When, after the Asian tsunami, the U.S. government pledged an initial $35 million in disaster relief, a single U.S. company immediately matched it.

Pfizer, the biggest pharmaceutical maker in the world, announced a contribution of $10 million in cash to relief organizations, plus an additional $25 million worth of medicines and equipment. In addition, it pledged to match employees' relief donations dollar-for-dollar.

Pfizer remains the biggest corporate donor of disaster aid, but it's far from alone. Exxon Mobil is giving $5 million, Citigroup $3 million, and Johnson & Johnson $2 million plus medical supplies.

In fact, by Dec. 31, just five days after the tsunami hit and as the full scope of its destruction was still becoming known, U.S. corporations had pledged more than $80 million in money and supplies.

This should help put to rest the notion that corporations are inherently greedy.

It's a popular falsehood: Only governments - not individuals or companies - can be counted on to do the right thing. This notion should have been dispelled with the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the full horror of state economic control came to light.

Alas, corporation-bashing is still a trusted political tactic.

During the run-up to the recent U.S. presidential election, Sen. John Kerry accused pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer of "excessive profits." He suggested that by allowing the reimportation of U.S.-made drugs from Canada, he would save seniors from gouging by drug companies.

Blaming big corporations for society's ills may win cheap political points, but it doesn't pass the truth test. In going after drug companies, Kerry conveniently ignored Pfizer's announcement that it was giving discount drugs to the 43 million Americans without health insurance.

As detractors frequently point out, the United States, compared with other nations, gives the smallest amount of official foreign aid as a percentage of gross national income. That leaves out that the United States gives more than any other government in numbers of dollars. More important, it ignores the role of private aid.

USAID, the agency charged with distributing U.S. foreign assistance, estimates that U.S. private international assistance far exceeds official government aid. In 2000, it reports, total U.S. government aid to developing countries came to $22.6 billion, while total private giving reached $33.6 billion. Of that amount, corporations gave $2.8 billion. Foundations, usually built on corporate fortunes, gave another $1.5 billion.

The USAID Web site notes that two U.S.-based charitable foundations, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.N. Foundation - spawned by Microsoft and Ted Turner respectively - alone give about $350 million a year to international projects. Indeed, the Gates Foundation has just pledged a fresh $3 million for tsunami relief.

And the rest of that $33.6 billion sent to developing countries in 2000 came from private charitable groups, universities, religious congregations, and individuals.

This should put the lie to another myth: That if people aren't forced to fork over money to their government in taxes, they'll simply keep it all to themselves.

It turns out that American citizens, who enjoy one of the lowest overall tax rates in the developed world, also send billions abroad each year in aid. Low taxes put more money in everyone's pockets to do with as they see fit. As it turns out, they see fit to give to the citizens of much-poorer nations.

The same healthy economic environment that allows individuals to give generously also benefits U.S. corporations. The next time a cynical politician wants to use big business as a bogeyman, he should remember the rush by U.S. corporations to help when disaster struck.