Acts of kindness

I was wondering why people aren't nicer to each other. I for one really appreciate it when someone is nice to me. Any act of kindness makes me feel a better. I wonder is it that life is hard so we become hardened to it's pain? Or am I wrong, are acts of kindness common? Or maybe I just don't associate with the right people?

And then there's the other side of it. Me being kind to others. Can I make a difference? I don't believe in some grand cascading effect as in the movie "Pay It Forward." But I wonder if people respond at all. If you pour yourself into kindness, filling a well so to speak, does it come back to you or does it simply leach out into the great nothingness. I think the act of being kind has to stand on its own with nothing in return. In that regard and in many other ways I think how much a person has to give has a great deal to do with how much love and kindness they received as a child.