You're right, I didn't fully understand your comment. I haven't read Harrison Bergeron and didn't realize he actually bit that bullet. I agree that a mild form

You're right, I didn't fully understand your comment. I haven't read Harrison Bergeron and didn't realize he actually bit that bullet. I agree that a mild form of status seeking exists (e.g. last place aversion), but I was taking issue with the strong form. Personally, I don't bite the bullet of extreme redistribution myself. There are a few forms of harmful signalling I'd favor taxing (e.g. educational certification) and a few forms of negative signalling I'd favor subsidizing/regulating (e.g. mandatory paternity tests), but generally I think we just need to accept accidents of birth/luck/etc and should only apply minimal interference in extreme cases. I raise this more as a reducto-ad-absurdum than something I actually advocate.