Historically taxes were (and theoretically still should be) to fund the lifestyles of the king, the king's family and the nobility.

America was founded on breaking from traditions to try new ideas (a government for the people by the people), but somewhere along the way y'all stopped innovating and started resisting all change. Redistribution of wealth fits perfectly into "gov for the people by the people". The many benefiting from the work of the many.

It is the wealthy and above average earners that already pay most of the taxes in America and some disagree with where the government is spending funds and even what they are taxing (one of the primary causes of our Civil War mind you). Redistribution of wealth has been tried in countries like Venezuela and many places but it collapses eventually when you have a single point of failure. Hell theres Social Security which got basically ruined by the government.

Any kind of redistribution would need to be at the full discretion of local governments instead of a federal body. The amount of power our federal government has amassed itself would make the founding fathers roll over in their graves, or pick up their musquets and revolt.

> one of the primary causes of our Civil War mind you

Yeah don’t mention slavery. Everything else was a big second.

And cherry pick some extreme examples.

I wasn't trying to list out all the causes of the civil war, it wasn't topical when discussing taxes. I didn't say it was "THE" cause.

The concept of free schooling emerged before socialism, and would not generally be thought of as socialist (or redistributive) by most people.

Really? If I remember correctly it was mentioned in The Communist Manifesto.

Noted Communist Thomas Jefferson proposed it rather before the Communist Manifesto was written (not that he came up with the idea, of course), and some US states and various other places started introducing it from the early 19th century on.

Just because Marx was in favour of something doesn’t necessarily make it inherently socialist.

But something can be socialist even if it came about before the idea of socialism was put forth.

Remote villages have lived in communistic systems but have no idea about the concept of communism.

Are you using ‘socialism’ to mean ‘doing anything for the common good’? I mean, free education seems completely orthogonal to socialism as normally defined.

How so? Please give me your definition of socialism and reasoning for calling it "orthogonal" to free education.

Not the OP, but Socialism is generally concerned with democratic ownership of the means of production.

Like stock options for employees?

Only if the company doesn’t have any other shareholders. I think John Lewis is run like that? Devil is in the details, and I’ve never had reason to look closely in their case: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_Partnership

I would argue that “things in the Communist Manifesto” defines communism, in the same way that “things in the Bible” defines Christianity even though some (lots?) of the Bible originated in Judaism.

That said, I was asking for an example of the concept of free schooling from before socialism, and I got it :)