The key quote:
If the redistributionists were serious, what they would want to distribute is the ability to fish, or to be productive in other ways. Knowledge is one of the few things that can be distributed to people without reducing the amount held by others.
That would better serve the interests of the poor, but it would not serve the interests of politicians who want to exercise power, and to get the votes of people who are dependent on them.
My question, asked by the interviewer, was not really answered. Who decides best practices, media control, investments? It's all well and good to state that everyone must be involved, that one must practice democracy with a small "d," but really, that presupposes that everyone is perfectly matched to their job, that everyone's needs and desires are not only taken into account, but fulfilled... The Soviet model tried selling this idea, and 20-30 million lives were lost. Mao TseTung, too, tried the Great Leap Forward, and up to five times more people lost their lives. I'm not ready to advance the hypothesis that we, as a country, are headed down that particular path, but then again, who would've thought, 20 years ago, that Venezuela would be the basket case that it is today? All it takes is one small step and a slippery slope....
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