Private Philanthropy is Bad for SocialismBy Thomas E. BrewtonThe New York Times is distressed that private philanthropists can  give money to any charity they choose.Only a socialistic Federal government is capable, says the Times,   of making wise decisions about dispensing money to achieve social justice."The flip side of American private largess is the stinginess of the  public sector. Philanthropic contributions in the United States -  about $300 billion in 2006 - probably exceed those of any other  country. By contrast, America's tax take is nearly the lowest in the  industrial world. Federal, state and local tax collections amount to  just more than 25.5 percent of the nation's economic output. The  Finnish government collects 48.8 percent. As a result, the United  States spends less on social programs than virtually every other rich  industrial country, according to the Organization for Economic  Cooperation and Development. The Finnish government probably has  money to build children's health clinics."Critics of government spending argue that America's private sector  does a better job making socially necessary investments. But it  doesn't. Public spending is allocated democratically among competing  demands. Rich benefactors can spend on anything they want, and they  tend to spend on projects close to their hearts."The real point, of course, is not that private philanthropists  misplace their donations.  The point is to move the United States  farther toward what Hilaire Belloc called The Servile State and  Friedrich Hayek called The Road to Serfdom.True socialism of the kind lovingly promoted by the New York Times  requires that all economic resources of the nation be collectively  controlled by government ownership or by regulation.  Social justice  being defined as equality of income, the Federal government must  roughly double income taxes to bring the United States up to par with  other socialist nations.The Democratic Party's presidential candidates, all liberal- progressive-socialists, have not explicitly acknowledged that goal,  but Senator Hillary Clinton's recent pronouncements ( http:// www.thomasbrewton.com/index.php/weblog/ maladjusted_managed_economies/ ) make clear the direction in which  she intends to head if elected.Thomas E. Brewton is a staff writer for the New Media Alliance, Inc.  The New Media Alliance is a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of  writers, journalists and grass-roots media outlets.His weblog is THE VIEW FROM 1776http://www.thomasbrewton.com/Email comments to viewfrom1776@thomasbrewton.com