Re: Redistrubute Wealth?

It appears that part of my response to Rev. Halbe’s column last week sounded as though I dislike excessive wealth, that I think wealthy people are selfish, and/or that I think the wealthy should have to give their money away.

I certainly don't think any of that, and wish I'd written that paragraph (fourth from the bottom) differently: capitalism has done more to relieve poverty than charity ever has. The “Rising Tide Lifts All Boats” theory. I’m a fan.

In the offending paragraph, I was offering examples of things we can do to be more charitable with what we have without really impacting our own lifestyles. If you are Christian, then I think you have to take this seriously. If you're not Christian, I still think you should take it seriously.

But, as I tried to make clear, it’s an individual decision whether or not to do that. Nobody can make the decision for you, and I would never try. If I believed anything else, I'd probably have agreed with Rev. Halbe in the first place.

I’d have hoped people would realize, from the context of all the other hundreds of things I’ve said about taxes and wealth creation, that any other interpretation – especially a socialist-leaning interpretation – must be wrong.

Still, even in context, that part of my response obviously raised some eyebrows. Hope this clears it up.