The power of private charity

Hmmm, this sounds familiar:

My liberal friends often accuse me of being uninterested in helping the less fortunate simply because I'm conservative. Since I'm not interested in forcing public funding of the government's social programs, they insist, I must want poor people to suffer.

'Tis not true.

And this:

First, I don't believe an individual's commitment to helping the less fortunate can be measured by the amount of money one thinks the government should take from others. Having money taken from you does not make you charitable.

I would only slightly alter it:

Having money taken from you at the point of a gun does not make you charitable.