P. J. O'Rourke Quotes

I actually believe in redistribution (of wealth)

Socialists will often talk as if some form of superbly equalized destitution were preferable to "maldistributed" plenty. A national income that is rapidly growing in absolute terms for practically everyone will be deplored because it is making the rich richer.

Fair Shares for All, is Labour's Call

…no one should own more than a certain amount of land or receive more than a certain amount of income…

The Tenth Commandment sends a message to socialists, to collectivists, to people who believe that wealth is best obtained by redistribution, and that message is clear and concise . . . Egalitarianism is sinful; it's also cowardly.

Robin Hood had it right.Humanity's deepest wish is to spread the wealth.

Economics is sometimes associated with the study and defense of selfishness and material inequality, but it has an egalitarian and civil libertarian core that should be celebrated.

The amassing of unfettered wealth of individuals and corporations should stop. The inheritance of rich people's wealth by their children should stop. The expropriators should have their wealth expropriated and redistributed.

'Egalitarians' who complain about inequality view the wealth of the wealthiest as bad in itself: it disfigures society. They would enact a wealth tax to extirpate the offending wealth.

Government has got to work for all of us and not just for a few billionaires..

Share the Wealth

Why shouldn't the American people take half my money from me? I took all of it from them.

We’ve taken care not to penalize the wealthy but we have to redistribute some income …It is through reform that we can obtain fairness in the modern world…A reformed welfare state is the only way to obtain social justice.

I believe in capitalism but in fair capitalism.

I don’t have anything against the rich. I just want some of their money to pay for essential services.

I don't subscribe to the view that people who are better off don't want to live in a more equal society.

If the goal is truly about equality, it has to be about a goal of saying everybody should end up in the same place.  And since we didn’t start in the same place.  Some folks might need more equitable distribution. 

I believe we stand strongly against having the tax code used to make the income disparity in America any worse than it already.

If welfare and equality are to be primary aims of law, some people must necessarily possess a greater power of coercion in order to force redistribution of material goods. Political power alone should be equal among human beings; yet striving for other kinds of equality absolutely requires political inequality.

Imagine what would happen if the government were to take the wealth of 200,000 of India's richest people and redistribute it amongst 2 million of India's poorest? We would hear a lot about socialist appropriation and the death of democracy. Why should taking from the rich be called appropriation and taking from the poor be called development?

What pushes the masses into the camp of socialism is, even more than the illusion that socialism will make them richer, the expectation that it will curb all those who are better than they themselves are.

Whoever claims the right to redistribute the wealth produced by others is claiming the right to treat human beings as chattel.

The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism. I am for Socialism because I am for humanity. We have been cursed with the reign of gold long enough. Money constitutes no proper basis of civilization. The time has come to regenerate society - we are on the eve of universal change.

I am going to attack income inequality and I think I have a pretty good plan to do so. I don't just tell you what I'm against. I tell you what I'm for and how I would do it.