Upvoted, thanks for clarifying. I agree with

I don't want to push the culture in a direction toward hostility to valuing fuzzies. I think it's great if we can learn to be more rational in the pursuit of our goals, but anyone whose goals include trips to Disneyland for cancer patients doesn't have anything more to be ashamed of than someone whose goals include a new pair of shoes.

Several points here:

1. I agree with Holden's posting Nothing wrong with selfish giving - just don’t call it philanthropy (though I find the negative connotation of 'selfish' attached to the phrase 'selfish giving' unfortunate). I think that people who are interested in making the world a better place should allocate some of their resources with an eye toward maximizing their positive impact.

2. As I've said elsewhere, I think that there's a fair amount to the points that Yvain makes in his Doing Your Good Deed For the Day and do think that it sometimes happens that people's willingness to help others is diminished by their existing charitable activities.

3. I'm all for people feeling more fuzzies.