Redistribution Quotes

“God's people are not to accumulate stuff for tomorrow but to share indiscriminately with the scandalous and holy confidence that God will provide for tomorrow. Then we need not stockpile stuff in barns or a 401(k), especially when there is someone in need.”
― Shane Claiborne, Red Letter Revolution: What If Jesus Really Meant What He Said?

“By far the most significant consequence of "selfish capitalism" (Thatch/Blatcherism) has been a startling increase in the incidence of mental illness in both children and adults since the 1970s.”
― Oliver James

“You eat the wealthy, sir, and it will be your last meal.”
― J.S.B. Morse, Chaos and Kingdom

“If you believe in democracy, make arrangements to distribute property as widely as possible.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

“Jesus never endorsed the forced redistribution of wealth. That idea is rooted in envy.”
― Lawrence W. Reed

“All redistribution, regardless of the criterion on which it is based,
involves "taking" from the original owners and/ or producers (the "havers" of something) and "giving" to nonowners and nonproducers (the
"nonhavers" of something). The incentive to be an original owner or
producer of the thing in question is reduced, and the incentive to be a
non-owner and non-producer is raised. Accordingly, as a result of subsidizing individuals because they are poor, there will be more poverty. By
subsidizing people because they are unemployed, more unemployment
will be created. Supporting single mothers out of tax funds will lead to
an increase in single motherhood, "illegitimacy," and divorce.”
― Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Democracy: The God That Failed

“Socialists claim to be in favor of equitable redistribution of income and wealth, but who determines what is equitable and does the actual redistribution?”
― Dinesh D'Souza, The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left

“As I look back over China's sixty years under communism, I sense that Mao's Cultural Revolution and Deng's open-door reforms have given China's grassroots two huge opportunities: the first to press for a redistribution of political power and the second to press for a redistribution of economic power.”
― Yu Hua

“Isn't love at least as important in life as money? And aren't the objects of the romantic and sexual fantasies of the masses as dependent upon society for their desirable status as surely as the super-rich are for their material wealth? If a billionaire like Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey has to pay lots of money in taxes so that economically disadvantaged people's needs can be met, why shouldn't 'billionaires of love' like Pamela Anderson and Brad Pitt have to provide romantic walks on the beach and hot makeout sessions so that the needs of the romantically and sexually disadvantaged can likewise be met? Who are we as a society to judge that it is more wrong to force someone to be sexually intimate than to take their resources by force? The fact is that some people feel more violated by being robbed than by being groped. If we're going to have a redistributionist system based on aggression, wouldn't it be fairer, when Tax Day comes around, to at least give each victim a choice? 'Pay up or put out!”
― Starchild

“In basic microeconomics textbooks, even when welfare gets attention, it is in the domain of efficient outcomes. Redistribution through taxes is first introduced as a big ‘no go’ domain with concepts of deadweight loss.

However, inefficiency out of market behaviour and market outcomes is plainly ignored and overlooked. Approximately, $600 million daily is needed to feed every extremely poor person, yet about $2.75 billion value of food is wasted every day, according to Food and Agriculture Organization. Consequently, 9 million people die every year from hunger while one-third of all food is wasted. This gross inefficiency in economic resources is not captured or discussed. According to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, globally, per capita food supply increased from about 2,200 kcal per day in the early 1960s to more than 2,903 kcal per day by 2014. But under capitalism, the market allocates goods including even food to only those who can pay its price. It does not make a difference whether the willingness to pay is less than the price due to ‘preference’ or due to ‘poverty’. Yet, mainstream economics claims consumer sovereignty.”
― Salman Ahmed Shaikh, Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World

“When welfare is discussed in microeconomics textbooks, it is only in the domain of economic exchange in markets. The discussion in such places sets total welfare maximization as the virtuous end or criterion. In first-degree price discrimination adopted by a monopolist, there is no welfare loss. However, there is no consumer surplus either despite having optimal efficiency. Economics is neutral between desirable or undesirable equilibrium from the point of view of equity.”
― Salman Ahmed Shaikh, Reflections on the Origins in the Post COVID-19 World

“This is why Lacan was deeply skeptical about the notion of distributive justice: it remains at the level of the distribution of goods and cannot deal even with a relatively simple paradox of envy - what if I prefer to get less if my neighbour gets even less than me (and this awareness that my neighbour is even more deprived gives me a surplus-enjoyment)? This is why egalitarianism itself should ever be accepted at its face value. The notion (and practice) of egalitarian justice, insofar as it is sustained by envy, relies on an inversion of the standard renunciation accomplished to benefit others: 'I am ready to renounce it, so that others will (also) not (be able to) have it!' Far from being opposed to the spirit of sacrifice, Evil here emerges as the very spirit of sacrifice - a readiness to ignore my own well-being if, through my sacrifice, I can deprive the Other of its enjoyment ...
This, however, does not work as a general argument against all projects of egalitarian emancipation but only against those which focus on redistribution.”
― Slavoj Žižek, Heaven in Disorder

“when climate change deniers claim that global warming is a plot to redistribute wealth. It's not (only) because they are paranoid. It's also because they are paying attention.”
― Naomi Klein, Hot Money

“The demands of the Young Lords could have been written today. We believed in the power of the people and in community and personal transformation. We demanded the redistribution of economic and social resources. We fought for racial justice and the equality of women. As internationalists, we condemned all political, economic, and military intervention by one nation against another. We battled proudly against exploitation, social injustice, and colonial domination. It was a call for revolution!”
― Iris Morales, Through the Eyes of Rebel Women: The Young Lords, 1969-1976

“Property-owning democracy avoids [inequalities], not by redistributing income to those with less at the end of each period, so to speak, but rather by ensuring the widespread ownership of productive assets and human capital (educated abilities and trained skills) at the beginning of each period.”
― John Rawls

“The defining feature of world politics post the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) has been the rise of right-wing populists, who have disrupted politics. It wasn't meant to be this way. Conventional wisdom at the time was that the GFC would lead to the 'social democratic moment'. The theory went that in the aftermath of the GFC - an event which exposed the dangers of relentless deregulation and fuelled an already existing rise of inequality - progressive parties, with a preference for appropriately calibrated regulation and redistribution, would benefit. Like much conventional wisdom, reality proved otherwise.
Instead, it's been the right-wing populists' moment. The charlatans' moment. First, they disrupted their own parties, then they disrupted politics more broadly. (p.14-15)”
― Chris Bowen, On Charlatans