[jerf]

And I actually think that furthers the idea that "money == wealth" isn't a helpful way to look at the world. Why are food stamps so effective? Because when you're hungry, food stamps are astonishing wealth to the recipient, far more than the societal costs of providing it.

Unfortunately for people who read this as a strong endorsement for general redistribution, it is indeed the "biggest bang" and once you have filled someone's belly (and generally filled in the lower Maslow levels), you no longer have such simple options to take a bit of wealth from one and give a lot of wealth to another. At the margins that's not the choice we face; usually it looks more like my original post.

I am a libertarian, but I greatly value the social safety net. It is an incredible, incredible source of societal wealth. The problem is that there's no way to scale the safety net up beyond being a safety net, because again let me emphasize that would be awesome, but it just doesn't work.

[drharris]

Yes, wholeheartedly agree here. I was not thinking of having the basic Maslow levels met, as I think that kind of social net should be somewhat guaranteed, and the economic benefit is obvious. Once those needs are met, does a redistribution of $100 have a net positive or negative on the overall economy? Not sure, but gut tells me negative. The wealthy will invest, which has a tiny net positive on the economy that compounds over time. The non-wealthy will consume, which has a positive immediate benefit on the economy, but poor long-term benefit along with terrible environmental consequences. Really, we probably need both for any economy to survive, but consumption is what the middle class is for anyway.