EVERY REDISTRIBUTED DOLLAR IS A LOST OPPORTUNITY FOR MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL EXCHANG

EVERY REDISTRIBUTED DOLLAR IS A LOST OPPORTUNITY FOR MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL EXCHANGE

The central argument that I have against Social Democracy (Keynesian economics or dishonest socialism) is not the exacerbation of the business cycle, nor even redistribution, but that it is a means of violating a voluntary exchange between the productive and unproductive classes. Every forcibly redistributed dollar is a lost opportunity for mutually beneficial and productive exchange. And what the productive classes would prefer in exchange, is largely respect for norms, respect for commons, and status signaling. Conservatives certainly don’t disfavor redistribution, they disfavor funding immorality. Most of us would be very happy to directly pay people who behave well, and not pay people who don’t, and to avoid the entire bureaucratic expansion caused by redistribution in services rather than income.