Is that really the case? American giving at around 2 per cent of GDR is certainly generous compared with other countries (though European ones tend to have higher taxes and more bigger welfare states). And America's richest people do give more than their share by income (one analysis of 1995 tax returns by the AAFRC showed that people who earned $ 1 million a year accounted for just under 0.1 per cent of the population but 8 per cent of charitable giving).

However, many charities argue that the real rest shouldnot be income but net worth -- and that the rich are not doing their share. Last year, Standard & Poor's composite index rose by 27 per cent, more than twice the rate of giving. The gains from the 1990s bull market have gone disproportionately to the rich, with as much as much as 90 per cent of the paper profits going to the top 10 per cent of households. Very little of these gains running into trillions of dollars has been passed on.

The most damning evidence comes from the Newthing group a San Francisco non-profit organisation, which has constructed an economic model showing how much Americans could afford to give away taking into account their assets and spending as well as their income. The model works on sliding scale, assuming that poor Americans need to increase their net worth while the richest merely want to keep it stable, after allowing for inflation and their spending. Altogether, it reckons that individuals could afford to give away some $ 242 billion more a year than they do. Half of thatamount comes from the 11,000 people whom Newtithing reckons earn more than $ 1 m a year and whose total net worth is around $ 21 m.

Certainly, Silicon Valley, the temple of much of this new money, offers mixed evidence of a philanthropic renaissance. A few billionaires, notably Bill Gates, have begun the arduous process of giving away their loot. But most high tech folks still seem slightly more preoccupied with bits and bytes. According to a 1998 report by Community Foundation Silicon Valley, around one third of households there earning more than $ 100,000 give $1,000 or less to charity. The Santa Clare Country branch of the United Way recently collapsed after donations fell short of expectations.

In many cases the problem does not seem to be miserliness so much as ignorance. As the CFSV report notes, one third of the ``high net worth'' individuals in the valley were paid with shares, but only 7 per cent gave away share, even though there are tax advantages in doing so. Whatever the reason, the goldenage still looks some way off.