[Perndog]

Okay. Back to the fact that my original statement referred to the majority of humanity, and I'll put it in terms of actions, as you seem to prefer:

For most people, helping with disaster relief, whether you send money or go help build a house, is "being a good person" rather than compassion. People do it because it's the thing to do, not because they feel in any significant way for the victims themselves. Everyone's doing it, society expects it, it feels good, and it gives you a shiny Good Guy Badge to show your friends if you're into that sort of thing. Some people feel compassion for the random people on TV and act on it, and these people help push the social expectations. But they're the minority.

Now in today's situation, acting out of compassion would be reading the article at the top of this thread and sending the woman money to pay her hospital bills. She's in a bad place, and she could use some help. How many people do you expect will do that? Some, sure. The same small minority who put everything they had into hurricane relief because they felt sorry for those people. But in this case, there's no social expectation, so compassion is the only motivator, and what do you know, most people aren't going to help, because they don't really care about her.