For much of the past three decade we have seen the opposite, so the household share of the rapidly growing pie has contracted while the state share has expanded. This must be reversed.

Even worse, the notion of redistribution has the pernicious effect of framing social progress as a taking, as if the government were a greedy, many-tentacled monster seeking to reach deeper into your pocket.

most of these developments fall on the left side of the political spectrum. That is because they gradually redistribute wealth from the rich to everybody else.

This is borne out by observation. Many observers have been surprised by the fact that in the past few years the Chinese government has taken steps to improve the Chinese social safety net but consumption has continued to decline as a share of GDP and savings to rise. But they should not have been surprised. Improvements in the social safety net tha