Redistribution's side effect, he pledges, will be a more prosperous America.

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This redistribution of wealth, whose effect is every bit as powerful as changes in the tax code, never surfaces in public debate.

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Mr Brown's preoccupation with stability also constrains his efforts at redistribution: he has in effect forbidden himself from spending more on the poor unless he has the wherewithal to finance it.

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The mainstream consensus has long been that a growing economy raises all boats, to much better effect than incentive-dulling redistribution.

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More importantly, continued policy focus on income redistribution perpetuates the idea that income inequality is the root of middle class economic problems, rather than the effect, allowing for the continued avoidance of the deep-rooted structural issues in the U.S. economy.

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