What the heck am I doing?: Government redistribution of wealth: Is it right?

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Government redistribution of wealth: Is it right?

Government redistribution of wealth: Is it right?: "

Should the government take from the rich to give to the poor?

I am going to try to keep this as politically neutral as possible, but I would like to get some reader's opinions on wealth redistribution. We had a guest post last week about Reverse wealth distribution that stirred up a lot of discussion, so I wanted to discuss it from a different angle.

Biblically it is very clear that we should be redistributing our wealth to help the less fortunate. But what role should the government be playing in this with our tax dollars? I have a few thoughts about it, but I really want to hear what everyone else thinks…

My thoughts on redistributing wealth

It encourages laziness.

Why would you work for something if you know you will receive it without working?

It sounds unconstitutional.

Not sure if it is - can someone confirm or deny?

Money isn't the answer.

So many people believe that money will solve their money problems, nothing could be further from the truth.

We should be willingly redistributing our wealth.

We should be the ones giving. When the government takes from a rich person to give to a poor person. The rich person isn't giving, but rather they are being taken from. There is a huge difference for both the giver and receiver. When you receive something from someone who truly wanted to give it, it is a whole lot different than when they are forced to to turn it over.

I don't need to repeat the numerous verses from the Bible about giving to the less fortunate. As Christians, providing for the poor and less fortunate is our responsibility - regardless of what the government does.

The whole thing is a mess.

As I sit and try to think of a solution, it is kind of overwhelming. You have some rich people who manipulate the system to avoid paying taxes. You have some poor people waiting for a handout. And you have a government that does a less than stellar job of managing our tax-dollars wisely.