I don’t trust politicians but as David Harvey has said, “wealth redistribution is the lowest form of socialism”.
The ideal way is that wealth is more equitably distributed before it is created. Instead of a system where business owners represent a tiny minority, who then grow very wealthy and are taxed, we could have a system where everyone owns a little piece of the economy. At its simplest this could be realized by a growth of worker cooperatives, though other schemes exist. [1]
So no, we don’t have to trust politicians to redistribute the wealth and we shouldn’t. But we can build a society where billions simply do not accrue to a tiny minority of the population.
Quid pro quo. I have zero issues if individuals want to conduct transactions with their full [individual] legal and financial liability on the line. But if/when one wants the privilege of government recognized legal and financial limited liability in transactions then I have zero issues with those transactions being regulated and taxed.
Me either but I just don’t think a system where people get super wealthy and then politicians tax them is a system that will also be a functioning democracy. Instead the super wealthy game the system. So sure, taxing the rich is fine, but I think we can do better.
> Instead of a system where business owners represent a tiny minority, who then grow very wealthy and are taxed, we could have a system where everyone owns a little piece of the economy.
Like 401k/HSA/DB pension fund investments in index fund ETFs?
Eh, it’s a complex issue but generally that won’t do. When I talk about the workers “owning” a piece of the economy I’m including an important part of most ownership which is executive control. If a group of workers own their business they can also control how the business is used. This leads to more democratic outcomes. And actually “ownership” as shorthand isn’t exactly accurate as Richard Wolff argues that the important part is worker control, but they do not strictly need to own the business - they could sell shares of their business to investors who would get a cut of profits. What is actually important is worker control over the means of production, and sometimes I use “ownership” as a slightly incorrect shorthand.
The ideal way is that wealth is more equitably distributed before it is created. Instead of a system where business owners represent a tiny minority, who then grow very wealthy and are taxed, we could have a system where everyone owns a little piece of the economy. At its simplest this could be realized by a growth of worker cooperatives, though other schemes exist. [1]
So no, we don’t have to trust politicians to redistribute the wealth and we shouldn’t. But we can build a society where billions simply do not accrue to a tiny minority of the population.
[1] I prefer situations that do not rely on “the state” however I found this historical study of the German Democratic Republic to be very interesting: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhHMtkNa0BDl2oz-8z9cGR45Z...