The Blagojevich scandal, despite the fact that Blag himself comes from a modest background, displays a very basic fact about government: it's absurd to assert that it generally, or even ever, has the effect of equalizing income or power. In Chicago politics, as is the case to some degree everywhere, money leads to political power which leads to money which leads to political power, and so on infinitely. You can't make power/money out of liquor licenses if the state doesn't purport to control the flow of liquor. Or appointments, etc etc. The mere existence of political power is a condition of an extremely unjust distribution of all resources. This is a massive fact on which every redistribution downward - e.g. by a graduated income tax - is a patina. It's true in communist regimes, true in fascist regimes, true in democratic regimes. That's why if your argument for state power is made in terms of egalitarianism or distributive justice, you're just wrong. That said, what a disgusting stupid slob that Blagojevich is.