This point can be expressed as follows: we should redistribute wealth only up to the point that it maximizes the rate of sustainable economic growth. This may mean more redistribution than we currently undertake, and sometimes redistribution of a different kind, namely growth-enhancing redistribution. (By no means do all of today’s government programs actually redistribute wealth to the poor, much less boost economic growth.) It will not, however, suggest that a utilitarian or consequentialist approach obliges us to redistribute most of our nation’s income to the very poor. Nor are productive
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