Income Redistribution

Income Redistribution examines the concept revealing its flaws in its substance, as well as problems in practice and implementation.

So What is Income Redistribution

Redistribution of income and wealth is the transfer of income and wealth (including physical property) from some individuals to others through a social mechanism such as taxation, welfare, public services, land reform, monetary policies, confiscation, divorce or tort law.[1] The term typically refers to redistribution on an economy-wide basis rather than between selected individuals.

Understanding of the phrase varies, depending on personal perspectives, political ideologies and the selective use of statistics.[2] It is frequently used in politics, to refer to perceived redistribution from those who have more to those who have less. Rarely, the term is used to describe laws or policies that cause redistribution in the opposite direction, from the poor to the rich.[3] — Wikipedia.org

So to grasp the essence of what people mean when they speak of income distribution, they are talking about taking money from people who have “an abundance”, i.e. rich people, to give to poor people, without any reason except for the supposed good that doing so would accomplish. Money exchanges hands between people every day, but on the basis of buying-selling. That is not in view here.

While that is a supposed “good goal”, why is it good? For the poor, it is great. For those rich who are losing money, it is not so great, and note that this plan is not voluntary for the rich, it is trying to be made law.

Why are Some People Poor?

Matthew 26:11 For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.

Note the significance of Jesus’ declaration. You will always have the poor with you. In other words, while people do a lot to “alleviate the problem of poverty”, God declares that this is never going to change until the end times when there is a drastic world change after Revelation. Poverty is a sin problem. In other words, people have wants and needs because of the effects of sin. God, on the other hand, allows, permits, or even sends these problems so that man comes to grip with the fact of his own sin, and seeks God’s help. This scenario plays out in what is know as life. So poverty and problems serves a real purpose for God, because they motivate man to seek God. While God responds through moral instruction, He also uses good people of good hearts to met these needs and address these crises. This is not against God’s wishes but the technical way that God works besides other ways.

But rather than berating the condition of the poor as a fault somehow of people who are not poor, we need to realize that morality enters this issue very strongly. Many, or  perhaps most, poor people are that way because of poor life decisions that them themselves have made. Others cannot be condemned and laden with guilt because of this. Perhaps those who are not poor have a moral obligation to teach (education) the poor how to correctly respond to God and correct their lives. Yes, this is true. But you find that element as rare as dinosaurs in any public talk of poverty.

I found this page on 11 causes of poverty around the world. So let’s start by examining what this page says. I am not going to follow their order. https://concernusa.org/news/causes-of-poverty/

5. Public Health Crises and Epidemics (Natural Disasters)

Note that while this is used to move people’s emotions, in COVID, both the poor AND THE RICH suffered side-by-side. While the rich usually have a buffer fund to hold them over through tough economic times, the poor rarely do. Here reason number 11. Lack of personal safety nets can be grouped with reason number 5.

But what is the point of all of these reasons? Very simply, why do these things happen in the first place? The reason is because God is God, and God allows or causes (sends) such crises to people. In the Bible, the people who originally inhabited Palestine where great sinners in the eyes of God, and their crises were judgments against their sin. Eventually, God commanded Israel to enter their lands and destroy them. The reason for that was not that Israel was without their own faults and errors, but because of the grossness of Palestine’s sin in God’s eyes, God condemned them. The flood was also a Natural Disaster (Reason number 5) of global proportions, a termination of all life on the planet event, and God spared only a handful of people. God’s judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah fall into the same category.

So is this a bail out of the issue, that God sends crises to some people? No. God wants all people to come to grips with their sinful and rebellious state against God, and that needs to be understood first and foremost. Crisis and disaster are times for action, but afterward, for much reflection and probably changes. What happens here is that “good” people with big hearts want the suffering to look to their own generosity instead of facing God. In other words, there is no reflection and correction of past mistakes in these crises, only a blurring of God’s judgment which causes more of the same from God.

Strangely, those who promote income redistribution do not want to be the ones doing the sacrificing. They are themselves rich usually, and they want to take from other people’s riches to give to whom they want to influence, making themselves look like the ones sacrificing, and the actual ones doing the sacrificing do not get any thanks from the poor, but the intermediators, i.e. the politicians and social workers promoting income redistribution get the praise and power.

So to say let’s make a law to take from the rich and give to the poor belies what is really going on. What should be understood is that when this redistribution takes place, there are always those who are promoting this that strangely are rich but don’t sacrifice themselves, but they get richer for the operation. In other words the whole mess is a scam for some rich thieves to insert themselves into a bad situation, always demanding more and more and never fixing the problems.

A case in point are the homeless in California. The problem of homelessness is extreme in California, most probably because the climate in California lends itself to sleeping outside very easily. But although billions have been spent to help the homeless, where are the results? Homelessness grows more and more. If they were really interested in helping the homeless, then low paying jobs for people with no skills would be made available as well as low cost housing solutions. Allowing a wild fire to burn down 1000s of million dollar homes in order for the California state government to stymie building permits and steal the land from their legal owners in order to make low cost housing is not a morally right solution. The crisis is managed to gain wealth for the intermediators, and very little is solved for the homeless, and some get rich in the process. But these are not the needy.

God commands charity in the Bible, and it is a righteous and just thing to give to the poor and needy. This is reinforced throughout the Bible. But the way in which this should happen is also clear. An individual in his own heart and without force from others, especially the government or guilt trips by intermediators which look for gain, the individual should desire first, and then do such charity work.

Let’s just get nasty here. The rich person, or the person who has resources, should be the one voluntarily giving directly to the poor, not to intermediators which take a cut for themselves. I do not remember the exact story, but I read a story that there are organizations that rate charity organizations. They give them a factor. Out of every 1 dollar donated to them, how much of that dollar actually gets to the people who are “the needy.” For most of the well known charity organizations in the United States, that is a very low amount, say 20 to 25 cents of every dollar. The number 17% stands out in my memory as the average. Where does the rest go? The CEOs of these large organizations make millions of dollars a year plus perks, bonuses, and other ways of getting money from the charity.

Next we look at what is given. Many people do not understand how these charities carve and twist and turn these gifts into knots. For example, a pound of ground beef may cost say $3. But they take $10,000 of donation money, and they buy low grade, expiring or already expired ground beef, and charge the charity $5/pound when the people who produce the ground beef only charge them $1/pound to just get rid of the bad product. “Their books are cooked.” There is a lot of money to be made for the organizers of charity. So the actual aid that gets through to the poor is tainted and of bad quality. If one is to believe that expiration dates on food are a valid thing for consideration, then why is top dollar charged or accounted for by the charity when they actually give expired food?

So are these facts how promoters of income redistribution present their pet project to the world? No. This is just another way to steal money from those who have it.

A Lack of Resources

Reason number 1, the lack of resources. Reason number 3 Hunger and Malnutrition. 4. Inadequate Healthcare Systems.The problem here is not that they don’t have, but why don’t they have these things? The answer is because it is not important to them until it reaches crisis proportions. They are not responsible for their own life and actions, and they want other people to “bail them out” economically. If you search the Internet for “Africa resource misuse” you will find article after article of the same thing. Africa has great mineral resources, but those in charge of these resources, i.e. the governments involved, abuse these resources for their own purposes. So again the problem resolves not in an impossible situation for those who are suffering, but rather, those poor people have to force their governments to not steal what is or should be a common resource. In other words, be a good government for the benefit of their own people before pocketing (stealing) the country’s resources.

In the United States, Alaska is a very poor state, and the people there were very poor at one time. When oil was discovered, the state government of Alaska made a payout every year to native Alaskans to receive part of the tax money from the oil industry. Why does that work in Alaska of the United States quite well, and it never works out right in Africa? The answer lies in the moral character of the people involved, both local people and people in government.

There is a saying that God gives a people the government that they deserve, i.e. immoral people get immoral people in their government. Things don’t work right thereafter. Redistribution of income (capital) will have no long term effect on such an undeserving people. What will work is when the people involved (the citizens and their leaders) change morally. Then things are done right, and opportunities to legitimately earn money through hard work will pay the bills, and there will be no lack of resources. When most of the money that is earned through hard work is stolen by astute individuals that have not compassion for their fellow man, just to take whatever he has even if he is poor, then that is a very bad situation.

Illegal immigration has much the same problems. Just opening the borders and letting everybody who has economic problems into the country will not morally change these people, and although they live in Africa or New York, they carry with them their baggage, which is where their real problem. Living in the United States with the same moral mindset as they did in Africa will not bring them out of poverty. Their lives will continue to be cursed anywhere they go. This factor is further frustrated by groups of foreigners with bad moral character forming little communities of their own people to continue their own defective culture. There never is any idea, plan, nor goal nor effort to change their countries to behave in ways that are beneficial like the United States where they desire to live. And there is the real problem in illegal immigration.

6. Little or no access to clean water and sanitation services.
9. Poor public works and infrastructure.

Israel is basically a desert for the most part. Yet Israel exports fruit and vegetables to Europe and other places. How? They use their resources for the benefit of all, like salt water desalinization plants. Again we have to note that the moral character of those who have problems and solve them successfully is the key. This is not unique to any race or country or culture. Anybody in any setting can be effective, but their mindset is really the key.

8. Lack of Education

Within education, there are a few educators who understand this point I want to make. Information does not do much to help people. It is a starting point, but wisdom is the goal. What is wisdom? With is the agile use of information in such a way as to make some gain or benefit for the wise person. A wise person can use knowledge to better his life. Doctors study long years so that in the future when they are practicing doctors, people will pay them money for their wisdom. Knowing how the body works and what different drugs will do to a body with disease is the starting point, but really, there are some unwise doctors who know what they all learn in their medical school, but they are not wise, and thus malpractice lawsuits happen.

So there is a moral element in education. Wisdom is the real goal, and that wisdom is to take into consideration God. Just because you can abort a baby begs the question of whether you should. That is where morality once again bears heavily upon a good outcome or a bad one. (No aborted baby has a good outcome.) Without bringing morality into the discussion, it is fruitless to discuss poverty and the well being of people.

The Lack of Social Support Systems

Again why do countries in Africa lack their own social support systems? Where you do see such systems, they fail miserably. Why? The reason is a moral one. Because of corruption. The system is condemned to failure before it starts, and no matter how much money and energy is thrown into the mix, it fails, because of the moral fabric of the people involved. You can see this brute immorality of people in crises and disasters. When there is a crisis or disaster, some people take advantage of the situation and loot. That is the brash immorality of people showing its ugly face.

In the United States, why do we have hundreds of thousands living on the streets? Because they do not have a moral compulsion to do anything but just to get by. We should pity these people, but is income redistribution the answer? Let’s talk morality for a minute and look at what the Bible says.

2 Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

The problem here is that God’s way of thinking is very strict, and in some people’s eyes (the lazy and rebellious, the thief) this is very hard to deal with. But if we think and act like God wants, then we need to be a little hard and strict just as God is. Charity is good and commanded, but that should be balanced with not supporting nor helping those who refuse to do hard honest work.

Genesis 2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

So from the creation of man, God has tasked every person with work. If you don’t like that, then learn how to live without eating. It is that simple. That is the reality of life.

1 Thessalonians 4:11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;

Our activity of working to support ourself should be studious, hard and honest work, nothing doubtful, and the basic principle of reality is that a person’s life economically and materially considered should be a reflection of what their life invested in their work can provide. Every poor person wants more. They make this their goal in life, to obtain and enjoy a lot more than they have at present. But what most people don’t meditate on is that the rich have even desire to have more. Everybody has this problem.

Ephesians 4:28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

So God wants us to work and not get gain or advantage dishonestly, i.e. stealing or taking what is not legitimately ours as provided by our hard labor. When you work a job, get paid, go to a store, and buy food and take it home and eat it, you made a transaction. All of that is based on your personal energy invested in your job, what your own body allows, and most importantly, what God allows. We always come back to morality and God in this discussion, because without that, we have no real bearing. It is what one person wants versus what another person wants.

But it is important to note that we all have the burden to work. If you don’t like digging ditches in the hot sun all day, go to school, learn a trade, and sit down in an air conditioned office to work “in the shade.” But even doing that, don’t think you should live a good life of pleasure without you paying for it with your effort, life, time, and energy. That is not reality. That is stealing. So if the government forces the rich to give to the poor, what does the poor do to deserve that? Nothing. That is called stealing. In our day, the problem is simply that government is now the means to get riches without the person really working a gainful job.

Exodus 20:15 Thou shalt not steal

There is a basic principle underlying this commandment. We have possessions because that is what God wants. So God gives us life, a body, a place to live, talents and abilities which come from the mindset of the individual, and to enjoy life is a basic principle of God. Nobody can enjoy life if what he has labored to obtain for himself and his family is stolen from them. Communism is a system of government that takes from the rich to give to the poor, with those in the Communist party not including in those that have goods taken from them, but they skim off the gifts to the poor to become very rich Communist party members. How is this anything but stealing?

1 Timothy 5:8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

So we saw in Ephesians 4:28 that one is to work in order to provide sufficient for himself, and for helping others in need. That helping those in need is tempered in refusing to help those who refuse to work for themselves. The underlying principle is that everybody should work, and they should possess and enjoy the fruits of their own labors, not stealing the fruits of others labors. Those needy we are to help are the ones who are working, especially where natural disasters or epidemics etc. has caused them great hardship.

Exodus 20:17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

Moreover, while we work, we look around to find what pleases us, and we work and strive in our own hard labors to obtain what is good and available. But God immediately prohibits steals and that includes mentally desiring to take what somebody else has. If your neighbor has a piece of furniture that you desire, work. Offer to buy it from him, or ask him where he bought it so you can go and buy one like it. But stealing it is just wrong in God’s eyes. God’s curse comes on those who disobey his laws.

2. Conflict

It is really hard to have compassion for some people. For example, I find it extremely hard to have compassion for Muslims who actually belief with their actions that a whole race of people, the Jews, just should unilaterally die because they are not Muslim. Why has America stood with Israel? Simple. Because we are next after they destroy Israel. Every person who is not Muslim is under the same target. People with that kind of warped morality do not deserve compassion from another rational person. They just need to change their own hearts before anything else.

But people make choices, and those choices can be good or bad for them. When they are deeply committed to always making bad choices, and their lives suffer because of that, the answer, the solution, the remedy is not to give them money and “fix” their economic problem in the short term, because their poor morality will force them to the same situation in the future. The fix that works is to change their moral view. Muslims resist that and would rather die first.

Why are Some People Rich and others Poor?

1 Samuel 2:7 The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up.

So the factors that the article that I mentioned above are not the real factors that make and plague the poor. 1 Samuel 2:7 is the real reason for the differences. The real reason some people are poor is because God makes them poor. To the great irritation of these poor people, God makes others rich. But we need to go deeper. Why does God do this?

The reason is because God is in a one-on-one teaching and relationship tending action with every human being, as well as with groups like nations. Only when an individual listens to God, seeks God, obeys God, i.e. moral change, will God bless that individual. To some people who refuse God, God makes them rich, and even having all their material needs taken care of for many lifetimes, they cannot find peace with God, they cannot find contentment with all they have, and they go into addictions, drinking, drugs, and some even remedy the problems of their lives with suicide. Yet some poor people find God, and they are content and happy with much less, and it goes against reason how such a person can be happy with very little materially. But again, the answer lies in one’s relationship with God, not the external situation of the person, nor the material possessions of the person. The auxiliary principle to keep in mind is that material goods does not cause happiness nor contentment.

What about Charity Projects of Rich People?

Getting back to the issue of income redistribution, there are many rich people who give to the poor. Isn’t this the goal? Voluntary income redistribution? Yet this point is ignored by those who push income redistribution. Why? Because the entire push here only hides the real issue, those doing the pushing want to make economic gain for themselves without doing the work themselves. In other words, they are thieves, cursed by God. When a wise rich person by passes charities and sets up a way to directly help the poor and needy, the charities soundly reject that as having any good long term effect. Why? Because they were cut out of the loop.

Why Giving Money to Poor People Doesn’t Really Help Them

At the root of this problem of poverty is really the reasons for poverty. But while some can paint over the real reasons with the kinds of reasons above in the article, and then launch an assault and argument that is intended to inflict guilt for everybody that has money or possessions, smart people need to see through this.

Poor people are poor because of the choices and decisions that they make in life. This is highly linked to how they see God, and submit to God. The inverse is not true. Saying the thing above, some would think that rich people are godly people as a conclusion. But rich people likewise have a lot of problems, and among them, money is one of their chief problems. Although they have abundance, the point is that rich people are unhappy, sometimes deprived because their riches are their gods, and that makes them unsatisfied with life. Their god of riches pressures them constantly for more. They chase pleasure yet while they live a life saturated in pleasure, they are not happy and content. Suicide, addictions, and conflict are ways of their rich lives.

Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

But to make things simple, some would say, let the rich give of their abundance to the poor who don’t have. Great. The problem out of the gate, before you even address anything else in this topic is simply the rich usually do not want to do that. They worship their riches as their god, and parting with their riches always has to benefit them in the here and now. Both in talking about the rich and the poor, there is little interest or even mention of eternity, of meeting God and giving account for one’s life, etc. So the moral reason to give is basically never involved in the matter of wealth transfer, except when it can be used as a club to beat moral people into giving.

But if you stop a bum on the street and give him $50 because he is hunger and hasn’t eaten in 2 days, what will he do with that money? Probably buy alcohol or drugs. Does that really help his problem (hunger, not having a job, a nice home, a family, etc.)? No. It does not. Even if you take the bum to a fast food joint and buy him food and feed him, sitting there beside him until he finishes eating it, does that help him? I have seen with my own eyes, had to meditate on this myself as a pastor, but when you buy food for a hungry drug addict, they get donations from other people, and they can get small amounts of money like recycling plastic or tin cans, but what money they do earn themselves is put at the disposition of their will. They will eat from your donation, and the money they get in the near future will not go to eat again, but for their addictions. So you have not really helped the person.

Conclusion

In the view of God and the Bible, every individual should work to support themselves and their families, and that should be the norm, the standard for all people. Government has been transformed to be big brother, always giving, and always controlling. That is wrong. As to charity, God loves a cheerful giver. So charity has to be born naturally in the heart without compulsion, and we must extremely reject laws making people give to the poor (i.e. taxes for poor and underprivileged groups like foreign aid, welfare benefits, etc.).

Income Redistribution

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