Spiteful Egalitarianism is the phrase Martin Feldstein uses to describe most current policy proposals from left-of-centre politicians [listen to his Oct. 5th interview at Bloomberg].
Feldstein's argument is that political positions today are not so much, "What can or should we do to help the poor and the disadvantaged?" Rather, they are spiteful positions that resent the wealth of others. They seem to be saying, "You have more than I do, and I want some." It doesn't matter whether you got more because you worked hard, because you saved and invested, because you acquired more education, or because you were lucky — if you have more, you're not entitled to it.
This is a tragic position, if Feldstein is correct. It encourages people to become rent-seekers, hand-out-seekers, and redistributionists; and it discourages people from working and saving to increase their future consumption. It fosters a society in which we base concepts of fairness not on whether the rules are fair but on whether the outcomes are equal. There's no quicker way to stall growth and make future generations much worse off than they would otherwise be. There is no quicker way to suffer the losses and degradation of England of the 1960s, Canada under Trudeau-type entitlements, or pre-1980s socialism and communism.
As I told some people earlier this week, "If you are going to redistribute wealth from those who value it less to those who value it more, let me tell you right now that no matter how you measure it, I value it more than you or anyone else, so give it all to me."