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Comment by TheOtherHobbes | Hacker News Reader

The fundamental moral basis of the US is that some people are born better than others.

If you have money, you're one of the chosen ones. The more money the better, without end. The losers who don't have money are not your problem. If they were as superior as you are they'd sort themselves out and have money too. But they don't, and of course that just proves how inferior they are.

It's absolutely an 18th century aristocracy with Internet.

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This simply doesn't match the facts. For example, the United States ranks near the top of the World Giving Index, which certainly wouldn't happen if "the losers who don't have money are not your problem". Importantly, this is a man-on-the-street level index, not a government spending index, meaning it more or less assesses the charitable attitudes of the people in various countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Giving_Index

Other countries have more functional social safety networks, so lesser emphasis is put on individual charity to compensate for environmental failings. To give you an anecdotal example, where I’m from American way of going about charity is often perceived as a form of virtue signalling/paying off your sins.

It does match the facts. It is not uncommon for Americans to need GoFundMes for major medical procedures.

If it were the case, we would not have had 1st post illegal immigrant generation do better than those whose parents were born in the United States.

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