Crossposting an intriguing request (from RISA-L)

[Sreenivas Paruchuri]

     To: Multiple recipients of list <risa-l at lists.acusd.edu>
     Subject: Relions and income distribution (fwd)
     From: "F. Smith" <fsmith at blue.weeg.uiowa.edu>
     Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 22:28:47 -0700 (PDT)

I received this very peculiar (and at the same time intriguing) request
from an uncharted quarter of cyberspace. Does someone with more interest,
time, and energy than me want to deal with this?

Fred Smith

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 02:23:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: niclas nilsson <niclasnilsson at yahoo.com>
Subject: Relions and income distribution

Hello!
My name is Niclas Nilsson and I am working for the Swedish Taxpayers
association. We are currently  researching different theories  and
problems of income redistibution. The question is: should we lett the
market alone take care of the inkome distribution and then leave its
failures to non-govenrmental charity, or should the government
overrule the market and distribute income in accordance with its
opinion of what fairness is.

We have now gone through the modern thinkers from the enlightenment to
today (Hobbes, Marx, Harsanyi, Rawls, Nozic, Gautier
..). They all
have one thing in common, namly that they exclude religious thoughts
from their theories of income redistribution. We have therefore in
order to make our projekt more balanced decided to look into the major
religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddism, Hinduism and
Chinese philosophy) and se what they have to say about income
redistribution.

We are specificly looking for research on the above mentioned
religions that deals with the rich and the poor, charity, taxes, the
role of government or rulers and wealth in relation to the meaning of
life. Unfortunately it seems like very little such research has been
done in Sweden, so I decided to check out and se if what I am looking
for is availible oversees. I would appreciate if you, in case you no
of any such research, could mail me that information. It would be of
great help and value as I feel that this debate on income
redistribution would greatly benefit from an injection of idéas that
has a religious basis.

Sincerly,

Niclas Nilsson
Assistant investigator
The Taxpayers Association of Sweden