I never said that I do not believe in charity. I just want to be able to choose which charities I donate my money to.

Sure, but Abraham said "charity for all" in his Inaugural address for his Presidency of the United States. He did not say "charity for whomever you choose and not from the US government" which seems to be what you are saying. Surely the contrast is clear.

If these people were hard-working and lost their jobs, they are covered by unemployment insurance (which is something that the business owners pay for).

It seems clear that millions of people in the US lost their jobs last year. For most people their sense of pride and self-worth is intimately tied up with employment. These people have been knocked for a six and desperately want a helping hand to get back to productive work. What you call "charity" isn't just coins tossed in a begging cap, either: it's infrastructure schemes and civic works to improve the community's lot and provide employment along the way. Whether it be a $400mill clean water project or a $1bill renewable energy scheme, it adds value to your community and provides employment. Where is the victim? IMHO this is a great time to do it bearing in mind that construction costs increase quicker than overall inflation and there is no shortage of willing workers at the moment.

I will tell you that if I couldn't find work developing software, I would go back to tending bar - or greeting people as they walk in to Walmart - anything to pay the bills.

And you'd be happy about that and you'd expect more fortunate software developers to frown at the "charity" if government tries to stimulate the economy to give you a helping hand? I'd also observe that it's easy to feel brave about a challenge we never have to face.

Personally, I think that most people are too proud to do something like that. I saw it the first time there was a crisis in the auto industry and thousands of people lost high paying jobs. They waited for another job that paid as much instead of getting re-trained or looking for another (lower paying) job.

Everything I've seen suggests that even highly paid professionals are attending job fairs hoping to score meaningful employment rather than taking a minimum-wage post, but few employers are hiring. AFAICS there aren't enough bar-tending or Walmart greeting roles to go around, so I guess we should resort to that old favorite: "let them eat cake." ;-)