Who is really selfish (or does he mean greedy) ?

Donald J. Boudreaux of the brilliant economics department at GMU has posted a response to his letter in the NYT which calls for lower taxes. The response ends with

I am probably in the top 10% of earners. I am perfectly happy to pay more than people of modest means. It is the obligation of a responsible society.

I hope George Mason students are not learning the virtues of selfishness.

The first paragraph states that since the writer is happy to pay more taxes then ALL people should be forced to pay higher taxes. I used to think the same thoughts during my leftist days. However, this idea is based on the notion that people that are rich are lucky. This is not true. People who are rich have worked hard to attain their wealth. In a free society, an individual should NOT be forced to send all of his earnings to Washington to spend on wars, poorly design flood walls, and a failing school system. If these three subjects were left to the private sector, 2,500 dead soldiers would be alive today, New Orleans might have been saved, and our children would be getting a much better education. The obligations of a responsible society is not to force others to spend money on things they disagree with.

The second paragraph resorts to name calling. The leftist will usually use the terms selfish, greedy, etc. to describe economic conservatives. Here I will leave to Mr. Boudreaux to defend the “righteous” economic conservatives who retorts with the following against his detractor…

I assume -- I truly do -- that my correspondent is a decent human being. I would not say to him "I hope your children and friends and co-workers are not learning from you the virtues of greed" -- I would not say this despite his obvious preference for a government larger than one that I believe is optimal -- a government that, I believe, greedily takes from the unorganized and gives to the rapaciously greedy organized -- a government that officiously assumes that it knows better how individuals should conduct their lives than these individuals know.