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What do you think would happen if all money was redistributed equally amongst everyone?
If the poor were suddenly put on an equal playing field, would the thrive? Or would they find themselves poor again?
Thoughts?
M1 by my math equates to about $27,000 per American. That money would be quickly squandered and the economy would collapse. I am not sure most of the rich would bounce back because the economy would be so hopeless very few would prosper, most likely those connected with the government.
Venezuela comes to mind.
Last edited by Oklazona Bound; 02-01-2019 at 08:38 AM..
What do you think would happen if all money was redistributed equally amongst everyone?
If the poor were suddenly put on an equal playing field, would the thrive? Or would they find themselves poor again?
Thoughts?
I personally think that within a short time, the rich would be wealthy again and the poor would be poor again. It is not what you make, but how you manage the money you have. So unless they had a crash course, they would continue making the same choices that put them in the poor house previously.
When you say 'all money', do you mean just USD? And if USD, does that include USD based debt money, i.e. Treasuries?
And when you say 'amongst everyone', do you mean all the people of the world (USD's exist all over the world), or more simply US citizens or families?
$21T spread out over say 100M US families = $210K per family.
First off we would see inflation of goods and service typically purchased by the poor and middle classes.
There also would be huge business, legit and otherwise, with investments, advisors and decisions.
Because the economic scenario moving forward would be very different if your proposal is a one time thing, or if the proposal would apply and be repeated on some ongoing time basis.
M1 by my math equates to about $27,000 per American. That money would be quickly squandered and the economy would collapse. I am not sure most of the rich would bounce back because the economy would be so hopeless very few would prosper, most likely those connected with the government.
Venezuela comes to mind.
Only if our productivity dropped. i.e. so many people refused to work.
This basically happened in Russia., in our lifetime. In 1990, it suddenly became a free market economy, productive capacity in place, in which everyone had the same wealth. An instant Mafia-like system formed, and the wealth was distributed according to their rules, and then a few people had it all. Americans stood by and watched and said "Isn't this grand!"
If you divvied up all the money and allotted it equally among everyone, it wouldn't be terribly long before some people were rich again and others were dead broke. Because intelligence and wisdom are two different qualities in life, so some people are smart and wise while other people are stupid and foolish. If you are still poor and scraping by in your forties--and don't have some chronic medical condition or some other freak occurrence in life--it's because you've made a lot of dumb and short-sighted decisions along the way.
Need a working example aside from Venezuela? Try Las Vegas. The end-all, be-all dream destination for people who want to throw their money away. It's nothing more than a giant complex designed to separate suckers from their money. If we had this massive redistribution of cash, a huge number of the recipients would be immediately booking themselves into the Presidential Suite of the Bellagio and blowing it like a pimp with a week to live at the craps table.
Need yet more real-life examples? Lottery winners and professional athletes. Both are example of staggering sums being dropped into the laps of people ill-prepared for it and without a lick of common sense. As a result 50% of all jackpot winners go bankrupt within five years. And the tales of woe of some professional athlete blowing all his money are so commonplace it has become a cliche. That gives you a glimpse of what would happen.
Last edited by MinivanDriver; 02-01-2019 at 10:29 AM..
What do you think would happen if all money was redistributed equally amongst everyone?
If the poor were suddenly put on an equal playing field, would the thrive? Or would they find themselves poor again?
Thoughts?
I personally think that within a short time, the rich would be wealthy again and the poor would be poor again. It is not what you make, but how you manage the money you have. So unless they had a crash course, they would continue making the same choices that put them in the poor house previously.
Over time, everything gets "uneven" because of course some people manage money poorly and others do well. And as much as some don't want to believe it, there is a certain amount of luck that factors in as well. But I would wager it would take a long time to become as uneven as it is at this point in history.
Poor people were never taught how to handle money...some rich people weren't (look at our pres.) - those people blow through money. That doesn't mean that at leas SOME of them could learn and do better for themselves, at least retaining and perhaps growing their new money. But why would the rich want others to learn and share in the profits or learn about tax loopholes that if became too popular might be closed?
But why not keep things somewhere in the middle? Does it have to be one extreme or the other? ...learn about the GINI coefficient. I guess if you are rich you want to take 100% of the credit for your wealth so you can feel good about yourself and look down on everyone else. However, for the vast majority they were born on 3rd base and have little to do but watch their family's investments grow....and keep making contributions to politicians for favorable tax laws. Please, note, I didn't say ALL rich people.
OP - are you getting richer and richer due to your business acumen?
Only if our productivity dropped. i.e. so many people refused to work.
I have had scores of people work for me over the years that would greatly benefit from this sort of money transfer. One of them won 50K in Vegas and was never seen again.
I would assume most of working poor would quit their jobs. Between 50% and 90%. Most people have low paying jobs because they are a few paychecks away from being on the street. Take away that problem for a while and they would have zero incentive to work.
What do you think would happen if all money was redistributed equally amongst everyone? ....
Farmers wouldn't be able to buy seed,fertilizer,&fuel; and we'd be OUT of food in 1 season; 10's of millions would STARVE to death. They tried this 'experiment' in Russia (start of communism) and that's exactly what happened! Why repeat?
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