"Would Obama or Romney redistribute more?" Posted by Ezra Klein at WP

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Would Obama or Romney redistribute more?

Posted by Ezra Klein at WP

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/09/20/would-obama-or-romney-redistribute-more/

"SNIP...............................................

When most people hear the word “redistribution,” they think of one kind of redistribution: From the rich to the poor.

But the government redistributes resources in all sorts of ways. It redistributes from the healthy to the sick, and the young to the old. Those forms of redistribution are also pretty well known.

The government also redistributes in stranger ways. The mortgage-interest deduction, for instance, redistributes from home renters to homeowners. The tax exclusion for employer provided health care redistributes from people who buy health insurance on their own to people who get it from the workplace. The deductability for interest redistributes from firms that rely on equity financing to firms that rely on debt financing. Defense spending redistributes from taxpayers to military contractors.

In a sense, almost every choice the government makes about how to spend or how to tax involves a decision to redistribute in some way or another.

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1. Excellent article.