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I've worked since I was 16 years old and never had more than a two-week vacation (when I got married). I get up at 5 in the morning and don't get home until 7 or 8 at night. Nearly 50% of my income is taxed, most of which goes to people who do not work. Yet I am seen as the greedy, selfish one who needs to give more to help the needy.

I'm sure many other hard-working Americans are in the same boat. If it wasn't for the wife and kids, I'd sell what I have and buy a cabin in the woods where I can spend the rest of my life fishing and watching the clouds roll across the sky.

Yet I am seen as the greedy, selfish one who needs to give more to help the needy.

Sam, this is the philosophical issue with taxes. If I could keep even one half of what I pay in federal income taxes and give only one half of that away, I could do more with that one fourth than the federal government will ever do with the entire amount.

Government has unjustly usurped the role of charity in this country. It's bad for a number of reasons.

Government is inefficient at it and becomes bureaucratized and impersonal in dealing with those in need.

Even more so, however, the older I get the more I realize that this is an evil. That is, this is an assault against the dignity of the individual who wants to be charitable in accordance with the two great commandments.

That aspect is immoral.

Yep. I average 280 hours a month to attempt to live the American Dream. That’s nearly 2 full-time jobs. And no, I don’t sleep much, nor get time with the family or much vacation.

What the heck am I chasing again?