Redistribution, Political Power, and Public Goods

The core of the argument offered here is that the trade off between these two choices boils down to a benefit cost calculation rather than a Bergsonian or Arrovian value judgement: i.e., in return for the net benefits which a society obtains from the productive, public good supplying activities of a social order, it must pay costs in the form of redistriubtion to favored and powerful groups -- costs which its form of governance exacts. Both the allocative and the redistributive expenditures of governments are financed from taxation or private production/consumption.