Was Scrooge really that bad?

Why is it Scrooge gets such a bad rap? Could it be that Charles Dickens was a socialist? Or was he simply adorning Christian virtues of doing unto others as we would have done to ourselves? I don't know which train of thought to believe. I've never heard anyone ask it, question Scrooge's evil. But it seems to me old Scrooge had some admirable qualities. We find in him thrift, frugality, hard work and dare I say making a profit. That is, working with the intent to accumulate money for one's self. Ghastly, I know. How dare he. Now I'm not saying we should all be misers and not give to charity. I give and I believe we all should. As much as we can. But why are the buzzwords "social justice" and "equality" and "fairness"? Why do they make my skin crawl? And why does the government seem to think they have a duty to 'equalize' us? We are not rich but we work for what we have and I would never want to have anything given to us in the name of "fairness" not because I earned it.

The thing I must know which I really do not, is: What sort of economy should we hope for? If not capitalism, then what? Flawed as it may be, it seems to be the only one that works and produces real progress of any kind. Free thinking minds, great minds able to invent things, processes and then profit from their inventions. Else what motivation do we have? I don't think anyone ever worked feverishly into the night, becoming weeks and years, to produce a thing with the intent to bring about a greater public good but no benefit to himself whatever. And yet, the new invention does bring about a greater public good and rewards it's maker handsomely for it in a capitalist society. But take away the reward of profit, and people can talk till their blue in the face about the greater public good but without reward, few if any will rise to the occasion of producing anything for the public good. Scrooge may have been a miser, and found more Christian way to live that involved generosity, but he wasn't evil. The greater evil lies in those minds who would, in the name of public fairness, take away individualism and the right of one person to rise above another because they earn it. That is evil.