Robin Hanson wrote:
>
> Daljit Dhadwal wrote:
> >Before the Communist revolution in Russia, around every 10 years(I think)
> >land was equally divided up and distributed to the peasents. Also, under
> >some religions debts have to be foregiven every so often. What's the
> >rationale for this type of periodic redistribution?
>
> An obvious candidate is social insurance. And the obvious question about
> that is how well this mechanism compares to other social insurance
> mechanisms. This one at least is simple and clear, and difficult to
> corrupt.
I think it far more likely that this was a tremendously costly way of
satisfying envy. My suspicion is that practices like that in primitive
societies were the main reason economic growth was so slow to take root.
The social insurance rationale is quite weak - weather shocks hit
everyone in the village about the same. So you'd have to focus on
personal shocks to health and the like.
And since the redistribution happens only every ten years, a person
would need a bunch of bad personal shocks year after year to fall well
below average land holdings. People who gained a lot of land were
probably just low in ability and effort, not unlucky.
--
Prof. Bryan Caplan [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan
"We may be dissatisfied with television for two quite different
reasons: because our set does not work, or because we dislike
the program we are receiving. Similarly, we may be dissatisfied
with ourselves for two quite different reasons: because our body
does not work (bodily illness), or because we dislike our
conduct (mental illness)."
--Thomas Szasz, *The Untamed Tongue*
