Americans give over $300 billion per year to charities, and the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are the peak donation window. Salvation Army bell-ringers hit the sidewalks, vacant strip mall storefronts transform into Toys for Tots depots, and local newspapers feature stories about poor children gratefully receiving new shoes.

All this occasion-specific giving betrays a paradox at the heart of our political culture. Once a year people with cash to spare demonstrate a collective awareness of the severity and immorality of economic inequality. Animating the seasonal generosity is a notion at odds with prevailing ideology: namely, that something is wrong with the way our society distributes wealth. The phenomenon of Christmas giving is a large-scale admission that many are unable to attain modest comforts even though they deserve them.

Millions of people who donate to charity are otherwise stubbornly invested in capitalist meritocracy, and tend to associate wealth with ingenuity, dedication, and moral hygiene. Although the majority of Americans who make more than $50,000 per year — apparently the rough cutoff for having enough discretionary income to donate — believe that poor people have it easy, they also donate en masse each year, in recognition that poor people have it hard. Republicans are more likely to donate to charity than Democrats, but they’re also less likely to believe that people are poor for reasons beyond their control. Nearly half of all Christians — who are more likely to give to charity than the non-religious — say that poverty results from a lack of effort.