I have to agree with John302.
It reminds me of this one time I was waiting in line to buy a cheesesteak at a shop in DC. This beggar came up to me and asked if I would buy him a sandwich. Normally, I would say "no" and go about my business. But this guy was very persistent, and I was feeling benevolent at the moment, so I bought him his choice on the sandwich board. A few hours later, I was feeling "beggar's remorse" and frankly quite stupid for being pestered into buying some guy a sandwich who probably gets free food at the shelter and uses the money he makes from spare-changing to buy booze and cigarettes. I was so pissed at myself that it was eating away at me from the inside. I couldn't let it go. A few hours later, I was bitching to a friend of mine that I let my guard down and got conned by a street pro. He said something that stayed with me to this day. He said; "Yea, you got conned alright. No doubt about it, you got taken. None of those guys are starving for food when they've got money for booze and cigarettes. But ask yourslef this: If you could switch places with that person for the rest of your life - would you? Would you like to be the guy standing in the rain, trying to con middle class people out of cheesesteak money, and then go to sleep at night on a park bench - or would you like to be the guy who GETS conned out of cheesesteak money, and then goes back to live at his nice house and wearing clean clothes and getting good medical attention?"
The point is this. I may not be rich in absolute terms. But I am definitely rich in relation to some of the poor souls I've seen walking the streets. And in that sense, I may as well be a billionaire. And so, speaking as a billionaire, let me tell you that if the governement taxed me an extra 10% on the most extraneous portion of my personal income to make something as silly as cheesetseaks for the downtrodden, I think I could muster a state of grace in my mind that allows me to enjoy the remains of my wealth inside my mansion, without bitterness.