. Kray noted that the U.S., “in spite of having the largest economy in the world, ranks inside the top five for only four” of the study’s 14 categories, which include social program benefits, volunteerism and child care, among others.

“For its economic size and global significance, one would expect to see the USA dominate more categories,” he said.

Jeffrey S. Debies-Carl, an associate professor of sociology at Connecticut’s University of New Haven, called the MyPostcard study “very important” but criticized its use of the word “thoughtful” for social welfare programs.

“I think one significant problem with calling this ’thoughtfulness’ is that it implies individual-level decision making that isn’t really represented in most of the data,” Mr. Debies-Carl told The Washington Times.

“For example, ’charity’ might reflect individuals being thoughtful, but ’social security benefits’ and ’healthcare’ are much more complicated structural issues,” he added.

Mr. Debies-Carl also was surprised the U.S. did not rank higher on a list of “nations that are particularly affluent, urban, post-industrial and stable.”

“To some extent, this could be a source of national pride. On the other hand, given our nation’s wealth and prosperity, I think it’s a shame we didn’t do better,” he said.

The World Giving Index, an annual analysis of World Poll surveys from Gallup by the British nonprofit Charities Aid Foundation, lists the U.S. as the 19th most generous country in 2021 — a decline from the No. 1 spot it held in 2019.

Jim Alvey, vice president of disaster recovery and philanthropy for the charity Good360, said the U.S. would have ranked higher in philanthropy had the MyPostcard study’s charity category included data from in-kind contributions.

“Americans are not selfish about their giving and understand the need for global support,” he said.

Mr. Alvey said Good360 has donated more than $1 billion in retail and manufacturing products this year to address “need gaps” in the areas of child wellness and health care, education, gender equality, racial inequality, housing insecurity, domestic violence, care for the elderly and “other challenging social issues.”

He also noted that the U.S. leads all other countries in international humanitarian giving.

In August, an oversight report from OpenTheBooks.com found that the U.S. continues to spend more on foreign aid during the COVID-19 pandemic than any other nation.

The report said the U.S. spent $282.6 billion on foreign aid in 2013-2018, or $47 billion a year, and the 2021 U.S. international affairs budget that includes foreign aid and other international operations funding — but not defense funding — was more than $60 billion.

Recent data also show that wealthy Americans continue to give to charity at high rates during the pandemic.

The 2021 Bank of America Study of Philanthropy, a random national sampling of 1,626 wealthy U.S. households with a median income of $523,472, found in September that 88.1% of them gave to charity in 2020.

“In fact, one in three of the households surveyed increased their giving to support pandemic efforts,” Bank of America noted.

Jack Fowler, director of the Center for Civil Society at the nonprofit fundraising consulting firm American Philanthropic, said this charity should have earned the U.S. a higher ranking in the MyPostcard study.

“This study equates government programs with charity. So did Ebenezer Scrooge, defender of the Poor Law and workhouses,” Mr. Fowler said. “When it comes to direct generosity and real charity meeting real needs, America and Americans are number one. We are a nation of good Samaritans.”

The MyPostcard study determined an overall thoughtfulness score for each country by calculating the sum of the weighted average score for each of 14 categories.

Philanthropy categories included charity, international donations, Social Security benefits, public service funding, compassion and volunteering. The U.S. averaged 95.36 in these philanthropy categories.

Equality categories included health care, education, gender equality, minority equality and social mobility. The U.S. averaged 88.59 in the equality categories.

The U.S. averaged 71.52 in the family support categories of elderly support from family, elderly care from the state and child support.

Karene A. Putney, who founded the Etiquette Etiquette business consulting group in Maryland, said thoughtfulness is ultimately a question of basic manners.

Mrs. Putney, a 2019 graduate of the Protocol School in Washington, D.C., wrote in an email that the essence of thoughtfulness lies in “consideration, kindness, compassion and building a solid relationship.”

Her husband and business partner Lee Putney, who trains businessmen in sales etiquette, added that thoughtfulness is the ability to feel empathy and “goes hand in hand with a thoughtful environment” that the U.S. still provides despite its challenges.

“The Founding Fathers’ legacy is the promise of liberty and justice not only for Americans but for any people willing to invest in democratic self-government,” Mr. Putney said.