I will say that that's a little harsh personally. But the economic outlook of conservatives, as I have seen it stated here and elsewhere, can be boiled down to "I've got mine and to hell with you", which I would define as selfishness.

Actually, a more accurate translation is "I've got mine, and just because you want it or need it does not give you the right to take it from me without my consent." An astonishing amount of liberal "generosity," particularly in the political arena, comes out of other people's pockets.

We live under a system where wealth is confiscated from the productive at rates that would have astonished a feudal lord, and redistributed by the State to people who are taught by that same State to have contempt and hatred for the producers of that wealth. The rich are spat on as selfish bastards, and the politicians who take their money and hand it out are worshipped as paragons of the virtue of generosity.

Sometimes I wonder if that doesn't take a bit of the milk of human kindness out of some taxpayers. Maybe people would be more generous under other circumstances. Certainly the concept of generosity would be less polluted. Somehow I don't think one gets as much "merit" from dropping something in the monk's bowl if the monk is pointing a .45 automatic at you.

I won't comment on the library thing, since I know little about how the library is financed, or what this lady has to do with who pays for what. It is a lucky thing when a community is wealthy enough to provide good library services at no charge. I live in a good area, and have yet to see a public library around here that charged anything to anyone other than overdue fines or for Xerox copies. Not all communities may have that luxury.

...And then there was the church group who refused to help their maintenance man's paraplegiac granddaughter when he asked, because the medical bills are killing the family.

I can't think of anyone I know, certainly not at my church, who would possibly have said such a rotten thing.

Are these examples really representative of most of the conservatives you know?