This has long been the truth, this redistribution. But the value to the whole for such redistribution cannot be underestimated. Rural electrification was simply a transfer of wealth from wealthy urban centers to poor rural ones. In the end the city IS feeding itself through such efforts, but not in ways that are easily measured by the flow of tax receipts and expenditures.
Obviously listening to the rhetoric of the gov haters in lands of red gets tiring, but my food is cheaper and fresher, members of my commune far removed are less isolated and read the internet too, .... it is cheaper than guns and war. Kinda like food stamps are cheaper than prisons.