According to an article in the New York Times, Feeney was "a pioneer of duty-free shops and and investor in technology start-ups." He became a billionaire. And then he donated all of his $8 billion fortune to charity. He left himself around $2 million.

America's welfare state way of life is based on the notion that the federal government is needed to force people to be good and caring to others. 

That's the idea, for example, behind Social Security. If there was no Social Security, it is said, there would be seniors dying in the streets. That's because, they say, people, including children and grandchildren, cannot be trusted with the freedom to decide whether to honor their mother and father or grandparents on a voluntary basis. They must be forced to do so through the coercive apparatus of the Internal Revenue Service and the faceless bureaucracy of the Social Security Administration.

It's the same, for example, with public schooling. If the state didn't force parents to herd their children into these governmental institutions, the poor would have no way to have their children educated. The notion that there would be people with money to help out others in need is considered ludicrous. 

And then along come people like Charles Feeney, who are more than willing to help out others with money they have accumulated.