In a free-market society, as should be clear from our analysis in Section 4, a very large income generally indicates an exceptional level of ability in providing for the wants of consumers in an efficient manner. One acquires income only by means of voluntary exchange with others, that is, by creating a product that has greater value to others than the dollars that they are willing to pay for it. The free-market economy is not a zero-sum game, and (after all factors have been taken in to account) a high income is not earned at anyone else's expense. Even the least able individual reaps greater objective values under such a system.

Certainly, market incomes cannot be collected like a deck of cards and re-dealt to the whole population. As can be seen from our earlier analyses of taxation (pp. 4.11:89-121) and subsidies (pp. 4.11:155-63), attempts to "redistribute" wealth in this manner cause much of it simply to evaporate. "Redistribution" schemes, therefore, should not be viewed as modifications of or alterations to an existing "distribution" policy, because no one "distributes" wealth in the free market.