When politicians regulate, wealth is transferred from those without to those with
The poor and powerless do not always benefit as intended from attempts to redistribute wealth, writes James Peron
Inequality is thought to be one of the critical problems of current times. But regulatory attempts by governments all over the world to redistribute wealth can have the opposite effect from that intended, and redistribute wealth, rights and power from the bottom of the economic ladder upwards. The poor and powerless do not always benefit as intended. In the pages of the New York Times, economic historian Deirdre McCloskey cut to the core of the problem with measures to "redistribute" wealth. She wrote: "Dividing up a pizza among friends can be done equitably, to be sure. But equality beyond the basics in consumption and in political rights isn’t possible in a specialised and dynamic economy. Cutting down the tall poppies uses violence for the cut. And you need to know exactly which poppies to cut. Trusting a government of self-interested people to know how to redistribute ethically is naïve." Governments and their bureaucracies are staffed everywhere by individuals with their own se...
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