It has never worked to take from the rich to give to the poor. The reason it has never worked is that no one has ever tried it. All such schemess involved cheating, defrauding, or stealing from the poor and giving the proceeds to the rich and powerful.

I wonder how many who can afford to purchase goods that are higher quality but cost more actual buy these higher quality/more expensive goods, or are they too attached to their money. Money can be as strong a fetish item as boots.

There was once a rich man and a poor man. The state decides to help the poor man, so to get funds it raises a tax. The rich man's tax adviser tells him where to move his money, when and how to move his money, so he pays very little of the tax, the poor man has no tax adviser and so pays a lot of it. The state then employs a civil servant to spend to money on the poor man, but first of course the civil servant takes a share to cover the expenses, (with a bit extra of course), the civil servant then feels better off, and so the civil servant buys an even bigger house, from the rich man's company, who also got richer.

And so everyone is happy, the state has done something about poverty, the civil servant is better off and the rich man is even richer. Did I forget somebody ?

Great way to think about wealth inequality.

Love the wisdom of Sam Vimes.