Any Austrians in favor of wealth redistribution?

Economics Political Theory
1

Are there any Austrian economists out there who are in favor of any sort of wealth redistribution?

I feel like it is possible to be strongly educated in the Austrian tradition and to acknowledge the fallacies of economic stimulation on the part of the government, but to still think that some policies of wealth redistribution, such as the negative income tax, are favorable for a government to implement on the grounds that the poor, inefficient managers of resources as they may be, deserve (for some arbitrary reason) more than they would be provided in a totally free market. Are there any prominent Austrians who hold this opinion?

2

Charity yes.

Forced redistribution, no. It ignores how goods and services are produced.

3

Insofar as wealth is currently concentrated among a politically powerful class, yes. And I don’t think I’m alone in these sentiments.

However, this sentiment is dependent on whether we perceive the “initial” (by which I mean, at the time of examination) distribution of wealth as the product of previous injustices.

4

Yeah… insofar as political elites can be said to have stolen wealth, we favor a distribution back to where it came from.

5

You can redistribute your own money however you see fit. Everything else is theft.

6

Roger Koppl, Greg Ransom, Mario Rizzo maybe. Hayek too, I think, possibly somewhat Mises too. I includes unemployment benefits and similar programs.

7

To say any Austrian economist “favors” redistribution is probably putting it too strongly. I think Austrian economists reluctantly accept that a little redistribution might be for the best.

My personal preference, in an ideal world, would be for public welfare to be calibrated to private charity; that is, when private charity expands public welfare should withdraw. I would predict that eventually public welfare would be eliminated entirely.

8

Many Austrians can be said to favor a specific form of redistribution. Specifically, many Austrians support minarchy, or minimal government, which implies the redistribution of wealth by having the wealthy (who presumably pay more in taxes) subsidize the law and defense expenditures of the poor.

9

Knutt Wicksell.

10

Theodore Burczak is an Austrian Marxist, making him a rather unique breed. He supports a fairly extensive redistribution of wealth as a result.

11

My view of Hayek is that he reluctantly agreed to some relatively harmless forms of redistribution as a way of keeping the working and productive parts of the society safe from violent and extreme acts on part of those that are not as productive and peaceful. I think of it as a small bribe…

12

Can you steal from a thief?

In which case, going to GWB’s house, and taking a fridge might not be theft. Also, tons of tax eating bankers might be legitimate targets.

Although having said that, I don’t like the disrespect for property it might create in a free society.

13

Theodore Burczak is not an Austrian by any means. He is a socialist who has attempted to bypass the Hayekian socialist calculation problem.

14

I would disagree. Burczak has clearly studied Hayek (and Kirzner, to a much lesser extent) fairly carefully, judging from the scholarship displayed in his book. Moreover, he at least attempts to use a market process approach throughout his work (although I would argue he is inconsistent in this method). He may be wrong in his conclusions, but I don’t think that exiles him from the Austrian club.

15

following Rothbard on Confiscation and the Homesteading Principle… I am going to say yes. Some Austrians support a wealth redistribution.

16

Yeah, albeit in a very theorethical sense that is not redistribution, because the property is not siezed from its rightful owners. Instead the rightful claim to the property in question is enforced over the non-rightful claim.