Anyone doubting Americans’ charity should visit the Rockaways in Queens. Volunteers from all over the city and beyond have descended upon the devastated communities, providing cash, supplies and assistance to locals marooned in waterlogged homes without food or power. They are helping to fill a void in the government’s sometimes plodding response to the disaster wrought by Hurricane Sandy.

“The government is doing its own thing,” said Brett Scudder, a community advocate from Far Rockaway who has been walking up and down the boardwalk, helping coordinate the relief effort. “They must get things approved. We don’t have time for that now.”

Roy Niederhoffer, a hedge fund manager who lives on the Upper West Side and who has been delivering aid across the area, suggests that private citizens have a big role to play. “We can’t rely on the government for all of this.”

Ten days after the big storm hit New York, donations to aid the relief effort exceeded $116 million.

The outpouring of support highlights how central a role charity plays in our social contract — we Americans view ourselves as generous, yet we mistrust the government to help those in need. Our trust in charity is uniquely American. We pay less tax as a share of our income than citizens of virtually every other rich economy in the world. But we contribute more to charity than citizens of any other country.