Equality under the law

• A free, peaceful, and civilized society requires that all individuals have equal opportunities under the law.
• The most effective way to help people experiencing poverty is to create the conditions necessary for them to thrive and prosper. The best way to do that is to calibrate all laws with the Legal Principle.

The impossibility of actual equality

• Inequality exists along every axis, not just wealth - we are all different, endowed with various skills and gifts.
• Many of us would love to play football/soccer for Real Madrid. Real Madrid discriminates against us because of our physical attributes. Is this fair? Similarly, is it fair that only fast runners win Olympic gold medals? Not only is actual equality impossible, but if sports teams stopped selecting based on excellence and instead aimed for equality for all people, they would no longer be great sports teams.
• Given that we all have inherent differences, instead of comparing ourselves with others and seeking the impossible goal of permanent wealth equality, the 3L Movement’s members focus on aligning with the Aspirational Values, including voluntary kindness, high character, and striving to be the best version of ourselves.

Wealth inequality

• To the extent that any person’s peacefully accumulated wealth is a problem, it is a moral problem. As a moral problem, we must resolve it without resorting to the law.
• Attempting to solve the alleged moral problem of wealth inequality by involuntarily appropriating or redistributing money from one person to another only creates additional problems.
• Besides violating the Legal Principle and opening the door to legalizing theft as a proposed solution for many other issues, countless practical problems arise regarding who to steal from, in what amount, at what times, and who to redistribute to, along with a host of related issues.
• Our goal should be for the poor to become wealthier, rather than for everyone to have the same level of wealth, regardless of overall prosperity.

Forced wealth redistribution disincentivises productivity.

• Even if we could magically equalize all wealth worldwide, or even in a given community, this would be short-lived as people begin to earn, invest, inherit, and spend money differently. In short order, financial inequalities would again reemerge. Would we violate the Legal Principle again by forcibly redistributing wealth in another attempt to equalize people? Productive people will quickly realize there is no point in earning money, at least over a certain amount, as it would be stolen by the government and redistributed to others. This endless redistribution leads others to reasonably and quickly conclude there is no point in working. The net result of forced redistribution to combat financial inequality ensures mass poverty.

What is the ‘right amount’ of redistribution, anyway?

• Laziness, drunkenness, irresponsibility, lack of motivation, or even excessive spending are all complicated issues. As with all other problems, initiating force is not the solution. Such issues must be addressed voluntarily by virtuous individuals who act with the right intentions to help others. Indeed, this is precisely what the Aspirational Values, including voluntary kindness, encourage. We can accomplish our goals by enthusiastically promoting voluntary charity and creating the economic and pro-freedom conditions necessary to raise overall living standards.

Who to redistribute to, anyway?

• Many proponents of forced redistribution of wealth would not support equalizing all wealth worldwide, but only between the arbitrary borders of their own nation-state.

The benefits of the hugely wealthy people

• We are all better off when some people have disproportionate wealth sufficient to invest in new ventures that directly or indirectly benefit us all.