This is a sequel to yesterday's post on liberty and (material) equality and their conflict. It should be read first. This post extends the analysis by pointing out a problem for socialists (redistributivists). So consider the following aporetic triad, the first two limbs of which are similar to the first two limbs of yesterday's aporetic tetrad:
1. Justice demands redistribution of wealth from the richer to the poorer., and of other social goods from the haves tothe have-nots. A just society is a fair society, one in which there is a fair or equal distribution of the available social and economic goods such as power and wealth.
2. Redistribution, whether of wealth or of other goods such as power, requires an agency of redistribution which forces, via the coercive power of government, the better off to pay higher taxes, forego benefits, make sacrifices, or in some other way compensate the worse off so that greater material equality is brought about.
3. Any effective redistributive agency must possess and exercise power which is far in excess of the power available to other individual and collective agents in the society: it must be greatly UNEQUAL to the latter in power.
These three propositions are individually plausible, and for the redistributivist, not just plausible but mandatory. (1) defines the redistributivist position, while (2) and (3) he must accept if he wants to implement his scheme of justice. But the propositions are not jointly consistent: they cannot all be true. Any two of them, taken together, entails the negation of the remaining one. Thus (2) and (3), taken in conjunction, entails the negation of (1).
The conservative/libertarian will have no trouble solving the problem. He will reject (1). Justice does NOT demand redistribution; indeed, justice rules it out. The leftist/redistributivist, however, is in a jam. He cannot reject (2) or (3) since these are facts that all must acknowledge. And he must accept (1) since it is definatory of his position.
The redistributivist position thus appears to be internally incoherent. The redistributivist is committed to the acceptance of propositions that cannot all be true. He wants equality, but to enforce it he must embrace inequality
For a concrete historical example, consider Cuba under Fidel Castro. Who has all the money and the power? The people?
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