Jason Y writes:
Redistributing income among people who would waste the money is foolish. It’s like giving investment money to people who know nothing of business, they would get ripped off by every scam known to man.
Yes but almost every government on Earth does this, even ours. All taxation is redistribution as a good general rule as long as it is not regressive. All progressive taxation is surely redistributive and even a flat tax may be redistributive. All means tested social programs are redistribute. Everything socialist or even social liberal is redistributive.
So redistribution of income is general across most of the world now because most nations are run by more or less socialist parties. And most redistribution simply ends up giving low income earners more money to spend. They may indeed blow it, but so what? Poor people spend every nickel in their pocket, and all of that money goes right back into the local economy. It’s the rich that do not spend all their money.
