Wichita Lineman--I need a small vacation, but it don't look like rain

In your semi-typical "America is the greatest country in the world" conversation someone usually brings up that the United States gives more in foreign AID than any other country. This is usually mentioned after our love of freedom (as if Europe was home to a certain "low-grade" freedom). However, maybe the United States's peformance with foreign aid isn't that special. Is it informative to know that Bill Gates contributed more to charity than your grandmother? Or is it more helpful to know that grandma gave almost 10% of her income to charity while Bill Gates gave only 2%?

Anyway...buried in a NYT article we find out that

"Yet the United States now ranks dead last among developed nations in percentage of gross domestic product devoted to foreign aid, and the political wherewithal to increase foreign aid is thus far not forthcoming."

Is it even useful to label a nation as if it were a person? This country is honorable, this country is compassionate, this country is evil? Do countries contain more or less contradictions than the people we label every day?