-When I say that we can do what we want, since we’re Americans, I don’t literally mean that we’re lawless. More that we ignore what something we do might do to someone else.
-When I say we’re closed-minded, I mean in the western world. That was a mistake on my part, and the article has been edited to reflect that.
-Giving something up to another person doesn’t have to be in the form of cash. I was referring to it in a more figurative sense.
-Your statistic about charity is very interesting. I don’t think it takes anything away from the reality that we’re very reluctant to give up anything for someone else, but it was definitely something I hadn’t heard before. Not that unusual either when you think about it. Out of curiosity, do you have any source with actual numbers on it? I don’t doubt that what you say is correct, but I’d love to have some concrete info so I can use it in the future.

You say colonial Americans had no sense of entitlement – why do you think they were so vehement about independence in the first place? A rather enormous factor in the events leading up to the revolution was America’s refusal to pay taxes, i.e., help Great Britain out with the exorbitant debt it amassed after covering America’s ass during the French & Indian War. Now tell me that isn’t a sense of entitlement! America has never been as altruistic as you claim. Also… 80% of the population really just didn’t give a crap either way. Since we’re now talking about a mere 10% of Americans who were ready to fight for their right to be free, to cite “the colonial American” is a gross generalization.

“Legal and moral lines are no longer factored into the equation. We can do whatever we want, since we’re Americans, and we’re free.”
Yes, because America today is such a lawless society. Oh, those halcyon days of 1776 when we had no military, no police force, no constitution, no universal suffrage…

“Like our commenter, the majority of Americans feel their opinion is paramount to all else, and they insist that they deserve the right to force others to hear it. As a society, Americans are about the most selfish and closed-minded people in the world.”
Closed-minded? Well, last I heard, we weren’t the ones sentencing gays to death and orchestrating mass rapes of women.

“Thus is the conundrum of capitalism; both the wealthy and the poor man will decry the government’s favoritism towards the other, neither willing to give up anything for his fellow man.”
Poor people donate a greater percentage of their incomes per year to charity than anyone else, and rich people donate millions of dollars per year (and thus comprise the majority of the overall contribution)! The middle class is the group hat believes it can’t afford to give away money. But that’s besides the point. Giving away money doesn’t fix anything – it’s just like churning up a bunch of mud and letting it settle back down. If you give a homeless person ten dollars, the only thing you’re doing is affirming their poverty and enabling them to live that way. So sure, if you want to keep poor people poor, go ahead and throw money at them.