Spread the Wealth

Recently, in an exchange with Joe Wurzelbacher, Barack Obama said that if he were elected president, he would “spread the wealth around”. Here is an excerpt of that exchange:

Obama’s “redistribution of wealth” statement reminded me of this principle taught by John Taylor¹:

There is also another political party, who desire, through the influence of legislation and coercion, to level the world. To say the least, it is a species of robbery; to some it may appear an honorable one, but, nevertheless, it is robbery. What right has any private man to take by force the property of another? The laws of all nations would punish such a man as a thief. Would thousands of men engaged in the same business make it more honorable? Certainly not. And if a nation were to do it, would a nation’s act sanctify a wrong deed? No; the Algerine pirates, or Arabian hordes, were never considered honorable, on account of their numbers; and a nation, or nations, engaging in this would only augment the banditti, but could never sanctify the deed.²

Regardless of which party is in control of the White House, none seem able to stop this form of legalized “robbery”.

For an interesting perspective on “distributism” and whether the free market conforms with Catholic principles, see Thomas E. Woods, Jr.’s article What’s Wrong with “Distributism”.

Sources:

1. John Taylor was the third Prophet and President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1880-1887. He was personally acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith and his teachings.↩
2. Taylor, John. The Government of God. London: W. Bowden, 1852. 23.↩