Redistribution of Wealth

How “wealth” should be distributed has been a central bone of contention in every human society since the beginning of time.  Obama was once heard talking to“Joe the plumber” about the need to “spread the wealth around”.   Redistribution of wealth is, in fact, a major goal of socialism, and his remarks were therefore criticized  by those wanting market forces to be the sole determiner of how the economic pie gets sliced and distributed.   On the other hand, he was praised by those more sympathetic to the socialist cause and in favor of checking the tendency of capitalism to create great disparities in wealth.