Who is the thief?

Gregory the Great tells us what’s wrong with Libertarianism:

“Vainly, then, do those suppose themselves innocent, who claim to their own private use the common gift of God; those who, in not imparting what they have received, walk in the midst of the slaughter of their neighbours; since they almost daily slay so many persons as there are dying poor whose subsidies they keep close in their own possession. For, when we administer necessaries of any kind to the indigent, we do not bestow our own, but render them what is theirs; we rather pay a debt of justice than accomplish works of mercy.”

Much of what Americans regard as “charity” is, in fact, restitution.  Much of what we call “property” is, in fact, theft.