Once again, why do comfortable people get so mean about this kind of stuff? And I'm using "mean" in the English snese - tight-fisted, ungenerous.

Not in that American sense where "mean" is used for being tough and rugged and all that stuff. Scrooge-mean, not Clint Eastwood-mean.

"...I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned -- they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there... If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."