Dear George,

I agree with Barbara Ehrenreich that the poor are generous: poor people all over the world break their budgets in offering hospitality to guests or casual visitors, and try to make it seem as if a guest's mere presence is enough to reward their sacrificial generosity. But I reject her proposition that people who are involuntarily poor become philanthropists simply because their badly paid work supports our incredibly affluent lives.

Yes, we enjoy our consumer goods, our good service at home, restaurants, and stores, and our cheap groceries and fast-food meals because we ride on the backs of the third world -- I use that term to apply to the largely voiceless poor in the U.S. and abroad. But philanthropy at its very root (the love of, or friendship for, people) cannot be coerced; it must be an unfettered choice, not an economic necessity.

Virginia Germino (electronic mail, January 25, 2002).