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In a Letter to the Editor to the Wall Street Journal, one of my favorite economists (and Libertarian), Professor Don Boudreau over at Cafe Hayek, gets it EXACTLY right concerning taxes, charity, and those that conflate / confuse the two (emphasis mine):

Jack Kinstlinger alleges that Tea Partiers are motivated by “greed and selfishness” and “reject what is fundamental to our religious teachings – that it is our duty to help those less fortunate and that we cannot live in isolation but are part of a larger community” (Letters, Oct. 23).

I have no idea what motivates the typical Tea Partier, but I do know that opposition to a heavy-handed government is not evidence of “greed” or of the absurd belief that human beings are not “part of a larger community.”

There’s a long tradition of classical liberalism – boasting names such as Adam Smith, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Madison, Jefferson, Tocqueville, Macaulay, Gladstone, Cobden, Mencken, and Hayek – based on the understanding that forced “charity” is not generosity; that no agency better serves the narrow and anti-social goals of the truly greedy than does the state; and that individuals left to regulate their own affairs with a minimum of interference from government will create extensive and deep patterns of social cooperation that are far more effective at meeting human needs than will any bureaucracy or program imposed by the state.

Indeed – those that "special interest" the Government are almost ALWAYS…

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Once again, back to the email well.  This came from a while ago, where one person was complaining, as a taxpayer, about the entitlement mentality (emphasis mine):

There are no “ifs” about it…its was a failure the moment it was conceived…what we are being pushed into is an escalation of class warfare…I’ve stated many time publicly that I resent the poor…anyone can be poor…it takes a responsible minded person who wants more out of life to do what is necessary to be a productive citizen that doesn’t drain the life out of the rest of society…certainly we need to take care of those that CANNOT take care of themselves, but we MUST stop this entitlement mentality…free cell phones paid for by those of use that pay our phone bills, free cars for people on welfare so they can find a job, EBT cards instead of those humiliating food stamps, free and subsidized rents, etc…

There was one person that got very upset, saying that due to circumstances beyond their control, the Safety Net was used and this person felt quite put upon.  However, I differed, and this was my reply:

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