if the worlds wealth was equally distributed
if the worlds wealth was equally distributed
Author
Discussion

Greg_D

Original Poster:

6,542 posts

267 months

Friday 21st October 2011
quotequote all
How long would it take for the present status quo to return?

Ie, the assumption being that the loser scumbags would piddle it all up the wall and the switched on sorts would be ready and willing and intelligent enough to take it from them.

The ultimate social experiment, if you will!!!

defblade

7,936 posts

234 months

Friday 21st October 2011
quotequote all
10 days.

Jasandjules

71,833 posts

250 months

Friday 21st October 2011
quotequote all
Well, that inbred halfwit from Norfolk took what, a year to blow his lottery win, so I'd say about a year....

CzechItOut

2,156 posts

212 months

Friday 21st October 2011
quotequote all
If the wealth was distributed across the whole of the world's population than presumably everyone in Britain would be significantly worse off and people in Africa would received the equivalent of many lifetimes worth of wages?

Nobaccymaccy

572 posts

223 months

Friday 21st October 2011
quotequote all
CzechItOut said:
If the wealth was distributed across the whole of the world's population than presumably everyone in Britain would be significantly worse off and people in Africa would received the equivalent of many lifetimes worth of wages?
And we could email all those rich Nigerians claiming to be a a general and needing their bank details to free up our money

MacW

1,349 posts

197 months

Friday 21st October 2011
quotequote all
CzechItOut said:
If the wealth was distributed across the whole of the world's population than presumably everyone in Britain would be significantly worse off and people in Africa would received the equivalent of many lifetimes worth of wages?
Nah.. we'd all be £57.28 in debt.


RemainAllHoof

79,189 posts

303 months

Friday 21st October 2011
quotequote all
CzechItOut said:
If the wealth was distributed across the whole of the world's population than presumably everyone in Britain would be significantly worse off and people in Africa would received the equivalent of many lifetimes worth of wages?
That's what I thought.

stew-S160

8,020 posts

259 months

Friday 21st October 2011
quotequote all
If the worlds wealth was equally distributed...how long would it take for the worlds population to start dropping off? Not very. Greed still prevails.

Randy Winkman

20,275 posts

210 months

Friday 21st October 2011
quotequote all
Greg_D said:
How long would it take for the present status quo to return?
It depends what you mean by "the staus quo" - pretty quickly there would be rich people and poor people, but they wouldn't necessarily be the same people as before.

CoopR

957 posts

257 months

Friday 21st October 2011
quotequote all
MacW said:
Nah.. we'd all be £57.28 in debt.
Sadly I think this man is correct frown

anonymous-user

75 months

Friday 21st October 2011
quotequote all
I'm sure we'd find another and agree to write off each others debt.

martin84

5,366 posts

174 months

Friday 21st October 2011
quotequote all
I dont have an economics degree or anything but i'd always thought that essentially if you made everybody rich then that devalues being rich. Like what use is a million quid if everyones got a million quid?

otherman

2,259 posts

186 months

Friday 21st October 2011
quotequote all
MacW said:
Nah.. we'd all be £57.28 in debt.
I know that's a joke, but.

Of course there's is far more money in the world than debt, so we'd have some money each.
Guessing that the 80/20 rule applies, because it normally does, then 20% of the people have 80% of the money. Given that we're in the 20%, then the average british person would have 1/16th of what they have now after the divi up. I guess we're talking total assets not cash, so we'd all have to sell our houses, which we couldn't do because no-one would have the money to buy them. Or rather I guess prices would plummet due to supply massively outstripping demand and the Africans would feel pretty hard done to when we sent their share over.

Randy Winkman

20,275 posts

210 months

Friday 21st October 2011
quotequote all
otherman said:
I know that's a joke, but.

Of course there's is far more money in the world than debt, so we'd have some money each.
Guessing that the 80/20 rule applies, because it normally does, then 20% of the people have 80% of the money. Given that we're in the 20%, then the average british person would have 1/16th of what they have now after the divi up. I guess we're talking total assets not cash, so we'd all have to sell our houses, which we couldn't do because no-one would have the money to buy them. Or rather I guess prices would plummet due to supply massively outstripping demand and the Africans would feel pretty hard done to when we sent their share over.
But we'd still all have the same "stuff", whatever its "value".

Gaspode

4,167 posts

217 months

Friday 21st October 2011
quotequote all
I think there's an old Scottish saying that goes something like 'The strong would take from the weak, and then the fly (meaning the cunning) would take it from the strong'

Johnnytheboy

24,499 posts

207 months

Friday 21st October 2011
quotequote all
CzechItOut said:
If the wealth was distributed across the whole of the world's population than presumably everyone in Britain would be significantly worse off and people in Africa would received the equivalent of many lifetimes worth of wages?
But local inflation/deflation would faily quickly even out this imbalance, wouldn't it?

0a

24,059 posts

215 months

Friday 21st October 2011
quotequote all
As much as the Guardianstas would hate it to be so, within 10 years it would end up broadly as now with the 'can be arsed'.

glazbagun

15,076 posts

218 months

Saturday 22nd October 2011
quotequote all
Greg_D said:
How long would it take for the present status quo to return?

Ie, the assumption being that the loser scumbags would piddle it all up the wall and the switched on sorts would be ready and willing and intelligent enough to take it from them.

The ultimate social experiment, if you will!!!
I don't think it would. Or rather- it would be a more meritocratic status quo. Just as Carnagie argued for a 100% inheritance tax and Steve Jobs mentioned death being the best invention of life, an instant redistribution would result in the most competent and/or ruthless rising to the top, with the chaff falling to the bottom.

At the moment, there are plenty of intelligent people without the means, and plenty of experienced people without the youth/safety net to build the capital required to become super wealthy. Just as there are many heirs/esses and old farts who made it in the good old days who would be destitute if everything was equalised.

AJS-

15,366 posts

257 months

Saturday 22nd October 2011
quotequote all
The "wealth" assuming it is in pure monetary terms, would just become worthless. If you mean chopping up all the natural resources, oil, intelligence, experience, equipment and what have you then the project would go tits up before it even got off the ground.

One of the many problems with left-wingery is the focus on wealth as money. At least Karl Marx focused mainly on the means of production as the thing that should be communally controlled, as the cornerstone of his wrong headed theory.

JuniorD

9,013 posts

244 months

Saturday 22nd October 2011
quotequote all
The administration of the project would probably cost more money than exists. By the end, or by the time the plug gets pulled on the idea, all the resources/wealth will have been paid to the adminsitrators and software developers hehe think of that NHS database debacle only much bigger!