[MD] Down the road of mediocrity

[Case]

[Platt]
Thanks for the sixth grade civics lesson. However, you neglected to make a
distinction between voluntary and involuntary redistribution of wealth. You
also failed to acknowledge that wealth must be created before it can be 
distributed. Thanks anyway.   

[Case]
Platt, I would not have offers such a refresher if you had not demonstrated
such a crying need for it. You almost always use the terms redistribution of
wealth in the sense that this is done involuntarily. It most certainly is
not. Without a method of redistributing wealth there would be no economics
at all. Capitalism is a system for redistributing wealth just as communism
is a system for producing wealth. Both systems employ the coercive power of
government to enforce their policies.

It is the application of force that is the problem not the specifics of the
system. Pirsig claims communism is a higher moral code than capitalism. What
he sees as the failure of socialist systems to allow for the action of DQ is
really a matter of trying to exercise too much force and control in the
economy. Capitalism is nothing more that abstract Darwinism.

But you can see the effects of trying to force even so noble an ideal as
Liberty upon people at gun point. The more force you apply the more
resistance results. Resistance produces the need for more force. The net
result is the spiral of violence and the shrill cry that we are turning the
corner, there is light at the end of the tunnel. And always the body count
rises higher and higher.