 Buchanan is both the hardest to pin down on the welfare state and the most egalitarian. He has virtually nothing to say about government poverty relief. Buchanan’s contractarianism nonetheless embraces some redistribution, as he thinks his social contract would yield unanimous agreement on having a “productive” state, which provides many tax-financed goods, and could also provide social insurance (Buchanan 1975: 124). Buchanan also defends a principle of equal opportunity, which he thinks requires a 100 percent inheritance tax that would prevent the formation of an aristocracy. Presumably this principle could justify other forms of redistribution.