[fountainAtlas]

"If you had said, "why should the wealthy be forced to give away their money", I'd agree with you. Are you really saying that people should not contribute to charity?"

I meant force, one should be able to do whatever they want with their money, give it away, spend it, or even burn it (Dark Night). But the way Apollia said it made it seem like they should be required to give it away.

Holding on to wealth isn't easy? The easiest way to become a millionaire may be to start with a billion, but that's not because it is so hard to make money grow. It is because making the first million dollars is times more difficult than making a second. Holding onto wealth is relatively simple as long as you're not greedy.

I think you underestimate how many people die poorer than they started. It seems that if you are not the one who earned the money you have difficulties holding on to it.

Speaking as someone who has relied on pure charity at one point in my life, the helping hand can be pretty necessary to allowing survival of people who will be productive in the future. Luckily, pure charity was there. My family and I survived, and we've gone on to provide some benefit to society.

While I can agree that charity to someone who refuses to contribute could be restrained, pure charity to people who have hit hard times strikes me as a Good Thing, far from disturbing.

I agree that in some cases it is a "Good Thing". But, the way the world works, or more importantly the way I believe it does, is that for one person who received charity and became productive there will be 10 people who will see that as an excuse to not contribute and bleed the donors of their money. On a different note, we have all received charity at one point or another, for everyone was born and for 10+ years we could not take care of ourselves.