No one but government and drug dealers get rich by taking money from the poor

Robert Reich is a reliable liberal from the Clinton administration who still does not get.  He writes in an op-ed:
One of the worst epithets that can be leveled at a politician these days is "redistributionist." Yet 2013 marked one of the biggest redistributions in recent American history - a redistribution upward, from average working people to the owners of America.

The stock market ended 2013 at an all-time high, giving stockholders their biggest annual gain in almost two decades. Most Americans didn't share in those gains, however, because most people haven't been able to save enough to invest in the stock market. More than two-thirds of Americans live from paycheck to paycheck.
...
The fact is that many of those people living paycheck to paycheck have pensions invested in the markets as do the educational institutions that liberals also love to give money to.

But the bottom line is that no one gets rich by taking money from the poor.  People get rich by providing goods and services that others are willing to pay for.  That is hardly a redistribution of wealth, it is a voluntary exchange based on value.

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