The Malign Ethics of Equality

[Chris]

The Malign Ethics of Equality is a review of Bertrand de Jouvenel’s now 70 year old The Ethics of Redistribution.

...I revisit the text to draw out two somewhat unnoticed, but important, features. The first is that Jouvenel’s fundamental teaching is not (merely) that redistribution leads to bad outcomes. His primary moral teaching is that redistribution, as a matter of fact, becomes an enemy of all antecedent values. The second point is critical of Jouvenel, albeit in a friendly manner. I think that he does not appreciate how strong his first insight is. Redistributionism spares no antecedent values; it may also spare no antecedent concepts. It is possible that the goal of redistribution can infect discussions of what it means to care for the poor. The very notion of eliminating poverty is not safe from the redistributive impulse.

Jouvenel distinguishes between relief of the poor and redistributionism: “it is inherent in the very notion of society that those in direct want must be taken care of.” Indeed, it seems that unemployment benefits for subsistence “whether it be a minimum income in days of unemployment or basic medical care for which he could not have paid” is “the primary manifestation of solidarity.” Such a project is one of the primary tasks of society, as Jouvenel sees it.

Redistribution “is everything which relieves the individual of an expenditure that he could and presumably would have undertaken out of his own purse.” The many deleterious effects of redistribution are the focus of the text in question. This is not a conceptual distinction. Taxation to spare people from extreme want might do the same thing. However, Jouvenel carves out a space for aiding the needy and focuses his criticism on a different phenomenon.

...The impact of redistribution yields an interesting bipartite shift. On the economic side, it yields a shift in terms of who provides various goods and services. It is a shift from private individuals to the government. This is accompanied by a moral shift in how different institutions are valued. Once one focuses one’s concerns on the distributional patterns of wealth or income in society, entities that produce goods become vitally important. ...

[carolina73]

I am 100% against involuntary redistribution. Even the ultra rich individual that does little with his money has to park it somewhere that it is used as asset by a financial organization.

[RMNIXON]

It reminds me of a documentary on PBS well over a decade or so ago that demonstrated how all this AID to Africa (often pushed by rich lefty celebrities) was actually harming indigenous people who would give up farming and working. They became addicted to waiting for UN and other organizations aid trucks to survive and became totally dependent in many ways.

[Carl Young]

The Malign Ethics of Equality is a review of Bertrand de Jouvenel’s now 70 year old The Ethics of Redistribution.

I had a great article by six or so authors supporting the idea of a 'zero growth economy' and how it would lead to equity, 'sustainability', be 'environmental effective', etc. - you know the drill- but lost it somehow. I'm pleased they didn't have this idea of zero growth economy in 1622 rather than 2022 (and earlier).

All of this relates back to open borders, Covid shutdowns, kinky elections, etc. so when anyone speaks of Biden's 'failed border policies' or 'unsustainable debt' we should keep in mind that they have failed only from our perspective, no theirs.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-par...conomic-forum/

[carolina73]

It reminds me of a documentary on PBS well over a decade or so ago that demonstrated how all this AID to Africa (often pushed by rich lefty celebrities) was actually harming indigenous people who would give up farming and working. They became addicted to waiting for UN and other organizations aid trucks to survive and became totally dependent in many ways.

And that is what angers taxpayers. We have people that were once grateful for the aid now demanding it and considering it their right. You have to give us more!

[Carl Young]

And that is what angers taxpayers. We have people that were once grateful for the aid now demanding it and considering it their right. You have to give us more!

Tens of billions to Ukraine, pallets of hundred dollar bills to Iran and Afghanistan, as well as billions in aid, and China is more respected then the US. Can't buy me love, though you can rent it for a while.

[DGUtley]

I had a client from one of those countries once tell me that when you give someone aid like that, eventually, they demand the best of the best because their perception is, you’re giving them the scraps and they resent you for it. They eventually start to hate you for helping them.

[Chris]

I think this is key:

On the economic side, it yields a shift in terms of who provides various goods and services. It is a shift from private individuals to the government.

Private is by choice who gives and who receives and often sets obligation to repay back or pass it on. Government decides it claimed for good reason but actually for political benefit: It's not giving but getting favor politically.

[Carl Young]

I had a client from one of those countries once tell me that when you give someone aid like that, eventually, they demand the best of the best because their perception is, you’re giving them the scraps and they resent you for it. They eventually start to hate you for helping them.

Someone smart once said, "A good deed never goes unpunished" and ain't it a fact?

The Europeans are the worst.

[Carl Young]

I think this is key:

On the economic side, it yields a shift in terms of who provides various goods and services. It is a shift from private individuals to the government.

Private is by choice who gives and who receives and often sets obligation to repay back or pass it on. Government decides it claimed for good reason but actually for political benefit: It's not giving but getting favor politically.

We also do better accounting when privately giving or lending money. Does anyone really know where the billions have gone? There seems to be a lot of very newly wealthy Democrats with one, BHO, having four mansions.