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Harbingers of Redistribution

When to start exfiltrating wealth.

Move too early and you incur cost, complexity, and risk.

Move too late and ...

via GIPHY

The airwaves are awash with talk about fairness and inequality. 

But words don't always get turned into action.

Here's when it did in the past.

My country, right

Clement Attlee, David Lloyd George, and Franklin D. Roosevelt did not so much vilify the wealthy as they appealed to national values like fairness and opportunity. That is, they couched 'tax the rich' as social patriotism, notwithstanding that the rich are part of the patria.

When politicians get wise enough to frame equality as uniquely [insert nationality here] it's time to memorise your SWIFT codes. 

Hate the game, not the player 

Narratives that 'The Economy Is Rigged' also make people more amenable to redistributive policies. (Culpepper, Shandler, Lee et al 2024)

So when the vibe shifts from hating billionaires to correcting for systemic flaws, warm up your crypto-wallet.

Lie back and think of England 

Why worry? It's for the greater good, right?

Surely you, a non-oligarch, will receive some of their pie.

via GIPHY

 

Well-intentioned confiscatory policies will hit the middle class more than the wealthy because capital and capitalists are mobile. When nations transitioned from colonialism to communism in the 20th century the people that got away were those rich enough to afford a ticket out. 

With the metaphorical gold now out of the country, the next logical target was the silver in the cupboards. And so on, until everyone remaining gets, well, redistributed.

Stop the votes

But it can be stopped. 

The narrative that the economy is systemically unfair can be countered with the narrative that government is too incompetent to remedy it.

Successive generations are not destined to FAFO with redistribution. Moaning about economic injustice has gone on since at least the GFC, with only a few half-hearted wealth taxes. Despite the current hype about 'intergenerational fairness', confiscation is not inevitable.

Academia has also revealed signs to help you decide whether to stay, fight, or run.

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Location: 1 Martin Pl, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia

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