The New York Times vs. Private Charity

There’s a piece by Stephanie Strom in the New York Times this morning that deals with whether or not to tax charitable donations.  This seems like a bit of a no-brainer to me — if individuals (or their proxies) want to give their money to good causes, they shouldn’t be penalized in the process, and, at least within the absurdly complicated tax system we currently have, tax incentives can be a useful way to encourage people to give back to their communities and the world.

What really bothers me about the article, though, is the way it treats tax dollars as "the public’s money."

[T]he Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation accounted for half on the center’s list [of $50 million-plus donations]. That money went primarily to improve the lives of the poor in developing countries. Valuable as that may be, it also meant that the American public effectively underwrote several billion dollars worth of foreign aid by private individuals, even though poll after poll shows Americans are at best ambivalent about using tax dollars in such assistance.

By saying that the public "effectively underwrote" foreign aid that it might not have supported at the polls, Strom is assuming that a a portion of the Foundation’s money is, in fact, not the Foundation’s money — that it’s everyone’s, and that you, me, Strom, your neighbor, your 1st grade teacher, and the guy behind the counter at Starbucks all have some fundamental right to that money and how its used.  This strikes me as a rather flawed and potentially dangerous view of earnings and income, and a view that borders on hostile to private charity.