Dec 5, 2019
Wealth Redistribution: Not a great idea
The concentration of wealth is natural and inevitable(even in a socialist society). People who have a superior skill set or the ability to save more than others, find themselves in a better financial position long term than the rest. This gradual accumulation of wealth does not trigger a social movement/revolt until it reaches the equilibrium point in the concentration of wealth. At that moment, most people contemplate their existence in our economic system. The reality check experience and the infuriating stimulus provided by media causes a widespread discussion on the rich and their wealth. FYI, this is happening right now, and it’s not NEW.
America has used the wealth redistribution ideas in the past and they have worked to some extent. In 1933, the government implemented a series of guidelines to make the rich pay a fair share of their money towards public goods and services. Similar reforms were implemented after WWII and the graph below shows that these strategies worked as the concentration of wealth decreased.
However, they might not work today. Mostly when the government asks the rich for more tax. They have plans to invest in the nation’s infrastructure and other public services. These policies and spending, provide more jobs and help the unemployed labors and causes a slight increase in the wage rate. However, these strategies in a developed economy will be ineffective if the unemployment rate is already low and any pressure to increase the wage rate will promote inefficiency which will be harmful in the long term. These strategies worked before because the country was still in a developing phase and needed more hands than ever to rebuild roads and bridges after WWII. There are gazillion other things the government does to promote equality. Such as privatization of some sectors (never worked: Russia and many historical civilizations), increasing the quality of life by paying farmers and other more for their commodities (does not work in a global economy) and many others but the main policy usually revolves around the unemployment side of things.
Whenever wealth is redistributed, there is a lot of chaos (as seen in history) and it only works well when the people in charge of polices are united and have a clear vision on how to make the best use of the additional funds that will be generated. Perhaps a lot has changed in the last 5000 years and our society is more complex and has evolved to an extent that socialism just might work. Sadly, that is not provable and great historians have concluded that human motives remain constant, the only things that changes over time are the medium to achieve those motives. Which we can see through our technology revolution. One fundamental motive is Wealth. Wealth is the possession of valuable things. Back in the old days, wealth referred to having rich meat or enough food to survive for a couple of days and now the meaning of wealth has transitioned from food to money. So, now people hoard money instead of food to make sure we have enough supplies to feel comfortable and safe. The amount of money to feel safe and comfortable is debatable and relative to one’s lifestyle. So, what’s the problem in having equal things for every human being? This is a very well discussed topic among prominent figures of our time and answer to this revolves around motivation. It is said that humans innovate because of our perception to live a better life and this invokes a sense of competition among ourselves to fulfill one of the basic desires in human nature, the tendency for appreciation or should I say “satisfy the need to win”. If we lived in a world where everyone is equal, it will kill innovation as we cannot satisfy our need for superiority among society members. WOW….that seems like a superextreme side of socialism but again there is no such thing as moderate socialism, at least from my understanding.
Well, if Socialism is not the solution to our “inequality problem” then what do we do? Rather than stating a concrete answer what I can do is state, some guidelines that I and a few other individuals have expressed recently. Instead of forcing companies and rich individuals to pay more, we should enforce set guidelines for each company to promote skill development and re-education workshops to help those at the bottom of the wealth scale. Instead of giving aid to the farmers, we should restructure our supply chain and perform crop management nationwide so we are not dependent on other nations to buy our crops in order to feed our family(this is very difficult to achieve). Instead of limiting the accumulation of wealth, we should fix loopholes (legally) that to some extent allows for this “unfair” accumulation(again we have a greater possibility of moving to another planet than fixing all these loopholes. LOL)
In short, I talked about a lot of open-ended things and it is unfair to readers but seeing the inadequacy of information people have about socialism compelled me to write a brief and unfinished piece. Take some time to see and gather some information about things happening around you. We should seriously consider the effects of increasing individualism in our society.
I am not left nor right. I am just a person who cast stones at other people’s ideas(Just Kidding). Most importantly though, everyone has their own opinions and we should respect them all. Ciao!
