Amen.

Paul Graham’s essay on Inequality and Risk is easily the finest thing I have read on the Internet this month. Condensed and amplified, here’s his argument – like all legalized theft, high taxes make risk less appealing and therefore make risky activities like startups less appealing. Attempting to redistribute wealth has very real consequences; if we want a culture that encourages entrepreneurship, we shouldn’t bother. I couldn’t support his argument more. I’m loving life in the United States because it’s not a nanny state, and gives me the opportunity to do a lot of risky things.

The general case of Graham’s argument – social engineering doesn’t work well no matter how much we might want it to – really hit me about three years ago, after reading James Scott’s magnificent “Seeing Like a State : How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed.” (Myron Magnet’s “The Dream and the Nightmare“, which I read later, only reinforced this.) But neither book is as relevant to my current life, work, and ambitions as Graham’s essay. (Thanks to Matthew Gertner for the pointer. )