This book is very much a waste of time in that the most of the book did not directly address the question posed by the title. It also went into a lot of autobiography and for someone who is interested in philosophy I find it a waste of time to learn about someone's boring life - and as a philosopher, if the most important thing you can say about your beleifs is that you have them because of your upbringing, then your beliefs are pretty worthless even if they are right and true. This guy is a communist egalitarian because his parents are communist egalitarians. Not very interesting and quite unphilosophical. This is not to say he didn't address the issue as a philospher should but that he put in too much stuff that a philosopher shouldn't. Now on to the essence of what he should have and did include:

The author, who admits he is not generous himself, does come to the conclusion that there is no moral justification for being a rich egalitarian and not giving away much of your money- there sre strong excuses such as that giving away a lot does not make that much of a difference because it won't change society as a whole - but they are not valid reasons for retaining your wealth when you think it is wrong to be so well off when others are not. What the book reveals, though without intent, is how fundamental a practice it is for liberals not have any integrity. Integrity is defined as acting in accordance with your beliefs. If you think it is wrong that rich people get to keep so much money while others do without or with little, then you should give your money away in copious amounts until you are lower middle class yourself. But rich liberals don't do this. They hang their sense of virture on the notion that they will not give unless everyone else gives - basically, they will only have integrity if everyone else is forced to have integrity.

Now imagine a preacher who condems homosexuality as an evil sin and alcohol as the devil's nectar. Now imagine by chance you meet this priest at a gay bar and he is completely drunk and engaged in homosexual sex right in the middle of the bar. And you ask that priesst, but Father, I thought you said homosexuality and drinking are sins and the priest responds, "well yes they are and I will fight with every breath I have to make the police put an end to these unholy and immoral practices through force by jailing gays cuahgt having sex and anyone who drinks, but as long as it is legal to drink and legal to screw men, I will indulge these sins as much as possible because I find no greater pleasure than being drunk and having gay sex." You would rightfully condemn this priest as a hypocrite with an incoherent and debased sense of morality. So too with the rich leftists who decide to keep their money because the government doesn't force it from them and give it to the poor.

And on a separate note, a criticsm of all leftist analyses regarding wealth and income distribution applies to this work as well. Leftist thinkers never take into account the voluntary nature of economic transactions that lead some to have more and others to have nothing or lilttle. For exmaple, the owner of Apple is super rich because leftists like to buy their Macs and ipods and thier Ipads and their iphones instead of giving that money to bums and drunks and jobless manless women who breed illegitimate kids. The inequality is created by the freedom of action - why is that wrong? But if it is, then the solution lies in leftists not buying iphones and Laker tickets and private jets, all of which make the providers of these goods richer, and giving your money to those who have less. You are free to do it.

I don't see myself as having any duty to give money to complete strangers - i see nothing wrong with making more money than most people and I have no grudge against those who make more money than me. I don't care for the poor or the sick although i wish them no ill - but if you see me as evil for not caring for the poor or the sick or the starving in Africa, then you should be acting differently than I do - that leftists in reality act just as selfishly as I do shows that they have no more integrity than the inebriated penis-loving priest.