From: "Richard Hong" 

>> I don't think the world is best improved by sacrifice. I think it is best
improved by industrial development by capitalists, scientists, and
engineers. <<

Randall,

First of all, it doesn't seem at all logical to suggest that sitting on my
ass in my spare time and keeping all of my money is better for the world
than putting some of that free time and money into sacrifice.

Second, if that's what you *really* believe, then why aren't you using your
computer skills to help train a new generation of thinkers in your spare
time?  In the last 18 months alone I've used my contacts and skills to
arrange for the donation of dozens of older PCs being replaced in
businesses, refurbished them with multimedia kits or CPU and RAM upgrades
(sometimes at my own expense and with my volunteer time) and now three area
churches have "computer labs" for their after-school programs,
two of which serve underprivileged kids (the third being my own church,
where the computer lab augments our day care center).

That isn't sacrifice which makes the world better even in your view?  I'm
sure that there's a volunteer organization near you that could use someone
to spend some spare time tutoring kids, esp. in math and science, or
implementing computer installations for them.

If you are really principled about opposing the "handout" form of
charity, there's still plenty of opportunities for you to volunteer your
time and money to give people a hand up.  But if you won't do that
*either*, then I would have to question whether you actually care about
making the world a better place for anyone other than yourself.

Rich

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