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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Edwarda who wrote (43749)	7/5/1999 3:25:00 PM
From: Father Terrence	Respond to of 108807

Because it is of one's own volition and not enforced or forced upon an individual. Charity does fulfill a form of greed within a person. It is also an act which some philanthropists commit from fear, or from a combination of greed and fear. When "charity" is institutionalized by a State, and value is extracted from you by threat of force, that is altruism. It demands value in return for nothing, except perhaps that they will not confiscate your property or incarcerate you at the point of a gun. This is thuggery. When gangsters do it they call it a "shakedown" or "the protection racket". When the government does it, it is somehow transformed into something "noble".