What would happen if everyone in your country became rich? Would inflation equalize it or would everyone just diaspora to maintain their buying power (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by cheese_greater@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Couldn't the collective threat that everyone just diasporas mitigate inflation if businesses tried to pull any funny business?

Why does it work for Monaco?

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[-] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 12 points 4 months ago

I don't think that's true. I think if everyone was rich, nobody would be. Everyone would be "middle class", if you can even talk about class any more. Doesn't sound too bad tbh.

[-] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

It would only be a temporary fix. Robert Nozick gives the example of the famous basketball player as a critique of John Rawls’ veil of ignorance argument.

Suppose everyone had equal wealth but we remained different individuals with our own personalities, abilities, etc. For simplicity, assume everyone has $100 each and there are a million people in total. Now suppose one person is actually a legendary basketball player (Nozick uses Wilt Chamberlain as an example) and he decides to play basketball in the NBA to entertain everyone else. But he doesn’t do it for free, he charges each person $1 for a ticket to see him play.

If everyone pays to see him play basketball, he becomes a millionaire while everyone else becomes $1 poorer. In effect, the balance of total equality has been broken.

How do you solve this problem? You might say that he’s not allowed to charge $1 for people to see him play basketball but then what you’re really saying is that everyone is not allowed to spend their $1 to see a basketball game. So it’s actually not possible to preserve the state of total equality without taking away people’s economic freedom (that is, the freedom to decide how to spend their $100).

Thus you either gradually revert to inequality or you make all money worthless by taking away people’s choices on what to spend (and so you might as well just have a ration system instead).

[-] Cosmicomical@lemmy.world -2 points 4 months ago

Economic freedom in this example is pure nonsense. I don't want the freedom to overpay for something. The price point is also completely unreasonable. There are alternatives that could be implemented, like setting limits. Your example has a clear goal of promoting a certain world view that the existence of slavery is what makes us free. If that's not a paradox a don't know what a paradox is.

[-] over_clox@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

I like the way you described it. 👍

[-] RadicalEagle@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

There would still be class, but it would be based on things like social status and education instead of financial status.

[-] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 2 points 4 months ago

Perhaps, but the way that those classes would affect people would be very different from how economic classes affect people today. But this is all a hypothetical situation, I think it's very hard to say any specifics about it.

[-] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

You’re assuming that everyone would be equally rich.

[-] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 1 points 4 months ago

I feel that is implicit in OPs question - I mean if it's not equally rich, how is it different from what reality is right now? Anyways maybe OP can clarify.

[-] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Internationally. The entire nation can be wealthy in relation to other nations, but not necessarily equally.

[-] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Buddy?

[-] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 1 points 4 months ago

m8?

this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2024

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