Redistribution

We hear a lot from the right-wingers about how progressive taxation is redistribution of wealth; how it takes money from hardworking rich people and gives it to (apparently) lazy poor people.

It's true that there is a transfer element if we tax the wealthy and use that money to pay for food stamps. However, we hear nothing about the redistribution of wealth that occurs from the poor to the already rich, every day.

Take a simple example. Man owns a business and employs 200 people. He buys another business, which also employs 200 people. By consolidating these businesses he is able to "cut costs", a euphemistic way of saying he lays people off. The result of this is that people who had jobs, no longer have them, and in the process the owner of the business increases his personal wealth.

Looks a lot like a redistribution of wealth to me