I suspect that that rankles proponents of America's welfare state because they say that wealthy (and middle-class) people need to be forced to help the poor, needy, and disadvantaged.

That's, of course, what the income tax, the IRS, and the welfare state are all about — forcibly seizing the money of people to whom it belongs and then giving it to people to whom it does not belong — under the guise of mandatory "charity."

The force comes with the Internal Revenue Service, one of the most vicious and tyrannical agencies in U.S. history. If you don't pay your income taxes, the IRS will come after you with a vengeance with audits, garnishments, attachments, and arrest, prosecution, conviction, and incarceration. When it comes to paying your income taxes, you don't have a choice. The income-tax system, which funds the welfare state, is mandatory, not voluntary.

That means, of course, that when the government purports to help people with the income-tax loot, the assistance does not come from the willing heart of the individual. Since people are forced to pay income taxes, the assistance is in reality mandatory.

Interestingly enough, proponents of the welfare-state way of life — including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, education grants, farm subsidies, and more — have convinced Americans that a welfare state reflects how good, caring, and compassionate they are.

But nothing could be further from the truth. When people are forced to care for others, there is no goodness, care, or compassion involved. There is only compliance and obedience in response to taxation mandates from the government. Pay … or else suffer the consequences.

The only genuine charity is that which comes voluntarily — that is, from the willing heart of the individual. That applies to helping parents, relatives, friends, churches, poor people, or anyone else who one might wish to assist.

Needless to say, the difference between force and voluntary is night and day. Coerced "charity" is not charity at all. It's instead akin to political stealing and then helping someone with the loot.