Income Redistribution

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 mandatory compulsory giving as an impingement on personal rights, unjust expropriation of property, fosters irresponsible social conduct and a disincentive for personal involvement to alleviate social problems.

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. Also, mandatory giving creates jobs for bureaucrats, dependent constituencies as electoral bases, and legitimizes class warfare.

Examples of government programs performing compulsory income redistribution include welfare and progressive taxation.

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