[memonkey]

I would LOVE to know what the negative consequences are of compulsory income redistribution and for whom. In fact, I wonder if there are any positives. Social democracy is OF COURSE a recent phenomenon -- I mean, what era are you comparing it to?

Furthermore, and not saying that I disagree about your comment on the New Left, but "free association" is a non-sequitur even in the society you wish to exist (which doesn't [sucks]).

[aminok]

The negative consequence of compulsory income redistribution is the perversion of incentives leading to less individual responsibility over time. This saps the will to achieve, and leads to less economic development.

These programs are also clumsy cookie cutter solutions, which with a stroke a pen, impose the same formula to tens/hundreds of millions of people, without any consideration for the unique circumstances of this vast multitude of people. On one end, the people lose out, and on the other, they win out in the short term. The only determinant of which side a person is on is the amount of currency that they report to the government that they received for that year.

This becomes increasingly better gamed over time, leading to competitive energies being diverted to economically wasteful activities like tax avoidance (which is an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars per year now).

To boil it down to its essence: there is no way compulsory income redistribution will be as effective (in the context of increasing economic output) as the market at distributing capital, and it is increasing economic output that is responsible for almost all gains in qualify of life and poverty reduction.

Free association is a straightforward concept and entirely feasible to protect through laws.