I’m a Redistributionist. (I know, so was Robin Hood.)
The fundamental difference between me and Mr. Hood, (never mind the green tights and the arrows), is that Robin was a Post-Tax-Redistributionist. I however — and by notable contrast — am a Tax-Based-Redistributionist.
Big difference.
Most of us learned about redistributionism while we were in kindergarten. Only back then it was called sharing. Probably because five year-olds stumble all over polysyllabic words like anthropomorphic and defenestration. Sharing rolls off a five year-old tongue like cookie or snuggle.
Yeah . . . those were the days. (Sigh.)
I think a real and fundamental danger exists in The Village when a small handful of citizens possess more wealth and property than the combined wealth and property of 90% of the other villagers. (And one guy among that small handful owns more than 98% of everybody else.)
The world went through that phase for a while. It was called Feudalism. And the only folks who really enjoyed it were the very few, feudal lords at the top. (At least when they, the feuding lords, weren’t getting their own feudal lord tops lopped off.) Be that as it may, rumor has it the vast majority of feudal villagers weren’t all that impressed with the living arrangements. Something about being hungry, cold, sick, worn out, despondent, hopeless, blah-blah-blah. Obviously all these folks were takers, moochers, whiners and shiftless. Seriously, the only jobs they created were for babysitters.
Anyway, we’ve made a lot of progress since those days. No longer do the very few possess the vast majority of wealth, nor do they seek to possess even more. No longer do the very few live in monumental castles protected by armies of guards purchased with the cheap labor of the common man and woman. No longer do the rulers of the land perform the bidding of the very few, like lickspittles dancing jigs in a town square. No longer do the . . .
I must’ve slipped back to kindergarten again.
Teacher was reading a fairy tale.
