Boo! Humbug. In a letter to "Dear Prudence" this morning a wealthy person on the "modest" side of one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the country (the side with more "doctors and lawyers and family business owners" as opposed to the neighboring "billionaires, families with famous last names, media moguls") complained to the advice columnist that poor children were coming to her/his neighborhood to trick-or-treat. "We already pay more than enough taxes toward actual social services", claimed the aggrieved party, admitting they felt guilty for these thoughts but reiterating that Halloween isn't a charity. Let them eat cake. Prudie's response?"There you are... on the impoverished side of Greenwich or Beverly Hills, with the other struggling lawyers, doctors, and business owners. Your whine makes me kind of wish that people from the actual poor side of town come this year not with scary costumes but with real pitchforks. Stop being callous and miserly and go to Costco, you cheapskate, and get enough candy to fill the bags of the kids who come one day a year to marvel at how the 1 percent live." You don't need a particular agenda or ideology to agree with her on this point; this is just a matter of simple politeness versus miserliness. Attitudes like the ones held by this cartoonish candy villain are what breeds so much resentment and animosity amongst people today. It's also the reason that everyone's self-entitlement and self-righteousness has contributed to a level of societal dysfunction where everything is political (Halloween and welfare are now easily conflated, something that would have been a wild jump thirty years ago) and we tear at the simple traditions that unite us, fostering more division. And, oh yeah, it's how Marie Antoinette lost her head.