The mechanism seems to be that, when a sensitive adolescent in a nonslave society first notices that some people are much poorer than her family, she is likely to conclude that the best remedy is to open Daddy’s wallet. (It is not an efficacious plan, because redistribution can give to the poor the mere 20 percent or so of the national income now in the hands of the wretchedly rich, and one time only, whereas trade-tested betterment under private property has given the poor, 1800 to the present, underestimated in the available measures, fully 3,000 percent, collected every year in now well-to-do countries filled with descendants of poor people.)
(H/T: Cafe Hayek)
