Income redistribution
From Conservapedia
Income redistribution can be either the act of an individual's voluntary charitable giving or government mandated compulsory transfer of assets and income from one group of citizens to another group.
Most conservatives accept and advocate voluntary charitable giving as necessary to alleviate social problems, and believe government should not interfere, but rather should encourage personal involvement and personal giving to the underprivileged, elderly, disabled, and other hardship cases. Also, many conservatives view some forms of government redistribution as an impingement on personal rights, leading to unjust expropriation of property, fostering irresponsible social conduct and acting as a disincentive for personal involvement to alleviate social problems. Also, mandatory giving may create jobs for bureaucrats and dependent constituencies as electoral bases. By contrast better off liberals like professors are more likely to vote for political parties that favor income redistribution. Income redistribution will increase the taxation they personally pay. They show altruism by the way they vote.
Liberals generally support income redistribution based on their belief that individual charitable giving cannot be relied upon and tends to advocate some degree of compulsory redistribution of resources as necessary. Charitable institutions are sometimes bureaucratic and inefficient.
Examples of government programs performing compulsory income redistribution include welfare and progressive taxation. Socialists believe that increased redistribution and consequent reductions in inequality lead to better outcomes for individual welfare and freedom. Likewise, Professor Richard Layard has argued that "in societies where income differences between rich and poor are smaller, the statistics show not only that community life is stronger and people are much more likely to trust each other; but also there is less violence – including substantially lower homicide rates – health is better and life expectancy several years longer, prison populations are smaller; birth rates among teenagers are lower, levels of educational attainment among school children tend to be higher; and there is more social mobility. In all cases, where income differences are narrower, outcomes are better." [5]
See also:
Quotes
- Attempts to redistribute wealth repeatedly led to the redistribution of poverty. -- Thomas Sowell [1]
External Links
- Nineteen Neglected Consequences of Income Redistribution, Robert Higgs, The Independent Institute, December 5, 1994
- Taxation and Income Redistribution: An Unsympathetic Critique of Practice and Theory, Richard B. McKenzie, The CATO Journal, Accessed December 24, 2007
- What Liberals Say - Category: Redistribution, Accuracy In Media
