… is from page 156 of Thomas Sowell’s important 1990 volume, Preferential Policies: An International Perspective:
Part of the moral aura surrounding preferential policies is due to the belief that such policies benefit the less fortunate. The losers in this presumed redistribution are seldom specified, though the underlying assumption seems to be that they are the more fortunate.
Empirical evidence for such assumptions is largely lacking and the a priori case for believing them is unconvincing.