Thought exercise: cap on wealth

Fedorgasm

Fedorgasm

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I'm not saying I'm in favor of it. I don't want this to turn into a political discussion.

I'm just wondering what would the impact be if this happened?

Let's say the richest you could become was 500 million net worth. Anything you made after that would be taken away instantly.

You have to assume a few things here.

1. Assume there is one world government. Because otherwise the rich would move to other countries to escape this cap.

2. Assume that this law was already passed despite the rich trying to fight it.

3. Assume that somehow, this cap is enforced effectively. Like they can't just bribe their way around it.

Would people make 500 million and then retire, since there's no point in continuing to work?

Would we be removing some of the most innovative people from the workforce? Like Elon musk? Would the world miss out on his future contributions because he's chilling on a beach somewhere?

Would they continue to work, but just change their focus from making money to securing the money they already have?

Would they focus on gaining power rather than money?

Would the public hate them any less?

Would you have more rich people since there is more money floating around? Like instead of one guy having 5 billion and 9 guys with zero, you'd have 10 guys with 500 million each?
 
Stock market would completely collapse and global chaos and war would ensue.
 
I like these kind of exercises a lot. It's good for people to try and imagine what the ramifications of different choices are and to understand that things don't have to be the way they currently are.
 
The first answers of "relatives accounts" is certainly true to some degree.

Spouses and children would certainly often be popular avenues.
More distant relatives seem more iffy to me, though.

Would you be giving it to them with the expectation that they'd give most of it back at some point? Is that reasonable?
Plus, your net worth can't go above 500M, so if you take some of your money and buy another business or buy real estate or whatever...your net worth doesn't drop, it's still essentially at the limit and you can't just take 300M back from your relative anyway. Only money spent on something disposable or depreciating allows you to 'restock' with more cash/value.

Or would you just be rewarding them because you like them? Are people willing to work that hard to enrich their favorite uncle?
 
Every major corporation would be owned by the government right now.
 
The super rich would love this. They already try every trick they have to make sure no new wealth or new competitors for power arrive on the scene and start throwing around money buying influence.

Those that do are normally either co-opted or eliminated
 
Happy Man said:
The super rich would love this. They already try every trick they have to make sure no new wealth or new competitors for power arrive on the scene and start throwing around money buying influence.

Those that do are normally either co-opted or eliminated
Click to expand...
Lol this couldn't be farther from the truth. Wealthy people don't give a fuck if other people get rich, they just want to keep their own money and decide how to spend it. Wealthy people are the ones that invest in new ventures that create other wealthy people.
 
500million including assets? Or just money in the bank? If the latter, just keep buying more and more stuff.
 
In the American system I don’t think it would work at all. Individual liberty is a very real American principal. I would never tell anyone else how to live to such extremes.
 
I think it would be a bad idea. History has shown any time you disincentivize people from making more money, you get much less production and GDP. In a sense, we do something similar with progressive taxation. But that doesn’t put a hard ceiling on any number and people can always make more money. And while it’s true that, at some amount of income, people stop investing and/or spending it, and just start saving it which is bad for the economy, I think the psychological effect of them knowing they can only make a certain amount of money would result in them doing just enough to reach that 500 million and production would likely suffer to some degree.

I just think a more progressive tax plan for those who make over 500 million would accomplish what we want and would still give people incentive to produce as much as they do.

And our previous tax plan (before Trump) could probably have worked if the wealthy hadn’t rewritten the tax code one law at a time to give themselves all kinds of write offs and exemptions that effectively limited the percentage of income taxes they pay to much lower levels than the law mandates.
 
You would make an aristocracy out of the government. Corrupt and power hungry people follow the money, which is now all in the government. All the people who complain about how evil businessmen are, would just switch to saying it about the government instead. Not that they do not already do that now too.
 
Completely opposed to it.

Some people make a fat stack and say "fuck it" and retire early. Others find the pursuit of wealth more rewarding than spending it. In either case, they got rich by providing value (i.e. shit you want) to others. They didn't steal anything. It was an even exchange.
 
A lot of answers I find really odd.

If the thread isn't wrecked, I'll put some thoughts here tomorrow, maybe.
 
id riot. and encourage others to do the same.
 
the folks who are driven by money would drop out, those driven by progress/altruism might stay in the game and donate the excess.

overall i think it is a bad idea. Entrepreneurial money hungry folks live for achieving lofty goal that this policy would stifle. If such a thing is implemented, there ought to be limits or new incentives like 500M (profit?) per enterprise you own / 1kg cocaine per each $1M > 500M etc.
 
headkicktoleg said:
Lol this couldn't be farther from the truth. Wealthy people don't give a fuck if other people get rich, they just want to keep their own money and decide how to spend it. Wealthy people are the ones that invest in new ventures that create other wealthy people.
Click to expand...

New wealth is a threat to old wealth. New wealth begins to attempt to buy the same politicians, the same judges.
 
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