Quora Answer: Does Taxation Not Inherently Involve Redistribution of Wealth?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Does taxation not inherently involve redistribution of wealth?  If so, how can Conservatives accept that government has the right to tax but not the right to redistribute income?”

Yes, it does.  Whether directly or indirectly, that is an underlying effect of taxation.  If by Conservatives, you are referring to the American Right, you have to understand that the political discourse, particularly in issues of economics, has becomes so toxic, that it is no longer based on reality.  What has happened is that certain policy positions have become ideological points of faith, held to be absolute truths, and facts have no place in that discourse.  It is like religious doctrine, not a rational discourse.

The underlying reasons for the opposition to wealth distribution is actually a form of the Prosperity Gospel, since the Christian Right form the core of Conservatives.  This innovated doctrine has no basis in orthodox Christianity, but has managed to gain a foothold in the United States.  What it holds is that some people are meant to be wealthy, and some are meant to be poor.  For the wealthy, their wealth is a divine right conferred by Jesus (a.s.) because of his approval of them and their values.  Part of those values seem to be about being overwhelmingly White, which is a remnant of the apartheid South that was not dismantled after the Civil War.

Accordingly, they hold the irrational belief that the poor deserve their poverty, and the wealthy deserve their wealth.  To redistribute income equitably, or even shape policy to allow more socioeconomic mobility is to challenge this article of faith and upset the caste system.  Accordingly, politicians who support this position have embraced the faux philosophy of Ayn Rand as espoused in “Atlas Shrugged”.  Economics as a social science is not their strong suit.  In fact, there is a general disdain for any form of intellectualism.  This is a symptom of a wider class divide and a nascent idiocracy.  If this is not addressed, the US will decline rapidly.