As for redistributing material things, all societies do it. But mostly they keep it in the family. I've got one already, and one's enough. Anyway, a modern government is not a family, not even metaphorically. Imagine a family where the kids and the dogs could vote. What would the food be like? Depends on the number of dogs. *

* P. J. O'Rourke, Eat The Rich: A Treatise on Economics (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1998), 76.