tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post13035343437145119..comments2023-06-15T09:13:45.467-04:00Comments on Liberty's Torch: Wealth And EnvyFrancis W. Porrettohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05862584203772592282noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-52992730180161906442016-12-12T15:53:47.418-05:002016-12-12T15:53:47.418-05:00My strategy for the giving tree is to give only ne...My strategy for the giving tree is to give only necessities such as clothing or a gift card for a grocery store. Once saw a request for and Xbox or Playstation. What gall!<br /><br />As for envy in general Lao Tzu also had something to say - a truly rich man knows when he has enough.<br /><br />Again, charity and gratitude begin at home and are at lease just as important to teach as the three R's.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-59649329262765151402016-12-12T07:57:44.584-05:002016-12-12T07:57:44.584-05:00I long ago reached the inevitable conclusion that ...I long ago reached the inevitable conclusion that we have confused fake charity with real charity. It's been no less harmful to our society than confusing credit for capital. Real charity makes people feel better. The giver feels better because someone else has been helped, truly helped, and that always feels good. The recipient feels gratitude. Real charity connects people. Real charity is always person-to-person, and it's always completely voluntary, much like the real version of free trade. Fake charity has a third person in the middle, coercing the givers to give and forcing the takers to take. Fake charity has many forms, with various levels of coercion inflicted on the giver. It can be the giving tree at church, your manager at work compelling you to give generously to the company's favorite charity so they can meet their company goal, or it can be the government's wealth redistribution via taxation. Fake charity makes the givers feel resentment at the taking, whether through guilt or shaming at church or at work, or through the implied violence of the government that will be applied to tax scofflaws. The fake giving of fake charity leaves the giver feeling resentful, because they weren't allowed to give freely. They had fake charity extracted from them via guilt or at the barrel of a gun. For the giver, fake charity feels more like a mugging. Fake charity also deprives the recipient of any good feelings as well. The recipients of fake charity feel the resentment too. They resent the fact that some intermediary must steal on their behalf to force a more equal outcome. It accentuates the differences between people and engenders a sense of envy and entitlement. Fake charity drives a wedge between people and divides us. It's inherently divisive. Fake charity kills real charity. After someone has something taken to be given to someone else, they have less to voluntarily share and they feel less like sharing. On the other side of the equation, the recipient of real charity feels gratitude toward the person who voluntarily shared what they had, but the recipient of fake charity feels no such gratitude to the nameless and faceless intermediary in the wealth redistribution. Instead, they feel resentment of their status and a sense of cultivated entitlement that begets more fake charity and more entitlement and more envy.<br />Liberty4Everhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10991932345322858593noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-26645373516965450252016-12-11T15:03:09.917-05:002016-12-11T15:03:09.917-05:00I'd never thought of A Christmas Carol in term...I'd never thought of A Christmas Carol in terms of the Cratchitt's lack of envy.<br />Now that you have written this, I'm going to have to put envy on my Sin of the Month list - it's the monthly focus on a character defect that I work to defeat that month.<br />Probably will never completely overcome my faults, but I do find it both humbling and personally enriching to try.Linda Foxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15024201252345608291noreply@blogger.com