This is really touching. My impression was that in the US government is not going to step out to help the poor, but there is a lot of private charity that helps

This is really touching. My impression was that in the US government is not going to step out to help the poor, but there is a lot of private charity that helps people. Isn't that the case? I guess I might have idealized picture of American society, but I always though that giving back to the others was consider to be some kind of duty?