- This is philanthropy at its best.

In the book Getting America Right, I offered example after example of how private philanthropy delivers services to the poor and needy (both in America and across the globe) more effectively than the government.

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates understand this important lesson.

But they also understand that they are in an incomprehensible financial minority in the world. They realize that 99.9 percent of the people on the planet couldn’t possibly give away 85 percent of their total worth. But the beauty of philanthropy is that you don’t need to be Warren Buffet.

Some of the best examples of Katrina relief come from churches and volunteer groups who gave millions of hours of time and millions of dollars to assist Gulf Coast victims. In one case, a group of volunteers came into an area for three weeks, rebuilt homes and schools, and also brought a “boatload of love and energy” to the task, as a Katrina victim attested.

In any disaster, it’s not just about money or time—it’s about the kindness and passion of the delivery. My wife and I devote annually a set amount of time and money to the Free Wheel Chair Mission which delivers unique all-terrain wheel- chairs to developing countries. Our donations are a drop in the bucket compared to Mr. Buffett’s, but the joy we share in changing lives with the delivery of a wheelchair is the most gratifying thing we do each year.

A government bureaucrat can’t possibly share that same joy. It’s not that he or she doesn’t care, it’s that what they are giving is not their own. When we give our own hard earned money or prized time to another, we demand a return. Not a material return, but a return that improves the life of another person.

In sum, private charity outperforms public charity. Our government must work harder to find ways in which government can partner with private charities to provide more effective help to the poor. But perhaps the most important thing our government can do is to insure that we keep alive the mechanisms that made Gates and Buffett so wealthy in the first place. After all, they had to earn all that money before they could give it away.