The Redistribution of Wealth

“You keep using that phrase…I do not think it means what you think it means.”

The other day (not for the first time, or the last) I was “accused” of being a Socialist, and of being anti-American by supporting the redistribution of wealth.

Let me be clear: on some issues I am definitely socialist, on others not so much, and on some downright conservative (not many of the later, I’ll grant).  I make no denial of any of that. But as for me being un-American, I find this accusation so repugnant that I’m not going to go into it here…those of you who know me can draw your own conclusions.

That leaves the matter of my support of “redistribution of wealth”; this I have to deny.

What I find amusing is that those who throw around the phrase “redistribution of wealth” either do not realize their error or are being deliberately disingenuous, when the truth is this: “Redistribution of wealth,” as Inigo Montoya might have said, does not mean what you think it means.

The redistribution of wealth is real and tangible, but it is not a progress from the pockets of the wealthy to the hands of the poor. Quite the reverse. We live in an America where the rich get richer, the powerful get powerfuller (or something), the middle class disappears into the ranks of the poor, and the poor get the short end of the stick shoved up their asses.

(I may not be a total Socialist, but I must admit that I often sound like one.)

The real redistribution of wealth flows the other way, from the pockets of the less fortunate to the bank accounts of the wealthy. In recent decades, the rich have continually seen their wealth (or rather, their share of the wealth of America) increase while the poor have seen theirs diminish. There now exists a gap between the two wider than ever before, and its growing every day. This is the real redistribution of wealth; not some abstract theoretical (and vaguely threatening) term but the actual movement of capital from the needy to the greedy.

So, as it happens, I am not in favor of the redistribution of wealth. Far from it. But I would be in favor of the re-redistribution of wealth, flowing the other way until something more equitable is achieved.

I don’t think that makes me a Socialist, but if it does I will wear that badge proudly.

The Blues Viking
The thoughts expressed here are mine and if you don’t like them you can get your own damn blog.