My contribution was to provide a quote from an early US statesman whose beliefs about charity seem different from yours.

Obviously things change. Robin Williams once said 'The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses." She's got a baseball bat and she's yelling, "you want a piece of me?"' Maybe the change in thinking about charity mirrors that.

In the interests of balance: since last year AIG has been bailed out to the tune of >$120bill. The latest "George Bush" aircraft carrier cost just over $6bill. IOW bailing out one insurance company in one year cost about the same as 20 nuclear aircraft carriers- which is quite a few when you consider that the US Navy only has 12 in service. The total banking bail-out has cost well over 100 nuclear aircraft carriers in the last year which also is quite a few when you consider that the US navy has only ever built 66 aircraft carriers of any type. Against that background, surely investing some billions to support productive people who had a strong work ethic but lost their jobs because bankers (and AIG executives) got greedy, is not too much to ask? IMHO the prospect of millions of resentful impoverished capable Americans being marginalized by other Americans is as real a crisis as any other. But that's just MHO.